A Dozen Simple Bagels
These simple flour-water-salt-yeast bagels, made with an overnight starter for extra flavor, are a tasty introduction to bagel-making. P.S. Step-by-step photos illustrating how to make these bagels are available at Baker's Banter, our King Arthur blog.
Starter
1/2 cup (2 1/8 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1/4 cup (2 ounces) cool water
pinch of yeast
Dough
4 cups (17 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) cool water
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
Water bath
water to fill a 10"-diameter pan about 1" deep
1 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder or brown sugar
Combine the starter ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, cover, and let rest at room temperature overnight.
Next day, combine the puffy starter with all of the dough ingredients and knead—by hand, electric mixer, or bread machine—to form a stiff but not dry dough. Since we're using a high-protein bread flour here, you might notice it takes a bit more effort and time to develop the gluten. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or large (at least 8-cup) measuring cup, cover, and set it aside to rise for 1 hour. Gently deflate the dough, and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a work surface, and divide it into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth, round ball. Cover the balls with plastic wrap, and let them rest for 30 minutes. They'll puff up very slightly.
While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water and malt (or sugar) to a very gentle boil in a wide-diameter (about 10") pan. A 10" electric frying pan works well here. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Use your index finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole till it's about 2 inches in diameter (the entire bagel will be about 3 ˝" across). Place each bagel on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
Transfer the bagels, four at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gently simmering boil, if necessary. Cook the bagels for 2 minutes, flip them over, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, or the end of a wooden spoon, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
Bake the bagels for about 25 minutes, or until they're as deep brown as you like. To top with seeds, remove them from the oven after about 15 minutes, spray with water or Quick Shine, and sprinkle with seeds. Return to the oven to finish baking. Remove the bagels from the oven, and cool completely on a rack.
Yield: 1 dozen chewy bagels.
Reviews
07/26/2010
Easy bagel recipe, but lacks flavor.
07/05/2010
Such an easy recipe for such spectacular results. Am on my second attempt at this recipe and am so pleased that I keep getting requests at work and home for more. Thank you for providing a recipe which is easy to follow and produces great results. I had always been too nervous to make bagels. Now, I am a bagel maker!!
05/10/2010
Oh my! I forgot how good real bagels can be. It's been 9 years since I moved out of Boston and Breugher's Bagels are 35 miles away and the only ones I can get... they are ok but what I remember. I made these yesterday and used your 'everything' topping... we are in heaven! So chewy, so perfect! I am making a second batch, hopefully we won't lose control this time, we had bagels for breakfast, bagel sandwiches for lunch and even supper! LOL
05/09/2010
This was really very simple and tasted great!! The dough is super easy to work with (I used my food processor for the mixing and needing.) I will definitely be making these again!!
04/19/2010
THESE BAGELS ARE AWESOME! The dough was so beautiful to work with. Even though I do not have a stand mixer, I do have your dough whisk. I divided the dough in half and the hand-kneading went very well. The only thing I'll do differently is make sure the parchment paper is lightly grease so they don't stick after shaping and rising. Although these took me longer to finish than I expected (could only 3 fit in the boiling water at a time and I didn’t want to make boiled bagels sit too long so I only put 6 in the oven at a time), I am SO VERY PLEASED with my bagels! :-) I did a double batch and made about a third of them plain (some round and some in a star pattern as shown here: http://www.cookingbread.com/classes/class_potato_bagel.html). Another third had blueberries, cardamom, and nutmeg (berries were rehydrated with water plus some fiori di sicilia - Fantastic!) and the other third had cinnamon and raisin. This is only the third time in as many days that I've ever attempted bagels. The first batch was gluten free and the 2nd time I used the wrong dough. Oil does not belong in a bagel recipe because they deflate terribly. However, the learning curve was short, and I’m eating and sharing big, beautiful bagels with my friends and family. Thanks for providing the recipe and the Baking Banter! PJ is my Hero!
04/15/2010
These were the best bagels I've made by far. My family and coworkers happily gobbled them up! So easy to make the dough in a bread machine. Next time we'll branch out to other flavors. Dried cranberry and cinnamon, anyone?
04/12/2010
Great recipe. Mine did not turn up as smooth as shown in your illustration, but taste, chewiness and flavor were excellent. They even sounded like bagels! Bagels are unknown in these deli-deprived shores, so these were the first bagels my husband and I tasted in many a year. A treat!
04/09/2010
What flavor/variety I can add to existing dough, besides sprinkling some sesame seeds, as i am making them in the eveving.
You could make cinnamon raisin, or veggie with a dried vegetable soup mix or chocolate chip or raisin or cranberry orange or nut or peanut butter or... "Oh, the places you can go"!Have fun with it. Mary@ KAF
04/02/2010
Excellent! I was a little scared of making bagels, but I should have been making this recipe for a long time. It's very simple and fun, and the bagels taste great. I have used my KAF sourdough instead of the starter recipe, with similar results. Cinnamon raisin bagels were fun, as well as "pizza bagels"--pizza dough flavor and sharp cheese. My only complaint is that the few that make it to be a day old get stale very quickly, presumably because of the low fat content. If you want to keep them around longer, they have to be frozen. Thanks for a great recipe!
03/29/2010
Wow, I'm a pretty experienced baker, but for some reason I have never baked bagels. I will from now on! I did have a bit of trouble with this recipe in that the starter was very stiff - most starters or bega's I've used are wet. I made the starter the night before.. it did bubble some, but was still quite stiff. I used it anyway since it's really there just to add a nice flavor to the bagels, texture wasn't that key. I also used a bit more water to the main mixture as my dough was way too dry and wasn't coming together nicely in my mixer (I use a KitchenAid). However, once I got the consistency just enough to hold together, I let it go at that. I gave it a good knead in the mixer with the dough hook for about 5-7 mins and went from there. My dough was a bit too dry to shape into balls nicely.. the balls weren't holding a round shape too well. Needless to say, my bagels didn't have a smooth surface, but it really didn't matter. The taste was phenomenal.. SO GOOD! I used an egg wash after they were in the oven for 10 minutes, added my sesame seeds and they stuck well to the bagels. I also used brown sugar in my water - don't have malt on hand. Beautiful texture, beautiful taste and will definitely make again. My family likes cinnamon/raisin.. so I will add some cinnamon to the main dough and toss in some raisins toward the end of my kneading time. Great recipe! Thanks again!
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