Breakfast Bagels

I love bagels for breakfast, they were probably my most eaten breakfast food back in America. If I didn't have a bag of bagels at home then I'd usually pick one up from Dunkin Donuts. I loved the dunkin donut bagels because they place near me would always use huge amounts of cream cheese and it gave the bagel such a nice flavor. Bagels don't really exist where I live now though and while some import stores carry them, the prices are pretty high. The last time I checked it was around 46rmb for a 6 pack (7.25$). I don't remember the prices for a bagel in America but it just seems way too high for me to justify, especially when I could easily eat 2 in a single sitting.

For me though, homemade bagels are the way to go! You can customize the flavors however you like and it's always so satsifying making your own food.

I'v actually seen some talk of a new foreign run bagel restaurant opening near me soon so I'm hoping they'll provide what I need for a more reasonable price, but until then I certainly don't mind making my own! Bagels aren't hard to make and they're very very cheap. You only need flour, yeast, water, sugar and salt. The beginning process and ingredients are very similar and only slightly different.

How to make Bagels

Just like pizza, you start by mixing all your ingredients together and kneading for about 10 minutes. If you have a bread machine like I do then you just throw it all in there on kneading mode and come back in x amount of time (for me it's 18 minutes). After the dough has formed, you just very lightly oil it and let it double in size.

I was a little short on space so I had little bagel dough balls everywhere so they wouldn't dry out lol.

Once it has doubled, you punch it down and let sit for another 10 minutes before forming your small little dough balls. You poke a little hole in the middle of each ball and then let them sit covered again for about 20 minutes while they grow a little. After they've risen to the size you're happy with, you throw them into a pot of boiling water with a slotted spoon and let them boil on each side for 1.5 minutes. This gives you a nice and chewy bagel after the finally cook!

After boiling, you take the bagels out and wipe them with either some olive oil or egg wash and add whatever toppings you like. For today's batch I chose to do 3 black sesame, 3 white sesame and 2 garlic salt ones. You bake them in a pre-heated oven at 220C for about 20 minutes and your bagels are ready! The last couple mintues of the bake, I moved them from the middle to top rack just so they'd brown a little better and have a nicer look to them.

I froze mine because I plan to eat one per morning and I'm not really sure how long they'll keep for but I'm sure you could probably get at least a week. I suggest playing around with the toppings because there are so many cool flavors you can do!

Using my girlfriends mug for coffee because I could find mine... shh don't tell her :P

Disclaimer

Unlike my pizzas, this recipe is not my own! I use the Sophisticated Gourmet's recipe for New York-Style Bagels found here: Bagel Recipe

I highly suggest it, the bagels are absolutely amazing and I have used this recipe for years!

All pictures in this blog are my own. The blog itself and process is about my experience making the bagels. I hope you guys enjoy!