Homemade Bagels

Well I’ve been quite lax about posting here haven’t I? A thousand apologies! I do have a few recipes that I’m drafting right now, including cinnamon buns, homemade crackers, roasted fennel, and spicy lemon garlic shrimp. But first, these.

I’m a bagel fiend. Don’t ask me why, but I could pretty much survive on everything bagels with smoked salmon cream cheese. We have a local bagel shop in town, and that’s typically where I get mine from, but I have been known to lower my standards and buy the grocery store ones when I was in a pinch and didn’t have time to go there. The problem with the bagel shop is that their bagels, while fabulous and delicious and fresh, are $7 a dozen.

I’ve been wanting to try making my own bagels for awhile now, and I finally had a free afternoon today, so I gave it a shot. Oh my. I will never again buy bagels. These are amazing. I didn’t calculate the cost of the ingredients, but I know they were extremely cheap to make. Flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and 1 tbsp molasses. C-H-E-A-P.  Not to mention absolutely delicious.

The hardest part of this recipe was the kneading – 8 to 10 minutes of kneading a pretty stiff dough, and my arms were actually tired.  Other than that, the recipe is pretty standard for making bread, and only has a couple of rises.

I (of course) made these into everything bagels with a garlic, onion, poppy seed, and sesame seed mixture – but you could easily make them into whatever flavor floats your boat!

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

Print Recipe

Homemade Bagels

Servings: 8 bagels

Author: The Gourmet Housewife

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 2 x 0.25 ounce packages
• 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour divided
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp molasses

Instructions

• Mix water, sugar, and yeast together in a bowl and let sit in a warm place for 10 minutes.
• In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour and salt. Add water and yeast mixture. Beat with a mixer for half a minute on low, scraping the sides of the bowl clean. Beat on high for 3 minutes. Then, by hand, mix in enough flour to make a moderately stiff dough.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (8-10 minutes). Cover, let rest for 15 minutes.
• Cut into 8 portions, shape into smooth balls. Poke a hole in the center with your finger, and gently enlarge the hole while working the bagel into a uniform shape. Cover, let rise 1 hour in a warm place. (I like to put them in the oven with just the oven light on.)
• Meanwhile, start a large pot of water boiling. Pour in molasses and mix around a bit. Reduce to a simmer.
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a large baking sheet.
• When the bagels are ready, put 4 or 5 bagels into the water and cook 7 minutes, turning once. Drain and place on prepared baking sheet. (*Note: If you are topping the bagels, you will want to dip them in your topping first.)
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes.

Notes

For everything bagels:

Mix together 1 tbsp each of garlic flakes, onion flakes, poppy seed, and sesame seeds.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.