Bagel time!

Bagels! My mom loves them, especially the multigrain ones. Of course, I don't like it when we buy food that we could easily make on our own. "Why don't we make some?" has pretty much become my motto:

One of my sisters: "Mm, I like pretzels. Can we buy them sometime, mommy?"
Me: (jumping in on the conversation) "Why don't we just MAKE some? :D"

I've said that about doughnuts, pies, pita bread, naan bread, risotto, even breakfast cereals. And, of course, I found a recipe for bagels and just HAD to make some.


We used this recipe, with multigrain bread flour instead of white bread flour. It might look labor-intensive, but it's really a lot of fun! The recipe is very basic and is just begging for variations, but tastes great as is, too.

First, you mix the dough and knead for 10-12 minutes:
[note: I'm in my running clothes since I wanted to go for a run right after we finished :) ]

After letting the dough rise for 15 minutes, you get to actually make the bagels! Fun!
The recipe said to form 8, but those would make huuuuuuge, monster-sized bagels the size of my head. We made almost 30 smaller ones.

before the 2nd rise...

...and after!

Next time, we'll try to make the rings much thinner. The holes kinda disappeared!


Bagels are traditionally boiled before you bake them. This recipe calls for a 'broth' of water, barley malt, and salt. That malt is really sticky and rather tough to measure....

The bagels had to be simmered for 45 seconds on each side. After a while, I stopped counting each second and guessed when the time was up. I thought that they were so cute- little bagels floating in a warm bath. :)

Then, after letting the bagels drain a bit on dish towels, we brushed them with soymilk and either left them plain or added a topping- poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or good ol' flax seeds. Or a combination! This was my favorite part.

We slipped the bagels into the preheated oven (450 degrees!), turned the temperature down to 425, and let the oven do its magic.


Voila! Perfect little bagels. Aren't they adorable?


I'm not a huge fan of bagels- too dense and bready for me- but I had a little bit of one and it was realllllly good!
My dad even loved these! He had two... Whoa! I think these are going to end up a family staple, seeing how much we all enjoy these bagels. They ended up the perfect size for school lunches.

My 10-year-old sister did the toppings for a bunch of them, including the crazy one with tons of flax seeds (bottom left-hand corner).

I've got some great variations in mind for next time that we could try making by kneading the additions into each little ball of dough- cinnamon raisin, blueberry, chocolate chip with cocoa for a real treat, 'trail mix' with dried fruit and extra nuts and seeds, Hawaiian with dried pineapple & papaya and shredded coconut, sundried tomato and basil...


I'm going to give this recipe 10 fresh figs out of 10. The kneading is relaxing, shaping the donuts is fun, 'bathing' the donuts is rather enjoyable, and dipping bagels in various toppings is something the whole family can take a part in. Hah, I sound like a commercial. But, TRY THESE, okay?

The link again: http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/dinner-with-the-band/making-bagels-and-lox-with-el-p/recipe