Recipe: Bagel Info and Recipes for faje

Welcome to the Recipe Link faje.

Back in 1997 "behr" posted some a number of recipes and tips on making your own bagels at home. I hope they help.
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Making Bagels

In a 1 cup of 110 degree water add:
1 pkg yeast
1 Tbsp sugar

Let this mixture sit for a about 5 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble.

In a large bowl mix the following:
2 eggs
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
(As an option, you may add; dehydrated onions, garlic, caraway seeds, dill weed, parsley, or any spice to flavor the bagels.)

Pour the yeast mixture into the rest of the ingredients. Roll out on a floured board and knead for about 10 minutes adding flour
as needed. Put dough in greased bowl and let rise about an hour (or until the dough doubles.)
Punch down dough, divide up, and roll into balls. Make a hole in the center of the ball with your thumb and set on a floured board
to rise for 10 minutes. Prepare 3 quarts of boiling water with 3 Tbsp sugar. Drop each bagel in and boil for 30 seconds on each
side. Place the bagels on a towel and let drain a couple minutes. Place bagels on a very lightly greased cookie sheet and brush
with egg. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
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Bagels

1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp flour
2/3 cup lukewarm water
2 eggs
2 sachets (1 1/2 Tbsp) dry yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour 2 Tbsp sugar extra
1 1/2 tsp salt

Poaching Liquid:
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16 cups water
2 Tbsp sugar

Glaze:
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1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp water
poppy or sesame seeds

In a large bowl, combine sugar, 1 Tbsp flour & water, sprinkle in yeast & stand until frothy (2 mins). Stir in eggs & oil. Mix 1 cup flour, extra sugar & salt into yeast mixture. Beat with wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface & knead until smooth & elastic (about 10 mins). Place in a greased bowl, turn dough over in the bowl to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap, stand in a warm place to rise (prove) for 1 hour or until doubled in size & imprint remains when
dough is pressed. Punch down dough using fist, knead for 2 mins. Divide into 12 equal portions. Shape each piece into a ball (keep dough with plastic wrap while shaping). Poke finger through center of each ball. Twirl around finger to form a ring. Place on floured oven tray & cover. Allow to rise for 15 mins. Bring water to the boil in a large pan. Add sugar. Place half the bagels into the water, cook 1 min. Turn, cook for 1 min longer. Using a slotted spoon, remove bagels to a greased baking tray lined with greased foil. Cook remaining half of bagels in poaching liquid. Combine egg yolk & water. Brush over bagels. Sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Bake in a hot oven (400oF) for 25 mins or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 12.
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Bagels

This recipe, in it's original form, came from Bernard Clayton's Complete book of breads. (Originally titled "Jo Goldenbergs Bagels"). I have since modified it a bit (doubled it) and have typed this in from memory. I can't say enough good things about his book though.

6 cups of High Gluten Flour plus 1 cup for sprinkling
2 packages of yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbls salt
3 cups hot water (120-130 deg.)
3-4 quarts boiling water with 1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar added
1 egg white plus 1 tablespoon cold water

*High Gluten flour is the secret here! Gluten Flour creates a much sturdier dough which allows it to stand up to the rigors of most commercial mixers. It creates a much chewier product, whether it be a bagel, pizza, or bread. I buy a 50lb sack at my local pizzeria for $10.00. It lasts me about 3 months... I understand the same product can be bought in a regular supermarket called "Bread Flour" *NOT* "all purpose-flour". All-purpose flour is for cakes and muffins and stuff that basically shouldn't strengthen your jaw!

Mixing:
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In a large bowl, add 6C flour, and the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix. Add the 3 cups of hot water. (Be careful that the water isn't any hotter or you'll kill the yeast-err towards the cooler side). Mix for as long as you can with a sturdy wooden spoon until it seems like you're going to crack it!

Kneading:
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Turn the dough out of your bowl onto your (dry) work surface. Scrape anything clinging to the bowl and just add it to that big old nasty dough blob. Start kneading. Knead for 10 minutes, adding sprinkles of flour to control stickiness. The dough will come together. It's OK if the dough is slightly tacky in the end...just not totally sticky. As you become more experienced with dough making, you can avoid the dough clinging to your hands and counter.. Try to clean the counter with the dough.

First Rise:
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Form dough into a ball. Place in a bowl greased with vegetable shortening. Turn the dough around in the bowl once or twice just to get the ball covered with a little shortening. Cover tightly with saran wrap. Let rise for about an hour in a warm place until the dough ball has doubled in size. (If using Rapid rise yeast, you can cut the rise time in half). Get the 3-4 quarts of water w/sugar slowly boiling at this stage.

Forming:
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When the dough has sufficiently risen, turn it out of the bowl onto a floured work surface. Press the air out of the dough with extended fingers. With a dough blade & a scale, cut dough into 4-5 oz segments. (I usually get about 12 segments). Roll each into a smooth ball and let them relax for a few minutes. With the palm of your hand, flatten each ball somewhat. Take each flattened dough and poke a hole right in the center with your finger. With the same motion that you would use if you were rolling a rubber band on your two index fingers, pull the hole open. Try to concentrate on keeping the bagel uniform in thickness. It should quickly look like a bagel, sort of. Place 'em close together on the counter, cover loosely with the saran wrap you just used before to cover the bowl, and let rise for about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Boiling:
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Drop 3-4 bagels into the boiling water, or as many as you can fit without crowding them. (If the bagel holes have closed up, you may gently pull them open again before you drop them in the water). Try to keep the water at a rolling boil. Boil for about 3 minutes, flipping them over in the water every 30 seconds or so. Place bagels on a towel to drain for a few minutes. Repeat until all bagels have been boiled. Place bagels on baking sheets which have been greased with vegetable shortening. You can sprinkle cornmeal on it too. I have my best success with insulated baking sheets... Spread bagels out as much as possible.

