Bagels

After my foray into Pretzelling I was feeling brave, so decided to try out some Bagels! They were surprisingly easy to make with not many many ingredients and tasted yummy :) The only thing was that I put a bit too much water in the dough so they were difficult to handle and ended up a bit squished-looking. Next time I will add the water more slowly!

For my recipe I used elements from these recipes at 'The Fresh Loaf' and VegWeb.com. Before, when I made Pretzels, I found that the recipes online only made just about enough dough for 8, and in fact I only managed 7. So for this recipe, I doubled the amounts and ended up with a respectable 14 Bagels.

Beautiful Bagels

Ingredients:

• 400g White Bread Flour
• 200g Allison Wholewheat Plain Flour
• 20g Raw Cane Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Dry Active Yeast
• 1 Tablespoon Agave Syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Poppy Seeds
• 2 cups/ 200ml Warm Water
• Salt for sprinkling.

For the soda bath:

• A big pan 2/3 full of water + 
• 2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda.

Method:

Before you start, you might want to prepare your baking trays and dough-rolling surface, as later on your hands will be doughy! For letting the bagels rise I used 3 baking trays, 1 big one and 2 smaller ones, covered with well-floured baking paper. Later on for the actual baking I replaced the paper with foil greased with cooking spray. You will also need a good-sized floury area for rolling out the dough.

1. In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour and sugar, and stir in the poppy seeds.

2. Create a well in the middle and spoon the yeast into it.

3. Pour in the Agave Syrup and some of the water, while starting to mix.

4. Keep adding the water gradually until the dough has fully combined, without becoming too sticky.

5. Knead for 7-10 mins.

6. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough into a cylinder and cut into 14 equal pieces.

7. Shape each piece in turn, rolling it into a ball and using your fingers to make a hole in the middle, creating the classic 'O' shape of the bagel.

8. Place the bagels on the floured baking trays and leave them in a warm place to rise for 30 mins.

9. Pre-heat the oven to 230C/ 450F.

10. Turn the bagels over and let them rise on the other side for another 30 mins.

11. Meanwhile, bring a large pan 2/3 full of water to the boil with 2 tsp Bicarbinate of Soda.

12. Boil the bagels 2 at a time for 2 minutes, turning them over in the water after 1 minute to boil on the other side (the best utensil for this is a large, flat slotted spoon. I didn't have one at the time, but I do now!).

13. Put the bagels on the greased, foil-covered baking trays and get them in the oven as soon as possible after boiling. I did mine in batches of 3-4 bagels.

14. Bake for 30 mins or until cooked.

Lots of recipes I saw said that the bagels should only need 25-30 mins to bake, but I found that mine needed a lot longer - at least 40! This might have been because I added too much water to the dough so it took longer to dry out, but I ended up putting most of mine back in to bake for around an hour altogether!