Homemade Bagels

Bagels can be a terrific breakfast or addition to breakfast, but can be expensive and, like other food with their own shops (e.g. pizza, ice cream), pose a challenge arising from a need for special tools, methods or ingredients. It's worth the effort to try, and with this as the end result you can be proud of the bagels you've successfully made.

Recipe from Whatever Pieces.

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 cups warm water

-1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

-1 packet yeast

-1 1/2 teaspoons salt

-4 cups flour

-poppy seeds and sesame seeds for toppings

Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle with the yeast. Leave this bowl of yeasty water alone for a few minutes and the yeast will start to foam.

Stir the flour and salt in a large bowl, then add the foamy, yeasty water. Keep mixing together until it become a uniform dough.

Use additional flour sparingly as you knead the dough until it is smooth and pliant. Form a ball, brush it lightly in oil and set it, covered, in a warm place for an hour or more so that it may rise.

When you can't wait any longer, pound down the dough and work it again into a ball. Bring a pot of water to a boil and start to heat up the oven to 425 degrees.

Divide the dough into eight pieces -- this will make normal sized bagels, in my estimation. Mold each piece into a disc, then pierce the center with a finger and thumb, and stretch the hole a bit to open it up. Boil the bagels for 2 minutes, turn over and boil for another 1 to 2 minutes.

The bagels, once removed, can be dipped into sesame seeds and poppy seeds, or anything else. Distribute the bagels over strewn cornmeal on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

One thing I hadn't thought too much about before making bagels is that they are cooked three times, once in the boil, then in the oven, then toasted before eating. My dad observed that this would make bagels somewhat inefficient as a food product. Chew on that.

Still, toasted bagels are where it's at for breakfast, and this recipe definitely serves up great at-home and not overly challenging bagels. Enjoyed by all.