BAGELS!

So, on the Happy Housewife website, I saw a recipe for homemade bagels. I love bagels, and she was talking about how it's cheaper for her to make them homemade vs storebought. Well, of course I have to try it! Unfortunately, her recipe calls for gluten. I could not find gluten anywhere in our local Meijer. Maybe I was just missing it, but I gave up. So, I found another recipe (somewhere; source to be cited when I find it again) which calls for bread flour. Hmm. Don't have that, either. Logically, I then searched on how to substitute for bread flour. Guess what that calls for?
All purpose flour, and gluten.
Seriously? Not cool.

So, I caved and bought bread flour, hoping that these bagels would be good enough that I would use the rest of it before it goes bad.

Oh, we certainly dont have to worry about the flour going bad. I'll be using it, so I can have one of these things every day for the rest of my life. :)

Bagels

4 Cup bread flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 Teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 Cup warm water

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Add up to 1 1/2 cup warm water, as needed to get all the dry flour in.

Place dough down on floured counter, and knead for about 10 minutes--until the dough is uniform and smooth.

Separate into 12(ish) equal sized balls, let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Roll each ball into a line, and combine into a circle.

(Guess which ones I made, and which ones Nate made! LOL)

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Let the bagels rest for 20 minutes, and bring a pot of water to boil. Grease a large baking tray lightly.

Add the bagels to the boiling water a few at a time. Keep them apart, and boil for 1 minute. Flip, then boil for another minute. Remove to drying rack; repeat for all bagels. Place bagels on baking tray, bake for 10 minutes. Flip, then bake for 10 additional minutes.

(Let's hope we get better at making them pretty. Eventually.)

ENJOY!

To add optional toppings, sprinkle (or dip) immediately after removing from boiling water. Bake as directed.

Serves: 12
Serving Size: 1 bagel
Yields: 12 bagels
Calories: 153

So, would we make this again?
Oh, yeah. A lot. Nate ate two when they were fresh from the oven, and while I waited until the next morning for breakfast, it took quite a lot of self-control. One of these popped in the toaster, and covered in strawberry cream cheese? Mmmm....
They are just as good as the storebought--maybe not as pretty, but that's OK.

As always, comments are love!