Perfect with your morning coffee slathered in butter, peanut butter or the classic cream cheese smear. Everyone loves a bagel. They are surprisingly easy to make too, they require a little effort and patience waiting for the dough to proof but the end result is worth it. This is a fun recipe to do with kids too, they will love swirling the dough around their fingers to create the classic bagel hole. Be creative with toppings too, I like sesame seeds and other seeds but go wild! If you want a chewier bagel boil them for longer than the stated 1 / 2 minuets.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 Teaspoons of dried yeast (a 7g pack is fine)
- 500g strong white bread flour (wholemeal is fine too if you prefer)
- 2 tablespoons of white sugar, I used caster sugar usually
- 1 egg white to glaze or plant based milk if you prefer
- 1 teaspoon of bicarb of soda
- Seeds to top with if you fancy
Directions
- Add the yeast to 300ml of lukewarm water, stir and then set aside to let the yeast bloom for about ten minuets. It will be foamy when its ready. Meanwhile, mix together the flour, sugar and a little salt in a large bowl. When the yeast mixture is ready pour that into the bowl and mix well to form a dough. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minuets until smooth. Put the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm (see tip!) and a tea-towel and set aside in a warm spot for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
- When the dough has doubled in size tip the dough back out onto a floured surface and then divide the dough into even portions and roll into balls, you should get between 10 and 12. I like to weigh them to make sure they are even but if you’re not ocd like me, there isn’t any need. Place these balls onto a lined baking trays, cover again with clingfilm and a tea towel and set aside for about 30 / 40 minuets until those balls have doubled in size.
- Bring a large sauce pan of water to a boil and preheat your oven 160’C.
- Now, the fun part. When they have doubled in size, using a floured finger (or the end of a wooden spoon) make a hole in the centre of each ball. You don’t want to be too rough when doing this because it will knock the air out of the bagels. Set these aside ready to boil.
- Tip the bicarb into the water (this alkalises the water) and then carefully slip the bagels, no more than 2 at a time really, into the water and boil for a minuet or 2 flipping half way. Remove from the water using a slotted spoon, drain and place on lined baking trays. Repeat till you have done this with all your bagels. Before you bake them, brush them with the egg whites or milk and coat in seeds if you’re using them. Bake in your preheated oven for 20 / 25 minuets until lovely and golden brown.
- When the bagels are done, remove from the oven and cool on wired baking racks. They will keep for a couple of days in an airtight container and they freeze really well too. I like my bagel toasted and smothered in butter and cream cheese!