Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Bagels!

We are big bagel fans at our house. I've been afraid to attempt making our own bagels. The task seemed confusing, daunting even. Scalding milk, making ropes, boiling, egg washes....ugh.....I've been baking our own bread for years. I knew that I could make healthier bagels than the ones I buy and yet they terrified me. THEN, Regina on a local homeschool list posted her recipe for bagels.
It SEEMED like something I could do. There are no milk, eggs, or butter in these - in other words they are LOW CHOLESTEROL...in fact they are NO CHOLESTEROL or FAT. I did add almond butter which is fat to my toasted bagel - but no cholesterol....who said eating healthy had to taste bad.
I made two batches this a.m. 16 bagels. There are only TWO folks in this house who LIKE Cinnamon/Raisen bagels but 10 of them disappeared (and I ate one).
I made another double batch tonight: 8 plain and 8 garlic/Italian....

Recipe: Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
1/2 C raisins
1 TB sugar (I used honey)
1 1/4 C warm water
3 C White flour (I used Prairie Gold a hard white flour)
3 heaping TB brown sugar (I used Rapadura)
1 tsp sea salt
3 1/4 tsp yeast

Egg Wash: 1 egg and 1 TB water. (I was out of eggs so skipped this).
Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 min. drain. Mix the yeast with the warm water and honey and let the yeast activate.

Toss raisins with cinnamon and rapadura. Add flour, salt and raisin mix to the yeast mixture.

Place dough on floured surface and knead (I did most kneading in the Bosch and just kneaded enough to get the sticky dough "workable").

Divide into 8 equal parts. Form into balls. Are your ready?

How easy is THIS: poke your finger through the middle of the ball and gently stretch or twirl around your finger.
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Cover with towel and let rise while you start preheating oven to 400* and bring 3 qts of water with 1 T honey (or sugar) to a rapid boil.
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Using a slotted spoon, drop 2 - 3 bagles into boiling water. Boil each side for about 1 1/2 minutes.
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Remove and cool on rack about 1 minute. Brush with egg wash. Bake at 400* on baking sheet until golden brown - about 15 - 20 minutes.
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These are YUMMY....much softer and chewier than store bought.
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10 comments:

Jodi said...

We enjoy bagels too and I always thought they would be hard and messy to make. I'm inspired to try now.

Debbie said...

These look yummy!

Romany said...

I tried making bagels once. They worked ok, but all that boiling and baking put me off. I'm happy to buy them!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

This was a really easy recipe...and I used the boiling time to read. LOL

Anonymous said...

Sis: Think I will even have to try to make these. We are needing some major changes in our diet.

:(:(:(:(

Laura said...

Thank you for posting this recipe and the pictures. I am going to make these - maybe even today! Yay!!!

Christina Holsclaw said...

What did you do different for the plain and italian bagles? I think I can do this, but not sure if I would leave the sugar out for non sweet bagles, and how much spice/garlic to add for the others. Thanks they look yummy!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Plain - left out raisins and cinnamon. I decreased the rapadura/sugar by 1/2.

Italian - I WOULD have used onion but I was out. You COULD just add your spices and garlic etc when you add flour to your yeast mixture. I kneaded it in when I plopped it onto the floured surface. I can't give you measurements. I patted the dough out into a circle about 1/2 in thick and covered it with garlic - then threw a handful of Italian spice on it and kneaded...then I repeated. We like lots of spice! LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Plain - left out raisins and cinnamon. I decreased the rapadura/sugar by 1/2.

Italian - I WOULD have used onion but I was out. You COULD just add your spices and garlic etc when you add flour to your yeast mixture. I kneaded it in when I plopped it onto the floured surface. I can't give you measurements. I patted the dough out into a circle about 1/2 in thick and covered it with garlic - then threw a handful of Italian spice on it and kneaded...then I repeated. We like lots of spice! LOL

Emily said...

Wow! I have never made bagels before . . they look yummy!