Bagels – My 1st Attempt!

What is your experience in baking,  do you enjoy it, do you look forward to bread baking and the whole measuring, kneading and waiting process. I am like that, i love doing breads at home and enjoy the whole part. It is a pleasure to see dough rise and aha the final product fresh out of the oven is a real treat. Here i declare I am in love with baking breads.

Some days back through some random blog, i came across this site Fresh From the Oven, It is a monthly event where in a particular bread has to be baked by all the members, they had started this way back in 2009 and till now the members have baked a plethora of breads. So i jumped in to this and was so happy to be a part of this. This months challenge is bagels and till now i have never seen them here in Mysore or have never tasted them, but took this as a challenge and went ahead with the recipe. 

Here i have to tell that this was my least liked bread  coz according to be it is a very hard and dense bread with a very chewy texture,and it has a completely different method of baking as well, the dough balls are dunked in boiling water and then baked which results in a very dense and chewy bread. But I am happy that i tried some new bread this time and if you have eaten bagels earlier and love the dense and chewy breads do give it a try.

Bagels

Recipe Source King Arthur Flour

Makes 8 small Bagels

Ingredients

For Dough

All Purpose Flour  2 cups

Eagle Active Instant Yeast 1/2 tbsp

1tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 cup water + more if only reqd.

For Water Bath

3 cups water

2 tbsp Sugar

Toppings

Poppy Seeds

Sesame Seeds

Method.

Add yeast and sugar in 3/4 cup warm water and let proof for 10 mins.

In a bowl mix salt and flour nicely.

Add the yeast mixture and mix nicely to form a dough.

The dough will be a bit stiff when compared to most your regular breads,  it wont be a sticky dough.

Transfer the dough to a clean surface and knead the dough nicely for 5-6 mins.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and let rest till it doubles. It took 45 mins.

Divide the dough into 8 balls and place them on a baking sheet. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 20 mins.

Heat the water in a wide pan by adding sugar.

Preheat oven to 200c

Keep a baking tray ready and sprinkle cornmeal or semolina all over the tray.

The main part is to shape the bagels, here is how the site mentions “Use your index finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole till it’s about 2 inches in diameter (the entire bagel will be about 4 inches across). Place each bagel on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.”

If you find this method a bit difficult,  what you can also do is take the dough ball and roll it into a rope and then tuck the edges,  i did try this but was not very happy with the shape so went ahead with the method mentioned above.

Very gently put the bagels to the simmering water and cook them for 90 secs.

Remove them one by one with a slotted spoon and place them on a baking tray.

Sprinkle the poppy seeds and the sesame seeds on the top and then bake them for 20 mins at 200c

The bagels were seemed to be ready at this time but were not browned on the top very nicely so I usually use the grill mode for 2-3 mins for the top to get a light brown color.

Serve them warm with butter, cream cheese ar any condiment of your choice.

Pinks Notes

This is the basic recipe and you can make it into a sweeter version as well by adding some cinnamon , raisin and extra sugar in the basic dough.

Toppings can also be changed according to your taste.

You can sandwich the bagels and fill them with cream cheese and cucumber with salt and pepper for a savory version.

Whipped cream can also be sandwiched between the bagels.

So have fun eating and trying these.

These are off to  Fresh From The Oven Challenge which is been hosted by Purely Food.