A recent trip to the USA reignited my love of bagels - proper, chewy, soft, malty bagels, not the imitation things supermarkets here sell, which truly aren't bagels in my eyes! So for those if you who want to taste a proper bagel... Here's the recipe!
• 450-500g strong white bread flour
• 1 level teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon malt extract (from holland and Barrett. Or use honey)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1 1/2 if using coarse salt)
• About 250ml warm water
Plonk ingredients together and make a dough. It should be quite firm and not at all sticky and after kneading for about 5-10 mins will look like a thing of smooth, satiny, slightly tense beauty.
Now the first bit of magic... Oil a bowl, plop the dough in and cling film it, then stick it in the fridge overnight. Or for however long you like. Then the next day (or whenever you want bagely goodness), remove from the fridge and make bagely shapes; either roll a sausage then loop it together or make a ball and poke a hole. Whichever way, make the hole a lot bigger than you thought you needed to, and put the bagels on an oiled baking sheet (or Teflon sheet). Cover with cling again and leave for an hour or so at room temp to puff up a bit more. This long fermentation time helps to develop flavour.
Now magic part number two... Being a large pan of water to the boil and add another spoon of malt extract and a teaspoon or so if bicarbonate of soda. Plop each bagel in for a minute, flip over, then drain and plop back onto the baking tray. Sprinkle with poppy seeds (or pumpkin, linseed etc if you like) and bake for 15 mins as hot as your oven will go.
Bloody lovely! Apologies for brief posting, trying to blog on the sly on my phone ;)
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