Make your own bagels

Make your own bagels 

Who doesn't love a good bagel? I am a huge fan, so I asked my son Luca to help me out and make some seasame seed bagels for lunch.  

First, some history for you! A bagel, also historically spelled beigel, is a bread product originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, that is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. Bagels are often topped with seeds baked on the outer crust, with the traditional ones being poppy and sesame seeds. My favorite bagels have a combination of different seeds on top combining white and black sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic powder, and salt.

Lets get cooking! For this recipe you only need 5 ingredients: Flour, salt, yeast, sugar and water.

Ingredients

For the dough

500 gr flour

10 grams of salt

7 gr of dried yeast

20 grams of sugar

300 ml water, lukewarm

Sesame seeds for the topping

Method

Put all the ingredients for the dough in a bowl and knead it into a smooth bread dough. Knead for at least 10 to 15 minutes. Then let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour, covered. After rising, divide the dough into eight pieces. Make balls and flatten them slightly. Make a hole about 3 centimeters in diameter in the center with your finger. Place the bagels on baking paper and let them rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200 ° C.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Gently put two or three bagels in the water and let them cook for one to a minute and a half. Turn them halfway through. Take them out of the water with a slotted spoon and let them drain on a kitchen towel.

 Place the bagels on a parchment-lined baking tray and sprinkle with a topping of your choice. Bake them in the oven for 18 to 23 minutes until golden brown. 

While bagels are typically associated with breakfast food, you can eat bagels for any meal of the day with any number of savory or sweet toppings. 

For an optimal bagel-eating experience, be sure to heat and slice your bagel before enjoying your bagel open-faced or as a sandwich. 

I have to admit, although I love my bagels with hummus, tomatoes and avocado, my favorite combination might be a bagel with Nutella :) Pia has explained some of her fascination with chocolate in her recipe for flourless chocolate cake, and well... I love it too! Let me know what you think of the recipe, and tag us on Instagram!