What’s Cooking Wednesday: Bagels

20 CommentsWednesday • January 2, 2008 • by michelle

I wasn’t going to post a recipe today since I honestly haven’t been cooking very much lately–we had Christmas dinner at P’s parents and we spent New Year’s Eve at a friend’s house. Indeed, it’s the same place we spent New Year’s Eve last year, so if you’d like to see some photos from 2006, you can check them out here.

More on the recent New Year’s Eve soon, but for now–bagels!

Michelle of Michellanea posted this bagel recipe a while ago for those of us in Italy dying for something, anything that we can smear some cream cheese on, and this recipe definitely delivers.

In my baking frenzy around Christmas, I finally decided to give these a go, and I will definitely be making bagels more frequently around here from now on. The recipe is easy to follow and carry out; the only time-consuming part is waiting for the dough to rise. And then waiting for them to cool off before you dig in.

The measurements are for those of us using metric, but everything is easily convertible these days online, for example at JoyofBaking.com.

Bagels
(makes 8 large bagels)

30 grams fresh yeast
2 tablespoons of oil
3 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon honey
500 grams of flour

Dissolve yeast in 250 ml of warm water and add oil. In large bowl, mix together salt, sugar, and flour. Make a well in the center and add in yeast mixture.

Mix together all ingredients, working in flour on the sides of the bowl in order to get an even mixture. Work dough into a ball.

Cover bowl with a damp towel for about 40 minutes and let dough rise in a warm place; it should double in size. Put a piece of wax paper on the baking sheet you’ll be using for the bagels.

Work the dough for about ten minutes. Divide into 8 little balls. Make a hole in the center of each ball and widen the opening until it begins to take the shape of a bagel.

Let the bagels sit on the warm towel for another 15 minutes while you heat the oven up to 200°C.

In the meantime, bring a large pan of water to a light boil (adding the 1 teaspoon of honey, which is a substitute for malt). Let each bagel boil lightly for about two minutes on each side and then remove and put them back on the damp towel.

If you are adding sesame or poppy seeds, at this point, sprinkle them on a plate and press each bagel down lightly over them.

After about five minutes, put the bagels on the wax paper-covered baking sheet and place in oven for about 20 or 25 minutes until they are golden brown (but not too brown – they will get a bit browner after they’ve cooled), flipping them after about 10 minutes to ensure even baking.

Buon appetito and thanks again to Michelle for the great recipe!