The Cook’s Illustrated team came up with a very effective bagel recipe for the home kitchen. When I use it, I deviate from the instructions in two ways. I knead the dough by hand since I don’t have a KitchenAid mixer, and I don’t use high gluten flour, instead concocting my own by adding some Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten to King Arthur’s bread flour.
Eight bagels doesn’t seem like a huge reward for the effort involved, but once you have been through the process two or three times, it is fairly simple. A mixer would help, since the dough is very stiff.
Since the formed bagels are refrigerated for eight hours before the boiling and baking, the work is divided into two short sessions. That means you can have freshly baked bagels for breakfast in about thirty minutes.
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I tried making bagels a few times in the last century, and was entirely dissatisfied (except for the excitement of boiling the bagels, which you have to admit, is really fun). Maybe I’ll give it another go, using your recommendations.
One of these days I will video some of the steps, like the forming process. Other Big Plans include posting the “works for me” versions of a couple of recipes.
Boiling is truly a fun step in the process.
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