Bagelthon

Don't know what possessed me, maybe it was my boss eating bagels at work, but I decided to take on a new baking challenge: bagels. After some internet prowling and an inspirational youtube, I was determined to master the Jewish post-Sabbath tradition. Bagels are much easier and quicker to make than any bread recipe (that is, without the luxury of a bread maker) so traditionally Jewish families, having taken a day of rest on the Sabbath, cooked bagels to whip up some quick carbs.

Having no feel for the rising of bagel dough, my first attempt produced little baby bagels, very cute, but not very filling. Not willing to settle for my mini-bagels, a few days later I decided to try again this time making 2 batches: one cinnamon raisin (at the request of my boss) and wheat (at the request of my parents).

While the shorter cooking time is always a plus in my book, the fact that bagels require very few ingredients earns bagels boocoo brownie points.

Wheat Germ Bagels
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour (better for bread flour in my case)
1/4 oz rapid rise yeast
3 3/4 cups wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 1/2 cup warm water (~110 degrees F)
3 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
4 1/4 cups unbleached white flour (bread flour again for me)
1/4 oz rapid rise yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
3 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar

For all 3 batches, I started out whisking together the warm water, 3 tbsp sugar and yeast. I didn't measure the water temp, just put the faucet on hot (rapid rise yeast is the bomb, unlike high maintenance active yeast).

First add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and beat quickly for a few minutes. Mix in most of the rest of the flour/wheat germ (leave about 1/4 cup). Without a bowl mixer this can be tricky, I just did the best I could with a wooden spoon, then my hands, and finally resulted to kneading the clumpy mess together which worked well.

The hardest and funnest part is next: kneading. After dusting your surface with the remaining 1/4 cup of flour, knead the dough for at least 10 minutes (although when baking is therapy, this turns into like 20 min) until the dough is smooth and elastic (when you stretch it it shouldn't tear). Note: the wheat dough will be alot less smooth, after all you can't have both healthy whole grains and light fluffy heaven.


For the cinnamon raisin, I kneaded in about 2 tbsp of cinnamon (just eye ball it really), maybe 1-2 tbsp of brown sugar and then one small box of raisins. In hindsight, you should probably mix the raisins in the dough before the kneading because they don't stick very well but the cinnamon and sugar are good to add in towards the end of the kneading that way you get lovely streaks of goodness rather than a homogeneous mixture. Kneading complete, let the dough rest for 15 min.


Now comes the partitioning of the dough. For my first round of babies, I cut the wheat dough into 15 parts. For my second round, I each dough into 6 parts. However, I realized that the wheat dough rises much less than white dough; 6 parts of wheat dough makes a pretty standard sized bagel while 6 parts of white cinnamon raisin dough makes a large bagel. I found elongating the dough before cutting helped a bit with getting equal portions.

After the chopping, roll the dough into smooth balls. I learned my lesson with this one. I had trouble getting the cinnamon raisin dough to reshape so the balls weren't smooth and the end product turned out a little crazy. The wheat ones had better luck.


Poke a hole through your balls and shape them into bagels. Make the center hole bigger than you want the end result because the dough will expand. Let the shaped dough rise for 20 minutes, preferably in a warm, moist environment. While they rise, boil a gallon of water mixing in 1 tbsp of sugar.


Time to boil those suckers! The boiling is really what does the trick for the bagel's tough skin. Reduce the boil to a simmer and put in either 2 large bagels or 3-4 baby bagels. The number is important because the bagels will expand even further in the water and if you crowd them they'll start pushing against each other and deform into triangle-looking things.

Boil each batch for 7 minutes turning them once. It's going to smell a lot like pasta, which was surprising to me but makes sense. Drain them on some paper towels once they're done.

Set the oven to 375 and then use an egg white wash to give the bagels a shiny finished look. Bake for 30 minutes on an a greased baking (don't worry about spacing, they won't expand anymore). They are done when you drop them on the table and hear a thump. As you can see the cinnamon raisin weren't as picturesque because of my lazy ball rolling earlier but I kinda like the homemade look; they tasted amazing so who cares really.


As one bagel-taster put it, "They taste just like bagels!" which was the greatest compliment I could get since mastering the texture of a bagel is more of an accomplishment than having it taste like a yummy piece of circular bread. For less cost, less time, and less ingredients; bagels win the bread war on all counts.