NEW YORK STYLE BAGELS

Hello friends and food lovers!

I'm not sure what the weather is like where you are, but the weather here has been rapidly declining. It's been cooling off significantly, raining, even snowing for a few days. Basically, this is hermit weather. This posed a problem for me because my favourite bagel place is about a 40 minute drive away, and well... I wanted to be a hermit.

I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to make bagels, both because it didn't require leaving the house, and having the oven and stove going would hopefully help to warm up me and my kitchen.

I decided I would make a classic New York style bagel, topped with garlic, onion, and Italian seasoned sea salt on top. The dough for these bagels is very simple, more so than I expected. It took about 2 - 2.5 hours for me to make these start to finish - of course an hour and fifteen minutes of that was just rise time (aka Netflix time).

Follow along below to see how I made them!

Ingredients:

1 package (2 tsp) traditional yeast

1/2 cup warm water - for yeast

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups warm water (I actually needed more)

pinch of salt

1 Egg

Optional Toppings: Garlic, onion, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, poppy seeds - anything you want - they're your bagels.

How to:

Combine your yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and sugar in a small bowl, and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl (I used my Kitchen-Aid with dough hook) combine flour, and salt, make a small well in the centre, and add in your yeast mixture. Combine this, and slowly start to add the remaining 3/4 cups of water - adjusting the amount of water as needed.

Once your dough has come together and is fairly firm, turn out on to a floured surface and knead for 10-ish minutes. If you're anything like me - you will think your dough is too firm, and you've ruined it all - but you're in luck, you haven't!

Transfer your dough to an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for approximately two episodes of The Office - Unless it's a season finale - then only one episode - or an hour, let's call it an hour.

After your dough has doubled in size, and you're two more episodes in to the office (or one finale!), punch it down, and let it rest for 10 more minutes.

Cut your dough using a sharp knife or bench scraper, in to eight equal (mine were not very equal if we're being honest) sections.

Now I read a few different directions on how to do this next part, some people said to make a shape similar to buns, and puncture the centre, some said to make a rope and join the edges, I don't think either is wrong, I just went with the bun method. Form eight small buns, and poke a hole in the centre with your finger, and slowly start to work the dough, pulling in a gentle circle to expand the centre.

Once you have all eight bagels made, lay them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment, cover with a cloth, and let them rise for another 15 minutes - sorry, but no time to watch the office right now.

I chose to make garlic and onion bagels, so while my bagels were rising, I finely chopped my garlic and a very small yellow onion, and cooked them in butter and sugar, until soft and translucent. If you're not making garlic and onion bagels - skip to the next step!

Preheat your oven to 425, and bring a large pot of slightly salted water to a rapid boil. I boiled my bagels two ate a time, for one minute per side, removing them with a large spider, and placing them back on the parchment lined baking sheet.

Now you will take your one lone egg, beat it, and using a pastry brush, place a generous egg wash over each one of your bagels, this will create a a nice base for your toppings to stick to, as well as help the top of your bagels turn perfectly golden brown during baking.

Now your bagels are looking perfect, and they're ready to bake! Pop them in to your preheated oven, and bake for 20 minutes. They'll come out golden brown, and be seriously delicious.

Although this dough may be simple, these taste anything but. They're great toasted just with butter, cream cheese, as sandwiches - basically they're just really great.

Next week I'll be making Montreal style bagels, and putting them head to head in a bagel showdown, and I hope you try both recipes too!

Stay hungry! xo