Bagels

My first time having bagels was in 2004 when i was in Ottawa, visiting a friend. He invited me to his house and served bagels for breakfast. Since then, i fall in love with it. I was lucky to move to the States not long after that, and bagels was one of my staple food 😂.  I had bagels with salami, roast beef, salmon, tuna and the list goes on. But my favorite remains the same until today, toasted bagel with jalapeno and cheese. 

When i moved back to Malaysia in 2010, it was very difficult to find any bagels here. In 2011, there's a chain store selling bagels but it didn't last long because they're selling it too expensive. I managed to find some frozen bagels in Cold Storage and Jaya Grocer sometime after that, but it's not as good. 

So, i decided to try making it myself.

I've tried a couple of times, but it didn't work. So, i stopped trying.

Somehow, last night i remembered that my mom gave me a bread machine about 2 years ago, but i never use them. I opened the box and it comes with a recipe book. I was really excited when i found a bagel recipe. Lucky me! It looked simple. I followed the exact measurement and the steps carefully and it works! I finally did it! Although i wish it is a little denser, my husband seems to like it very much. 

This recipe is for a bread machine, but i think it's ok if we knead the dough with a mixer or manually. Before making it, i did some research on a few other bagel recipes online. I guess, the important thing in making bagel is the amount of time you let the dough rest, the room temperature and not to over knead the dough. If not, you will end up either having a hard or too many air holes inside. 

Here is a link for additional reading on common bagels making problems. I find it very helpful.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/03/homemade-bagel-troubleshooting.html


Ingredients: 

280 g bread flour
2tbp granulated sugar
1tsp salt
2 tsp vegetable oil (i use canola oil)
180ml lukewarm water
1tsp instant dry yeast

Method (for bread machine): 

1. Place all the ingredients into the bread machine. 
2. Let it knead and rest for about an hour. 
3. Divide the dough into 8 small pieces (i did 5 - see notes below). Knead them with your hands into balls and cover them with a small towel. Place them still for 10 minutes. 
4. Press the middle of the dough and rotate the dough until the hole becomes bigger and form a shape of a bagel. 
5. Place the dough onto a cooking paper and allow the dough to rise for about 40 minutes (i reduce the resting time to 20 minutes) at a room temperature of 30-35C. 
6. Boil the bagels in boiling water on both sides for about 30 seconds. This is to stop the yeast from fermenting. Fully dry the dough. 
7. Bake it for about 20 mins at 180C. 

Note: 

I was quite curious how it's going to turn out, so i divided the dough into 5 with different sizes.

The largest bagel turns out to be too flat. I like the 110g and 85g bagels the most. It's the right size for a toast bagel or a bagel sandwich. As for school age kids, the best size would be around 60g.