Bagels From Scratch

     When this summer began, I had a very long list of probably about 200 recipes to try. Some were old favorites, but most were things I've never made before. Somehow between then and now, I found inspiration for a bunch of other things that weren't on that list, so now as the summer is coming to an end, I find myself scrambling to finish as much of the list as I can. There are just so many things I want to learn how to make while I still have the time before school starts. I still have hundreds of ideas, but I can't be sure how much time and/or money I'll have to devote to this next semester. My hunch is that many of my recipes during that time will be my quick and easy version of college food, so I'm trying to get to the bigger projects now.
     I know I've been posting a lot of bread recipes lately. Breadmaking is a dying art, and I'm trying to bring it back by proving to others as much as to myself that it's not really as hard as you'd think. I've always wanted to learn to make bagels, to add them to my repertoire, to resist the allure of Panera and save money, and to have the freedom to create my own new flavors. So after all of 10 minutes of research, I finally decided to give it a try, and to my surprise, in two hours, I had some fresh, warm bagels that could rival any made in a bakery.
     Since I really didn't know how my bagels would turn out, I cut the recipe in half, but the ingredients listed will make 8 bagels. I tried something new and put craisins and dried apricots in them. I love the tartness of the apricot, but you can take this basic recipe and mix in whatever you want. You could leave them plain, add blueberries, chocolate chips, or even raisins and some extra cinnamon. I highly recommend the cranberry-apricot, but feel free to be original.

Note: It is easiest to make the dough as I did using the dough hook of an electric stand mixer, but you can do it by hand, you'll just have to knead it for a while.

INGREDIENTS:
1 packet of quick-rise yeast
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups slightly warm water
3 1/2 cups bread flour, plus extra for kneading (Don't use all-purpose flour.)
a pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, stir the warm water into the sugar and yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Use a rubber spatula to stir in the salt, cinnamon, and bread flour 1/2 cup at a time. Once you've given it a head start mixing by hand, let the machine knead it for 8-10 minutes, adding the dried fruit after 5 minutes. After that time, it should work itself into a ball.
3. Flour a work surface and your hands, and knead the dough by hand for another minute just to make sure the mix-ins are evenly distributed. Try not to add too much more flour, the dough should be slightly sticky and you should be able to work it into a ball with no cracks.
4. Lightly spray a clean, large bowl, set the dough in it, cover it with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour. If you've at least glanced at my other bread recipes, you know the drill.

Before rising:

After rising: (but keep in mind that this is a half batch)

5. Transfer the dough back to a floured surface, and gently pat it down, but don't flatten it. Use a sharp knife to cut it into 8 triangles.

6. Take each slice of dough and roll it into a ball with no cracks. Now make it into a bagel by sticking your finger through the center of it, and twirling it around your finger until the diameter of the hole equals 1/3 of the total diameter.

7. Make sure the thickness is pretty even all the way around. Lay the bagels on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, cover them with a cloth again, and let the rise for 15-20 more minutes. While you wait, preheat the oven to 425 and boil a large pot of water.

8. Set the water to a very low boil, then use a large skimming spoon with holes in it to carefully lower each bagel into the water. They seem heavy, but they'll float. Work in batches to boil the bagels for 1 minutes on each side. The boiling process is what gives bagels that hard and shiny crust.

9. When the bagels are done boiling, let the water drip off, then let the sit on a wire cooling rack just until the steam goes away. After boiling but before baking, they still look raw, but they get a spongy texture similar to a dumpling.

10. Transfer the boiled bagels back to the parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 425 for 20-22 minutes. Then let them cool on a wire rack just until they're safe to touch and slice.

      Enjoy them while they're warm, and be sure to lightly toast the leftover ones to bring them back to life a little. I'm really glad that these worked out so well and proud of myself for learning something so useful. When I go back to school, I'm going to have to make them by hand, but I plan on making a bunch on some lazy sunday, freezing them, and popping them in the toaster throughout the week. Because these will really start your day off right!