Monday, October 22, 2007

Bagels


Nigella Lawson's Bagel Recipe

These bagels are the best I've ever tasted. Be sure to keep lots of butter and cream cheese on hand! These go quickly!



6 3/4 - 7 c bread flour, plus more as necessary for kneading
1 tbsp salt
1 pkg Rapid Rise yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oil, plus more for greasing
2 1/4 c warm water, plus more as needed
2 tbsp malt or sugar for poaching
2-3 baking sheets, oiled or greased (do not use cooking spray)

1. Combine flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. In separate container, add sugar and oil to the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid, mixing to a dough with a spatula or wooden spoon. **


2. Knead the dough either by hand or with dough hook, try to add more flour if you can. The dough is better dryer than wet. It will be stiff and hard to work. Even with a dough hook, kneading takes 10 minutes.


3. Form the dough into a ball and put it into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat all around. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave to rise for 1 hour. Once dough is well risen, poke with finger to test; impression should remain.


4. Punch the dough down and knead again, divide into 3 pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece into a rope then cut each rope into 5 pieces. Roll each piece between the palms of your hands into a ball, then roll another rope; curling to form a ring. Seal the ends by overlapping ( I roll into a ball then poke and stretch hole into the center)


5. Put on a large pan of water to boil, when it boils, add malt or sugar.


6. Set the bagels on the baking sheets, cover with tea towels and leave for 20 minutes. Bagels should grow puffy. Preheat oven to 500 (or your oven's max temp.)


7. When the water is boiling, start poaching. Drop in a few bagels at a time. Boil for 1 minute on each side. Remove from water, place back on baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes until they're shiny and golden brown.


Makes 15 Bagels

** For flavored bagels, add ingredients at this stage.

6 comments:

ellabella said...

Saw your link on the nest, just wanted to add another hint that I have used and a link to another recipe you can try!

The recipe I use, includes adding the malt to the bagels themselves, and boiling in water and honey.. anyway.. so good, traditional montreal bagels. yum!

I'm going to try yours next time!
http://www.recipezaar.com/35261

Anonymous said...

You've inspired me. I have a batch of "french toast" bagels proofing right now :)

How did you flavor your bagels? I noticed that some of them in the picture are dark - curious how you did it.

B said...

I actually split mine in 3 after the first kneed- I flavor them individually (you see Cin-Raisin, Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Onion there) then let them proof in seperate bowls- of course!
The Chocolate ones were only supposed to be chocolate chip BUT I forgot about the dough being warm and the fact that chocolate melts. My favorite are the onion with poppy seeds. You can use them to make sandwiches too! mmmmm.

Anonymous said...

Awesome - thanks for the tips!

Anonymous said...

I just made the recipe and they came out sooo good! I am happy because I am not much of a baker. I sprinkled sesame seeds on top for a real "bagel shop" effect. The only flaw I ran into was that the bagels stuck to the baking pan-it's not non-stick but the second batch I used silicone paper and that saved them.
Thanks for posting that recipe.

Em said...

A friend rec'd this recipe and I tried it today- delicious!! They weren't very pretty, since this was my first bagel attempt, but they are good! Thanks for sharing.