You can´t beat a delicious variation on your breakfast table. That eases hugely a maybe hard start of one´s day. That is why I make some bagels from time to time. Today I want to present you my recipe. I never make this recipe in a hurry – the yeast dough does not like hurry! It needs time to rest and time to work.

The measurements are for 12 big or 20 small bagels.

Ingredients:

For the yeast sponge:

350 gr. milk (softly warmed to 32°C – 37°C / 90°F – 100°F)

1 heaped teaspoon sugar

1 ½ sachet dried yeast

 

For the yeast dough:

700 gr. flour (all-purpose)

50 gr. butter (melted and cooled down a bit)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons salt

For the making of the bagels:

1 big pot with boiling water

4 tablespoon sugar for the boiling water

A grid for the bagels to drip off

2 baking plates with baking paper

1 egg white to baste the bagels

Sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds – or any other seeds of your taste as a topping

Pre-heated oven at 180°C/360°F air circulation

Direction:

For the dormant phase of the batter I preheat the oven at 50°C/120°F.

In a pot softly warm the milk up to 32°C – 37°C / 90°F – 100°F. Not more – the yeast culture would be destroyed. In a smaller pot melt the butter and leave aside to cool down a bit.

The yeast sponge:

In a big bowl mix slightly the milk with the sugar and the dried yeast and let it rest for 5 minutes. The yeast macerates and becomes fluffy.

The yeast dough:

Into the fluffy yeast sponge put the flour, the melted butter, the eggs and the salt.

Use the dough hook of your electric mixer or your hands to make the yeast dough. When the batter becomes homogenous cover the bowl with a moistened kitchen towel and put it into the oven. Now turn off the oven and let the oven door ajar.

The yeast dough now has to rest for one hour. In that time it doubles the volume.

After the rest time knead the batter again with the dough hook or your hands. The longer you do that the smoother it becomes. If it is too sticky you can incorporate some flour – but be careful, the batter must not become too dry.

Now make small balls from the batter. As said above, the measurements are for 12 to 20 pieces – depending on how big you form the balls. For the holes I use the pen of a cooking spoon (or my Chinese chopsticks) and moving in circles. Then use the fingers to form the bagels.

Cover the yeast rings and let them rest for 10 minutes.

In the meantime bring a pot of water to the boil and add the 4 tablespoons of sugar. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/360°F.

After the rest time – and when the water boils – put the rings into the boiling water. Let them in the water for one minute at each side. I always put in 4 or 5 rings at a time. They become pretty big in the water. Take them out of the water and let them drip off on a grid. After dripping put them on your prepared baking plates and let them rest again for 10 minutes.

After the rest time – baste the bagels with the egg white. Now add the seeds of your choice to cover the bagels – this is optional.

Put the plates in the oven at 180°C/360°F air circulation for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes they should look like the ones in the pic.

I hope you enjoy my recipe and have fun making it.

Yours

Robby(licious)