Description
From “Make the Bread, Buy the Butter.” by Jennifer Reese
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 ½ cups high-gluten flour or all-purpose flour
- 4 ½ tsp. instant yeast
- 3 tbsp. cane sugar
- 1 tbsp. kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups warm water (not too warm, water above 130 degrees will kill your yeast)
- Neutral vegetable oil for greasing
- 2 tbsp. barely malt syrup or dark brown sugar
- Coarse cornmeal, for sprinkling
- Optional toppings: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc.
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the water and beat hard with the paddle attachment for a few minutes, switching to the dough hook once it all comes together. This is also when you might add a bit more flour if the dough is too wet, but just a bit at a time until you have a stiff dough. Knead for 5 minutes.
- Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a clean, damp towel to rise about one hour. Dough will have doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bring a large pot of water to boil. While water is heating, lightly oil one baking sheet and sprinkle another generously with cornmeal.
- Deflate the dough and divide it into 10 pieces. Roll each piece into the neatest ball you can and then stick your thumb through the middle to coax it into a bagel shape. Let bagels rest on the greased baking sheet for 10 minutes.
- Once the water is at a rolling boil, add the brown sugar or barley syrup. Drop the bagels into the water, three at a time. Let them simmer for a minute and flip them over to simmer for another minute. Remove with a slotted spoon back to the greased baking sheet to dry a bit. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
- Move all the boiled bagels to the cornmeal sprinkled baking sheet. The bottoms of my bagels were pretty wet still when I did this and too much cornmeal stuck. I recommend flipping them over when putting them down so the drier side sits in the cornmeal. If you want to add any toppings, this is the time to sprinkle away.
- Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. Store for up to a week or tuck away in the freezer for longer storage.