I’ve been on a bit of a bread baking kick lately a (stress baking, who me?) and decided to try my hand at making bagels after a friend sent me this recipe by Sophisticated Gourmet. The recipe takes roughly two hours to make and calls for flour, water, salt, yeast, and sugar. The recipe suggests adding toppings in between the boiling and baking section to add some fun flavors.
The Process
I made the dough and mixed things up a bit by using about half whole wheat flour instead of just regular, which is probably why my bagels ended up a little flat since whole wheat is denser than all-purpose flour. After letting the dough rise for an hour I decided to make half (aka 4) bagels with Italian herb seasoning (mixed oregano, thyme, rosemary and salt) and half cinnamon and raisin. After forming the dough into bagel-shapes by punching a hole in the middle and stretching outwards I let the dough rest for about 10 minutes while my water boiled. I boiled the bagels about 1-2 minutes on each side and then baked for about 20 minutes at 425˚F.
Results
They turned out pretty good! I ate the cinnamon raisin with tofutti cream cheese and more raisins and topped the Italian herb with cream cheese on one side plus nutritional yeast and avocado and salt on the other. Yum!
Thoughts for the Future
Some other flavors I want to try in the future are blueberry, sun dried tomato basil, everything bagel, and whole wheat topped with honeyed oats. What are some of your favorite bagels?
Other References
Also, the New York Times Cooking section just came out with this video featuring Chef Claire Saffitz making homemade bagels, which is definitely a more prestigious version that what I tried with a lot more specialty ingredients. Maybe in the future....