Homemade Bagels

I love bagels, sooooo much. I eat one almost everyday, which really isn't healthy but they are my favorite breakfast food! Yesterday Ryan and I made some from scratch. We used this recipe by Christy Chu.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3 quarts boiling water
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal
• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Directions

1. Place water, salt, sugar, flour and yeast in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting.
2. When cycle is complete, let dough rest on a lightly floured surface. Meanwhile, in a large pot bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Cut dough into 9 equal pieces, and roll each piece into a small ball. Flatten balls. Poke a hole in the middle of each with your thumb. Twirl the dough on your finger or thumb to enlarge the hole, and to even out the dough around the hole. Cover bagels with a clean cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.
4. Sprinkle an ungreased baking sheet with cornmeal. Carefully transfer bagels to boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning half way through. Drain briefly on clean towel. Arrange boiled bagels on baking sheet. Glaze tops with egg white, and sprinkle with your choice of toppings.
5. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well browned.

It is important to note that neither of us has a bread machine, so we just kneaded it by hand. We made 6 bagels, half of them were blueberry and half were cinnamon sugar, for me! 

For the cinnamon sugar bagels, I put in about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. I also sprinkled some regular sugar and cinnamon on top after the egg wash. They turned out to be yummy, but next time I am adding way more brown sugar and cinnamon. I didn't want to over do it, but I think they would be more flavorful and delicious with more!

The blueberry bagels proved to be a bit more difficult. We used frozen blueberries, and really should have drained some of the juices out, because when we started to mix them into the dough, it added so much liquid it wouldn't stick together, so we had to add a bunch of bread flour to keep it all together. It was a bit of a mess getting them formed, but they also turned out to be delicious!

It was a fun experience, it took a while to make them. And the boiling part was difficult, I broke one of the cinnamon sugar bagels taking them out and I got pretty frustrated, but over all it was a success.

Oh! And we also made blueberry cream cheese by mixing sugar and blueberries and blueberry juice into some cream cheese!

I can't wait to make these again, and try some different flavors :)