Homemade bagels are something that have been on my bucket list to make for a while, and I'm so glad I finally got around to making them! It's incredibly satisfying to bite into a warm, fresh bagel, with a chewy outside and soft doughy inside, that you've just pulled out of your own oven.
It takes a bit of time, but making your own bagels is really very easy - and once you have the basic dough down you can customize it to whatever flavour of bagel you love. Cinnamon raisin is my favourite kind of bagel (I used to get one from Tim Hortons every Saturday morning without fail) so that's the kind I decided to make first. Sorry Tim Hortons, but I think I know what I'll be doing every Saturday morning from now on instead of waiting in your ridiculously long lines!
Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. honey or white sugar
1.5 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
Directions:
Step 1:
In a small bowl, combine the honey or sugar, yeast, and 1 and 1/4 cups of warm water. Stir to dissolve and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes, or until foamy on top.
Step 2:
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with the salt. Once the yeast and water mixture is frothy, add it to the flour and stir well until evenly mixed. Add in another 1/2 cup of flour and continue to stir. At this point the dough will become hard to stir, so turn it out of the bowl onto a well floured surface.
Step 3:
Begin kneading the dough with your hands, adding in another 1/4-1/2 cup of flour a little bit at a time until the dough is no longer sticky. You may require less or more flour depending on the humidity, so just stop adding flour until the dough is fairly stiff but still pliable enough to knead. Knead the dough for 8 minutes.
Step 4:
After you have finished kneading the dough, flatten it slightly and place the cinnamon and raisins down the middle of the dough. Fold the dough over and continue to knead it until the cinnamon and raisins are evenly incorporated. This is the most frustrating part because the raisins will be popping out of the dough, but just keep kneading and incorporating them back in and eventually everything will be evenly distributed throughout.
Step 5:
Form the dough into a ball, place it in a large bowl and lightly cover with a dish towel. Place in a warm place (I used my oven, which I turn on low heat for about 1 minute just to warm it up, then shut it off before placing my bowl of dough inside) and allow the dough to rise until it has double in size, about 45 minutes.
Step 6:
After the dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out of the bowl. Roll the dough into a long log, then cut into 8-10 even pieces (8 for medium-large size bagels and 10 for small-medium size bagels). Form each piece into a ball by pulling the dough back and under itself.
Step 7:
When you have a smooth ball, pinch it in the center with your thumb and index finger to make a hole, then gently stretch out the hole until it is a couple of inches across. You want to make the hole a lot bigger than you think you need it to be, because it will get smaller as the dough puffs up during the second rise and baking. Form the rest of the bagels in the same way.
Step 8:
Place the formed bagels on a baking sheet that has been covered with parchment paper and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or lightly covered in cornmeal (this will keep them from sticking to the paper). Allow the bagels to rise again in a warm place for another 45 minutes, until doubled in size.
Once the bagels have risen a second time, preheat the broiler in your oven. Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. While you wait for the water to boil, place your baking trays of bagels on the middle rack in the oven to broil on one side for 1 minute. Then, carefully take them out of the oven, flip to the other side, and broil for another 1 minutes. You don't want them to get browned, just slightly dull on the outside. This step will prevent them from falling apart and getting too soggy when you boil them.
Step 10:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Once the water has come to a rolling boil and all the bagels have been broiled on both sides, drop the bagels into the boiling water 3-5 at a time. Boil for 1 minute, then gently flip over with a butter knife, spoon, or chopstick and boil on the other side for 1 minute. Boiling the bagels gives them that chewy outside surface, while the inside stays soft and doughy.
Step 11:
Lift the boiled bagels out of the water with a slotted spoon and place them on a wire cooling rack to drain so that the bottoms don't get soggy. Repeat with the remaining bagels. After about 5 minutes of draining, place them back on the parchment paper-covered baking sheets and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until the surface is golden brown.
Step 12:
Remove from the oven and allow the bagels to cool slightly on a wire rack. Cut with a serrated bread knife and enjoy with butter or cream cheese, toasted or untoasted. Store bagels in a plastic bag at room temperature, or in a freezer bag in the fridge or freezer for longer storage.
