It’s Bagel Time! 🥯🥯

How is everyone doing this midweek? This afternoon, while having a brief Skype meeting with my colleagues, I decided to make bagels for the first time! 😋😋 (Bagel is an occasional late night guilty pleasure of mine since I live a short walk away from a bagel bakery that runs well past midnight.) I found the recipe itself as straightforward as any other bread recipes, though just with the additional step of cooking the dough in boiling water before baking. It was a little hot baking indoor at this weather, but the sunny weather today definitely helps with the rising of my dough. ☀️☀️

The recipe I used is adapted from the bagels recipe in ‘How To Make Bread’ by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou.

Bagels

Quantity: 4 Bagels

Ingredients:

250g / 2 cups strong white/bread flour

5g / 1 tsp salt

10g / 2 tsp sugar

13g / 1tbsp softened salted or unsalted butter

3g / 1 tsp dried/active dry yeast

120g / ½ cup warm water

1 medium egg, lightly beaten

Toppings (optional e.g. sesame seeds, poppy seeds, salt, pepper, lemon zests etc)

Method:

1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and butter together in a bowl and set aside.
2. Place the yeast in a large mixing bowl. Add the warm water and stir until the yeast has dissolved.
3. Add about half of the beaten egg to the yeast mixture and mix, saving some for egg wash later.
4. Add the flour mixture to the yeast mixture. Mix until you form a dough.
5. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes.
6. After the 10 minutes, knead the bread by pulling a portion of the dough up from the side and press it into the middle. Repeat this process with another portion of the dough and repeat another eight times.
7. Cover the dough again and let it stand for 10 minutes.
8. Repeat steps 5-6 for two more times.
9. Knead the bread one last time (In total, you should have kneaded four times.)
10. Cover the dough and let it rest for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
11. After the rising, punch it down with your fist to release air.
12. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a large log and divide the dough into four equal portions.
13. Roll between your hand until you get perfectly smooth, round balls.
14. Take each ball of dough and push your finger through the middle. Keep working to form a neat hole.
15. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cover and let them rest for 10 minutes.
16. Just before the dough finish resting, fill a saucepan with water. Add 5g / 1 tsp salt to the water and bring to boil.
17. Cook the bagels in batched in the boiling water until they rise up.
18. Turn the bagels over and boil for a further 5 minutes.
19. Transfer the boiled bagels to the baking sheet again and let them cool slightly before baking.
20. Preheat the oven to 240C/475F/Gas 9 and place a roasting pan at the bottom of the oven. Fill a cup with water and set aside.
21. Brush the bagels with egg wash and add any toppings.
22. Place the bagels in the oven. Pour the cup of water onto the preheated roasting pan.
23. Bake the rolls for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and the rolls make a hollow sound when tap at the bottom.
24. Once the bread rolls are ready, set them on a wire rack to cool.

Hope you will give the recipe a try and enjoy these delicious bagels too! 😋