Toppings:
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With a BBQ brush, paint each bagel with egg white/water wash. (I beat this egg wash with a whisk slightly before application, which breaks down any big snotty strands). Sprinkle poppy seeds on a few. Sprinkle sesame seeds on a few. Leave a few plain. Kosher salt or Fresh minced Garlic work well too. Ok, wanna get weird, put M&M's on 'em!!!! I don't care ;-)

Baking:
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Place baking sheets in oven and bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes. 2 or 3 times during the baking process, rotate the sheets in the oven to compensate for any oven temperature irregularities. (If using a convection oven, you can reduce the temperature by 25 degrees or so). (the original recipe suggests that you flip each bagel upside down halfway through the baking stage. This apparently helps get rid of the "flat bottom". I don't do this because I do not care if they have flat bottoms. Cool on wire racks.

Serving idea
Cut them in half and freeze while still warm. (Every morning, I defrost one in the microwave for 27 seconds, then toast!)
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Bagels

1 package granular yeast (dry)
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup natural-flavored instant malted milk powder
2 tbls sugar
2/3 tbls salt
5 3/4 cups unsifted white flour

Water bath:
2 quarts water
2 tbls natural-flavored malted milk powder
1 tbls sugar

1. Place yeast in a warm bowl and add the water, stirring to dissolve. Add malted milk powder and sugar and stir until dissolved. Add salt and all at once. Work the dough with fingers and hands, kneading into a stiff dough. Or use a mixer equipped with a dough hook.

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in an ungreased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Bring the ingredients for the water bath to a boil.

5. Punch the dough down and divide into 16 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Pierce the center of each ball with thumb and index finger. Using fingers, shape each ball into a ring like a doughnut.

6. If the water bath is boiling, turn off the heat. When the bagels are dropped into it, the water should be just below the boiling point.

7. Drop the bagel rounds into the just-under-boiling water and let them cook for about 20 seconds on each side. Remove the rounds from the water using a slotted spoon.

8. Place the bagel rounds on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until lightly browned.
Eat fresh or store in freezer.
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Bagels

The dough used for bagels is basically a bread dough recipe. The secret is that you boil the bagels before baking them in the oven.

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp yeast
1 egg
1 cup warm water

In a bowl put the warm water, yeast and sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes until the yeast is working. Add the salt, egg, oil and flour and stir everything together. Dump the dough out on a floured board and knead until everything is of one consistency. (Exactly like making bread). Put the dough into a warm bowl and put (covered) in a draft-free place for about 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. Punch down the dough and divide it into 20 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Then roll each ball into a rope (like you would plasticine) about 7 inches long. Press the two ends of the "rope" together to give you the basic bagel shape. Put the bagels on a floured board, cover with a tea towel, and leave for about an hour to rise. During the last part of the rising time, put a pot on the stove and fill it with boiling water. Also turn the oven on to 375 Degrees F. Dump about 5 bagels at a time into the boiling water. They will fall to the bottom of the pot and then rise. When they rise turn them over. Boil them for a total(including time at bottom of pan) of 2 minutes. Lift the bagels out of the water with a slotted spoon and leave them to drain while you do remaining bagels. Put all the bagels on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes (Until they turn brown). Enjoy.
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Vegan Bagels

4 1/4 to 4 3/4 cups of all purpose flour.. I use bread flour.
1 package yeast. (I use bulk yeast about a tablespoon.
You can never have too much yeast!)
1/4 cups of sugar
1/1/2 cups of warm water.

The water I use is actually hot water. I turn the tap and let it go almost as hot as it can get. It needs to be fairly warm to activate the yeast. I was always paranoid about killing the yeast and used water that was too cold and so the dough didn't rise enough. So go ahead and use hot water. Add the yeast to the water with 3 tablespoons of sugar and stir it around a little. In about 30 seconds the whole thing should start to foam. If it doesn't you probably didn't use hot enough water.

The instructions say to add the flour a little at a time. I don't bother - I just pour all the flour in. I figure if it's too stiff I'll add a little water, if it's too wet I'll add a little flour. Kneading is really important so knead it well. I figure that I shouldn't skimp on kneading the dough because it's good exercise for giving long massages right? So I try to do a hard knead for 15 minutes. By this time dough should be elastic with no crumbs of dry flour embedded in it. If it's a little sticky it doesn't really matter that much. If it's dry though it's hard to knead. I'm lazy so I'd rather have it a little wet. At this point I diverge from the recipe. The recipe has all sorts of complicated instructions about 10 minutes rest etc etc. I just divide the dough into bagel shapes starting with a ball of dough then poking a hole in the middle. Then I let it sit for about 45 minutes until it has risen. The bagels should be nice and puffy. If you were to bake the bagels now you would get bagels with the consistency of bread. But we all like chewy bagels. So the trick is to boil the bagels. So heat up some water to boiling and drop the bagels in and boil each side for about 3 mins.

The recipe says to use x amount of water with sugar in it. I don't bother. So really I only use the 3 tablespoons of sugar. Or a little more if I want my bagels sweet. Drain the bagels on paper towels (ordon't bother). And bake them until they are brown at 375 degrees for about 25-30 mins. If you like the glossy sheen use eggs to coat the outside. Otherwise they are kind of ugly.

By the way... when I make french bread I use a pan of water in the oven and it makes the french bread chewy. I was thinking that I could do this with the bagels too. Use a cup or 2 of boiling water in a pan while the bagels bake. The french bread gets chewy so I would think the bagels would too. I'll have to try it next time.