Homemade Bagels!

Introduction

Bagels! One of my favorite on-the-go, anytime foods. I simply love bagels. I don't love buying them on campus. For what I spend on one, I could get a whole bag at the store, or make a few dozen myself. You can maybe guess I bought one today on campus, then decided to make my own this evening. I had some time to kill while I was making chicken stock and chicken soup, so I looked up the recipe in Joy of Cooking.  Pretty simple.

Experimental Procedure

I mixed a cup of water with some yeast and sugar, as determined by Joy. Then I stirred in melted margarine as a substitute for shortening, then more sugar, salt and 1 cup of flour. This I mixed on low speed using my KitchenAid mixer (thank you Mom, Aunt Carla and Ashley!). Now I was supposed to gradually stir in 3 more cups of flour and I did. But it was supposed to be smooth and elastic. This dough was dry. So dry, a large portion of the flour was just chilling on the bottom of the bowl. I thought maybe my dough hook was doing it, so I started kneading it. It was just too dry. I added another cup of water, and that seemed to make things better. I let the dough sit to give the yeast time to do its thing, then I rolled some bagels. I made them smaller then normal bagels. I like my carbs, but not too many. They went into a pot of boiling water for a minute, then I coated the bottom in cornmeal. For half of them, I put minced garlic on top. Into the oven and cooked until golden brown!

Results and Conclusions
I'm not sure why my dough was so dry, or why it needed so much kneading (bagel tongue-twister!). This really bothered me because it seemed like something was just really off about how I made the bagels, but I followed the recipe closely. And the dough was very tough, not possessing a ton of elasticity. With my added water, I was able to make the dough at least. The bagels came out really tasty. The consistency was definitely correct for the bagels. I was worried I ruined it somehow since the dough was such a pain! I am convinced something is wrong with the recipe...

I was surprised the garlic worked, too. I just kind of stuck it on the tops of the bagels and hoped that was how it was done. Next time I will try something a little different for flavoring. I love sesame seed bagels, and I happen to have a bottle of sesame seed oil. I may just dribble a little of it into the dough and see if it flavors it like the seeds do. I love the taste, but I don't like how they get stuck in my teeth. I will also try making them with a little onion in the dough and on top. Flavored bagels help me avoid cream cheese, which just adds to the calories. (I AM trying to diet, despite some of the recipes I'm posting). I will keep you posted!

Thanks for reading!