Homemade Bagels

Bagel is a bread product shaped by hand into the form of a ring.

The first time I had a bagel was back in San Francisco and I just loved it, since I love bread product in general, lol. The other day I was at IKEA in the grocery section and they had a special promotion for Swedish smoked salmon so my bf suggested to buy some and eat it with cream cheese and bagel, just like we did in the States. So I went back home and I started preparing my little ring bread.

Making bagel is similar to making Priztel, the dough is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Once they cool down you can put them in a zip lock bag and they will last for days

Step 1 Ingredients

(for about 5 bagels):

• 2 cups bread flour (250 g)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2/3 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• less than 1 cup of warm water
• 1 tsp vegetable oil

Comments

[Computothought]

Messed up my first batch. but next time will be right.

[triumphman]

Toasted Bagels, cream cheese and tomato slices, with a dash of dill, garlic powder, S&P, YUMMY! Breakfast of champions.

[Darth_Reese]

I have just finished cooking my first bagel, I never really liked the store bought ones (I made them for my older brother, he loves them), but when I tried these, lets just say I'm keeping the recipe. Now I'm going to try and add flavors or maybe some fruit and nuts. I just have to say thank you for taking the time to post this Instructables.

[timweaver17]

Would this be considered a "water bagel"? Have you ever tried egg bagels? I have a recipe for Egg bagels, and I wasn't sure how they differ in taste, besides one using egg...

[L815]

Just made a batch of these. They are great :)

[thegreat58]

Making bagels is a three step process, I've made bagels for years. boil, broil, and bake, I've always done the first two for four minutes, then baked till golden brown, store bought bagels just are not the same, more like sugarless donuts.

[Indertheunfluence]

Great Instructable, just baked my bagels and they turned out great. Thank you for such a simple but effective recipe!

[Bersa]

A question about cooking: I've tried your recipe and everything went good since the last step... boiling & baking. I've tried again and again but I can't get the softness and the "wetness" of the bagels you can buy... maybe trying to bake them lefting a some water in the oven? - Una domanda sulla cottura: nonostante abbia provato la tua ricetta e diverse altre per preparare i bagels a casa, rimane sempre qualcosa di "errato" nel mio modo di cuocerli... non riesco a mantenerli morbidi, umidi, come quelli comprati. Con la tua ricetta va un po' meglio, ma probabilmente sbaglio qualcosa... magari provando a lasciare un po' d'acqua nel forno per mantenere l'umidità mentre cuociono?

[caseyst]

These were so easy and turned out really great - I'm now addicted to homemade bagels!   The only thing I did differently was instead of making "snakes" and having to attach them, I simply poked my finger through the dough balls and made the hole a little larger by stretching a little.  Saved the trouble of having to "attach".  Thank you for the inspiration!!!

[TechNerd1012]

Awesome instructable! These look very easy to make! I never thought of boiling them first, but it kinda makes sense now that I think about it.

[bFusion]

Thanks for this recipe, it looks simple and straightforward! I'm also paging through your blog and will probably try a few from there too. :)

[italiancooking]

I'm glad you like it. Let me know what you think about my blog.
:)

[bFusion]

I just finished making them, they turned out pretty good. They didn't stick together in a ring very well though, I'm wondering if I put too much flour in when I kneaded the dough so it doesn't stick very well.

Also, I just baked them on a cookie sheet, are there any special things you need to do while baking? I have a baking stone, but that might be overkill in this situation.

Also, if you were to add things like salt or cheese on top, do you know when you add them? Right before they go in the oven I feel that it would burn, but if you put it in at the 10-minute flip point, it doesn't really stick to the bagel. Maybe a little oil to help them stick?

Thanks for answering any of these questions :)

[italiancooking]

If you are baking on cookie sheet you dont need to do anything special while baking, just follow the instruction I gave.
You can add the salt right away before baking yout bagel but in that case you will need to brush a bit of egg mixed with water on top of bagels.
For the cheese, I would add it when you have to turn the bagel to the other side, after the first 10 min in the oven.

[bFusion]

Okay, an egg wash to help seal things in, that makes sense. I'm guessing a little oil of some sort will help cheese or herbs stick better after the first 10 minute flip in the oven.

One last question (I promise! :)  You don't specifically say it, but do you need to proof the yeast at all before hand? I realized last night that my dough didn't rise that much and that's because I just dumped all the ingredients in at once instead of "waking up" the yeast a bit first. The bagels are nice and dense (I'm actually eating one for breakfast right now) which is good, but they are a bit on the small side because they didn't rise a lot.

[italiancooking]

I generally dont "wake up the yeast" but if u feel like your bagels didnt rise a lot, next time wake it up in the one cup of lukewarm water and then mix it to the flour. You should not get any problem this way! :)

[bFusion]

Good to know. Thanks for answering my questions! :)

[superpenguin]

Thanks for this Instructable.  I too had figured they were too much trouble, but this was quite easy and they taste good.  I will definitely be making more and trying different variations.

I do quite a bit of stovetop cooking, but I'm not much of a baker, so here's a couple things I learned that may be of some assistance to others:

Add the water a little bit at a time to get the right consistency (I know this from making pizza dough, but I had my toddler helping me, so I wasn't paying attention).  If you have a KitchenAid mixer (or similar), you can start it going and slowly pour the water in.  Too much water makes for a sticky mess.  Add a little more flour if you have too much water.

After shaping the bagels, put them down on wax paper or something.  I put them on a plate and they stuck to it a bit and deformed when I picked them up to put them in the water.

And for those of us who don't think in metric: 200 C is about 400 F.

[italiancooking]

Thanks for the tips!
Right ...my brain doesn t really work in F...@_@, thanks for the conversion :)

[Cyberscann54]

Mmmmmmmmmm, Bagles never thought they were so easy to make will have to make some homemade bagles soon thanks for the post love it love bagles Mmmmmmmmmm

[italiancooking]

Yeah, try and let me know how they turn out!
For more recipes check out my cooking blog www.expatcucina.com

[Weissensteinburg]

 I wanted to make some a while back, but my dad convinced me they were too difficult (not worth it). Now I might try it.

[italiancooking]

Yeah Bagels are actually pretty easy to make. If you like cooking u might as well check out my cooking blog. www.expatcucina.com :)