I don’t know why I was scared to make bagels. I’ve made croissants, multiple times. It was the extra boiling stage that I’ve never done with a bread before. I didn’t realize how easy it was. How the bagel dough is easy to work with and if you follow the directions it does what it is supposed to do.
Bagel Balls
You make a sponge first: throw some yeast, high-gluten flour, and water together, stir, and let it rise for 2 hours on the counter. Then you throw in some more yeast, more flour, salt, and barley malt syrup and knead for 6 or 7 minutes (in stand mixer). Once it’s ready, you turn it out on a work surface and form little bagel balls (I made the “mini” size which were 2 1/4 ounces and were still pretty big).
Formed Bagels
You let the bagel balls rest for 20 minutes and then form them into bagels by poking your thumb through the middle of the ball and stretching and rotating the bagel around your thumbs until the hole is a couple inches. You then let the bagels rest for 20 minutes.
The bagel float test
After they’ve had their nap, you test the bagels to see if it is ready for “retarding” in the refrigerator overnight. You test the bagels by dropping one in water and if it floats right away, it is ready. My bagel floated right away. If it wasn’t ready, I would have let them rest some more and testing again.
Boiling bagels
After the the bagels have overnighted in the refrigerator, you take them out and bring a large pot of water to a boil. You add in some baking soda and then place the bagels in the boiling water, flipping them over after a minute or so.
Baked bagels
Remove the boiled bagels to a prepared baking sheet and top if desired and then bake in the oven.I made plain bagels, salt bagels, cumin seed and salt bagels, cheese bagels, and everything bagels. My everything bagel mix consisted of: flax seeds, raw sunflower seeds, rolled oats, poppy seeds, and natural sesame seeds.
Cheese bagel
The recipe I used comes from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. You can find an adapted recipe HERE.
I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting, a weekly round-up of yeasted goods and bread. This week YeastSpotting is hosted by Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte.
There is nothing more satisfying in them morning than a good bagel with cream cheese or lox. These look magnificent. What did you do with all the extra bagels!!
this look absolutely phenomal. i’m so impressed!
that’s phenomenal. i’m not sure what phenomal is.
See? These are 1000x easier than croissants. Not that croissants are too very difficult, they’re just a bit time consuming. Adorable baby bagels!
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?
I am SO trying these! I swear, you are the queen of all things yeasty!!!
I am scared to make bagels. Yours look wonderful. I must learn to be brave. Bagels are found easy here in my little southern town
You are a baking queen!
Love the bagels. I have only made them once, 20 years ago, and they didn’t turn out… but I have grown since then so I am inspired to give them a second chance. Yours are lovely!
Bagels have been on my list of things to make forever. And I’m not quite sure why I’m hesitating… this is definitely inspiring!
Awesome pictures- I like how you showed a step-by-step.
These look A-MAZING! I love bagels and I bet they are even better when you make them yourself!
wow, they look perfect! i would love to make my own bagels, especially a cinnamon crunch type.
Aren’t they delicious? I love making bagels and customizing them just the way I like. Your minis are adorable.
I tried making bagels once.
Once.
And I haven’t tried again.
However, I did try the sweet quinoa recipe you posted yesterday – it was so delicious!
Wow, croissants, bagels, what next- you are one super baker.
tes bagels sont super réussis et bien dodus ! j’adore ça ! j’aime les servir avec des garnitures inusitées ( autres que saumon et fromage à la crème ).
You are so impressive! Croissants and these fabulous bagels? I’ve never tried bagels. I’m not sure what I’m afraid of but you make it sound so easy maybe I’ll finally give it a go!
I’m am so in awe — yours looks better than any bagel you’d get at a deli! Bravo!!!!
Holy smokes! These look so delicious. I’m grabbing a chair and tea and picking up one of these!
I worked making bagels all through college and haven’t made them since! But lately, I’ve been thinking about making them, now especially after seeing your little babies. I’m afraid I might go back to make several hundred at a time by force of habit!
Great post – and absolutely beautiful bagels!! I have that same Reinhart recipe all bookmarked and ready to make – hope to get to them in the next 2 weeks. I also want to try the whole wheat version in his whole grains cookbook. He’s my bread-author obsession! I’ve made several of his recipes but they’re stuck in my backlog of posts!
I’ve been wanting to make bagels for a long time, and yours look amazing! That cheese bagel looks awesome!
Your bagels look fantastic!
Wow! Your bagels look fantastic. What a great job.
These look great. I haven’t quite felt confident enough to give bagels a try, but you make me want to try it asap.
Michelle
Seriously, if you’ve made croissants, (multiple times no less) bagels should be a breeze! They look great!
Those look terrific! Especially love the seeded one.
~ingrid
Your bagels look so sexy!!! I too realised how easy they were to make and wondered why I took so long to try them, my results are here: http://caribbeanfusion.wordpress.com
These look amazing! I love all the different kinds.
I’ve never made bagels before, but why not? After reading your post, I totally want to. Your bagels look incredible!
Wow, these look great! I’ve always been kinda scared to make bagels too, but not anymore. They actually seem super easy!
I love making bagels. Yours look terrific! I’ve been meaning to try PR’s recipe, but haven’t gotten there yet. I love salt bagels but only make a couple that way in each batch, since they get soggy after a day or so.
I’m so completely impressed you made your own bagels! I love the one with cheese on top!
These look awesome, I can’t wait to try them!
Nothing like a homemade bagel! It made me laugh to read that you were afraid of bagels but not croissants, which are so much harder.
The floating test is new for me, but I will try this the next time I bake bagels.
Your bagels are looking so good, I think, that I will do some in very near future 😉
Your bagels look perfect! Wow!
For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?