How to Make Bagels at Home

Oh yes, I love the smell of baking breads in the kitchen, and when you start adding flavors to the bread the entire house becomes especially aromatic and irresistible. On top of that, one of the hardest temptations to resist for me is eating fresh breads when they’re right out of the oven. This past weekend, I was really in the mood to bake something tasty that was a little different–hence bagels. These were amazing right out of the oven.

I created a few different variations on my original bagel recipe that I think you’ll enjoy. My personal favorite is the cinnamon raisin bagel recipe. It’s really good, and I highly recommend it. The bagel recipe described below is one that will only take a couple hours to make, versus one that may take a couple days. I’ve got to say, that if you’re willing to make your bagels over a two-day period, you’ll get a super amazing bagel; however, for those of us who prefer a more instant gratification, I think you’ll find this recipe quite pleasurable and even beyond satisfactory.

I’ve added a printable recipe at the bottom of this post. I made a few different batches of these bagels and am using mixed photos from those batches, so don’t worry if in one photo you’re looking at cranberries and in the next raisins. So, let’s make these bagels. My 3-year-old daughter, Maggie, helped me make some of these and had a lot of fun.

The Cooking Dish Bagels

Ingredients

Method

Original Recipe

1. In a large bowl, mix together the yeast and water. Let yeast and water sit for 5-10 minutes.

2. Add sugar, salt, and olive oil. Stir together until the sugar and salt is dissolved.

3. Add bread flour and knead the mixture together in the bowl until flour is incorporated.

4. Remove dough from bowl and finish kneading on counter until dough is uniform and smooth. The dough should be slightly elastic.

At this point, I left the room for a little bit and came back to find my daughter happily eating the raisins, or in her words, “big bugs” out of the dough, and I begin to wonder how many other bugs she’s eaten… I don’t think I want to know.

5. Cut dough in half and roll both halves into long dough logs. Allow dough to rise for 20 minutes.

6. Place hand palm-down on dough, and wrap dough around hand. Once it’s around your hand, pinch it off from the rest of the log. Squeeze the tips together and quickly roll to form the bagel circle. Repeat until both logs have been rolled into circles. To make it easier, I created a quick video to show this action, because I wasn’t quite sure how to put it into words. Compliments to my little 1-year-old, Robyn, for the baby noises in the background while sitting in her high chair eating graham crackers. It was either that or let her hold the camera. Needless to say, I opted for the former. I also learned that rolling bagels with one hand while the other, non-dominant hand holds that camera can be a little tricky, ha ha.

7. Let bagels rise for another 20 minutes. In the mean time, preheat oven to 450°F and prepare a large pan or pot of boiling water. Also, dust a cookie sheet or stone with cornmeal.

8. After the water is boiling, place the bagels in the boiling water and boil on each side for 1 minute.

Remove from water and allow excess water to drip off (or you can place it on a drying rack for 1 minute). Once access water is off the bagels, place them on the cornmeal-dusted cookie sheet (sides can be touching if needed).

9. Bake bagels on one side for 10 minutes. Flip bagels over and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown on top.

10. Remove from oven, and cool for a few minutes on cooling rack. Enjoy with a cream cheese schmear.

I made the following cream cheese schmear by adding two tablespoons of my favorite jam (raspberry huckleberry jam) to 1/2 package Philadelphia cream cheese. And because I’m thrifty, I stored it in washed-out baby food cups. It’s amazing how handy those are.

Cinnamon Raisin

At step 2, replace 1 tablespoon of sugar with a tablespoon of honey.

At step 3, add cinnamon and raisins and then continue with the original recipe.

Orange Cranberry

At step 3, add orange zest, dried cranberries, and nutmeg and then proceed with the original recipe.

Garlic Onion

At step 3, add onion. Proceed through step 8, but instead of using cornmeal, lightly grease the cookie sheet with oil or cooking spray. Follow the modified steps below, starting again with step 9.

9. Mince garlic and whip together with melted butter and egg yolk.

10. Bake bagels for 10 minutes on one side, remove from oven and flip bagels over. Using a basting brush, – quickly – cover the tops of the bagels with the garlic, butter, and egg mixture. Place back in oven for another 10 minutes or until golden brown on top.

11. Remove from oven, and cool for a few minutes on cooling rack. Enjoy with a cream cheese schmear.

Wrapping Up

After all was said and done, I gave my same bug-eating 3-year-old daughter a fresh cinnamon raisin bagel. She held it out in her little hand for a little while, eyeing it closely and muttering under her breath, “bugs.” Silly kids. First they want them, then they don’t. Once she realized they were raisins, which she loves, she ate it pretty quick.

Of course eating a bagel is like eating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I don’t know if anybody does it quite the same. But, just for the heck of it, here are my favorite three ways to eat them.

1. Fresh out of the oven with plain cream cheese.
2. Cut the bagel in half, spread plain cream cheese on both halves, stick back together and nuke it (microwave it) for 30 seconds. I usually add enough cream cheese that it doesn’t all get absorbed by the warm bagel.
3. Toasted with a honey almond cream cheese spread.

Download

“Recipe for The Cooking Dish Bagels” (PDF, 2 pages, 156 kb)

How to Make Bagels at Home

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• CourseBreads
• CuisineAmerican

How to Make Bagels at Home Yum Print Recipe CourseBreads CuisineAmerican

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