Bagels: one of James’ most amazing signature homemade creations. The labor and time that these require demands the respect that they no doubt get as soon as you bite into one; fresh, warm, crispy on the outside while soft inside, and filled with that wonderful fresh doughy flavor. The recipe for these bagels came from a huge, heavy book of bread recipes that James swears by.
There are a lot of things to take into consideration when making homemade bagels… will you be sharing them with others? (should you make a half or whole batch), what’s the weather like? (the process creates a lot of heat in the kitchen so it’s not as ideal in the sweltering heat of summer), when are you planning to serve them and what’s your schedule like the couple of days prior to that? (the dough must be started in advance and tended to throughout the hours that follow). James and I planned in advance to make them this particular weekend since the weather was going to be a Spring-y 65 degrees and sunny, and we were excited to share them with some good friends in the park by our house.
So James started the dough on Friday night…. mixing all of the necessary ingredients together, then put it in the fridge to rise and rest overnight. On Saturday morning he took the dough out (which had risen beautifully at least 6″ or so!), let it warm to room temp, then kneaded it for 5 minutes, let it rest for 20, then kneaded again for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to do its work and activate the gluten. In the grand scheme of life, 10 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you are vigorously punching and pushing dough over and over, 10 minutes seems like a never ending lifetime (note: I know this from doing it myself, but James certainly has WAY more experience with the kneading process than I do). After kneading, the dough was placed in a large bowl and left to rise throughout the day until it doubled in size. We then punched it down (very fun) and left it to rise again overnight in the fridge.
On Sunday, it was time for the fun part (according to me; James thankfully finds the entire process enjoyable and rewarding). We took the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temp again, sliced it into portions for each individual bagel, then let those portions rest for 10 minutes. From there, each portion was shaped into a ball which we punched a hole through in the center using our fingers, then worked the ring through our hands creating an even amount of dough around the whole ring and about a 2″ hole in the center. The dough was a bit sticky so we had to add a touch of flour to our hands in between each shaping to keep it from sticking to us. We then let the bagel dough rings rest again for 10 minutes.
Next, we placed each bagel into a pot of boiling water with a little baking soda (to make the outsides crispy) and molasses (to make the outsides a golden brown color when baked) – 1.5 minutes on each side in the water.
Now we’ve finally made it to the part you probably thought was coming about 2-3 paragraphs ago. After boiling, the bagels were placed on a baking sheet, brushed with a little egg white and sprinkled with toppings (we used sea salt, caraway seeds, sesame seeds, and a little bit of minced garlic and onion that we toasted in a pan on the stove). The bagels were then FINALLY placed into the oven where they baked at 500 degrees (told ya it’d get hot) for 5 minutes, then at 450 degrees for 20 additional minutes. To make sure they cooked evenly, we made sure to rotate the pan during the baking process.
So after a weekend’s worth of effort which was very much worth it, we had ourselves a beautiful, delicious, unlike-any-store-bought batch of homemade bagels ready to share with friends on a lovely Spring day outside. Some were sliced and topped with various toppings friends brought like fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, and homemade Sriracha cream cheese, and some were just eaten plain, savoring their fresh homemade taste. What a successful and fun experience these bagels turned out to be!
What They Made 