Michelle’s Homemade Bagels

No one who knows me is surprised by the fact that I love to cook and bake.  I am not only interested in the end product but the ‘why things work as they do’. One of my favorite books is Cookwise by Shirley O. Corriher.  It is subtitled “The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking.”

It not only has recipes but explains why different ingredients affect the way a recipe turns out.  There are sections on bread making, fats, eggs, sauces, fruits, and vegetables, and so forth.  It has improved my skills and deepened my understanding of the chemistry of cooking.

Today, I am going to share how I make bagels.  I had a friend’s mother show me how she made bagels. After several years of making them myself, here is my recipe.

Bagels

• 3 packages of active dry yeast (or 6 ¾  tsps.)
• ¾ cup water warmed to 105 to 115 degrees
• 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 4 cups of whole wheat flour
• 4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 ½ cups water (I warm it to about 100 degrees to prevent cooling the yeast too much)

Mix 4 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of all purpose flour in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center.

Heat the ¾ cup of water to 105 to 115 degrees.  Add the yeast and 1 ½ tablespoon of sugar and stir thoroughly.  Pour into the well of the flour and let proof for about 10 minutes.

Mix together the eggs, oil, salt, ¾ cup sugar and 1 ½ cups of warm water.  Add to the flour mixture and mix well.  Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can to make a firm dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes. It should spring back. Put into a lightly oiled bowl, flip, then cover, and let rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size.

You can tell your dough has risen enough when you push your fingers gently into the dough and the dents remain. Divide the dough into balls and let them rest on the counter. After a few minutes, they are ready to boil.

Punch the dough down and let it rest for about 5 minutes.  Divide the dough into sections and roll into balls.  Let the dough rest for about 5 more minutes. 

Poke a hole through the ball of dough and stretch it to about 1 and half inches.  Put it in a large pan of boiling water and boil for about a minute on each side.  Either grease a cookie sheet well or use parchment paper.

Make a hole in the center and gently stretch it to about 1 1/2 inches. Boil for a minute on each side.

Place the boiled bagels on the cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden on top.

You can make the bagels the size you want.  I like mine somewhat smaller and get 45 to 50 bagels from a batch.  The original recipe called for dividing the dough into 30 pieces. 

You can add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon with the salt and knead in a cup of raisins, thin sprinkle with cinnamon sugar before baking to make cinnamon raisin bagels. 

Yeast in bread making

Yeast feeds on simple sugars, giving off carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol, and multiplies.  This is what causes the dough to rise.  There are different kinds of yeast, so you need to check the type to get the best results for what you are baking.  For instance, a sourdough yeast works with bacteria to create the distinctive flavor in that bread.  Typical bakers’ yeast consumes all the sugars and prevents the growth of the bacteria. 

The amount of sugar and the temperature of the water is important to get the correct rise.  If the water is too hot, it can kill the yeast and if it is too cold, the yeast can’t reproduce.  It also depends if the yeast is mixed in with the flour or if it is just mixed with water and sugar.  You need hotter water if it is mixed with the flour.  You need to be sure to test the water temperature to make sure it is within the narrow window for the method you are using.

You can proof your yeast to make sure it is good before you use it in a recipe. Mix the yeast with water that is between 105 degrees and 115 degrees and add a little sugar.  Let is stand for about 10 minutes and it should be good and bubbly.  If it hasn’t bubbled at all, the yeast is too old and won’t work.  If has bubbled some, but not very much, it is probably still usable, but will take longer to rise. 

Punching down your dough after the first rise helps redistribute all of those multiplying yeast cells and allows them access to more simple sugars from the flour in your dough to expand and grow more. 

I store my yeast in the refrigerator after I have opened the jar. I haven’t had yeast get too old, but I have had the water too hot or too cold before, with predictably poor results.