Recipe for bagels (From York Press)

Recipe for bagels

1:59pm Saturday 31st March 2012 in Too Many Cooks By Julian Cole

HOMEMADE bagels are fun, chewy and very tasty, once you master the unusual boiling technique.

This recipe comes from Dan Leppard’s Short & Sweet, a modern baking bible. I have altered it very slightly, with the addition of golden semolina. The recipe makes ten bagels.

Ingredients:

500g strong white flour
Teaspoon fast action yeast
2 teaspoons fine salt
Tablespoon caster sugar
Tablespoon white wine vinegar
275ml warm water
50g brown sugar
2-litre pan of boiling water
Golden semolina for rolling (or seeds or flakes of sea salt)

Combine flour, yeast, salt and caster sugar in a bowl, add warm water and vinegar. Form into dough and knead for ten seconds, returning it to the bowl and covering with a cloth.

Leave ten minutes and knead briefly again; leave once more for ten minutes, knead for ten seconds, then return dough to bowl for one hour (you could always just knead for ten minutes, but this stop-start method does work).

Divide dough into ten pieces, shape into rolls, cover and leave for 20 minutes. Put pan of water and brown sugar to the boil, preheat oven to 220C/200 fan. Shape bagels by pushing your finger through and stretching outwards, leaving a decent-sized hole (otherwise it will close during cooking).

Drop the bagels one or two at a time into the boiling sugared water, leave for 30 seconds to a minute, flipping over to repeat on the other side. Removed with slotted spoon and place on oiled baking tray, sprinkling with golden semolina (or alternatives).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, leave to cool on a tray while hunting out the cream cheese.