Bagels

Bagels!, Nigella Lawson Bagels. My Adam and I made bagels yesterday. They turned out really well, I'm pretty sure I'll make them again. I used Nigella Lawson's bagel recipe, it's pretty simple. The only thing that someone times bothers me about her recipes is the measurements. I'm always using a scale, which is fine really because but I prefer recipes that are in cups not grams. I know that there is 500g in a pound and that a pound is 16 oz and so forth so I can just convert, I'm just ranting. So at first glance you will see that you need a lot of flour, 1 kg which is 2.2 pounds. This dough is basically like any other dough recipe but it is really hard to knead. Adam ended up doing all the kneading, the dough is really tough. Nigella says that if you are using an electric mixer to have it knead for about 10 minutes...which is more like 20 minutes if your doing it by hand. So be prepared, really it is a lot of work. Also just a side note. Nigella's recipe calls for Easy Blend yeast, I has dry active yeast on hand. I looked on the Internet to see if they were the same thing and it appears that they are. I assume that Easy Blend is just another name for Dry Active.

Recipe
1 kg(2.2 pounds) flour
1 tablespoon salt
15 g or 1 packet of dry active yeast or easy blend
4 tablespoons sugar or 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons malt
1 tablespoon oil
500ml warm water

Nigella says to add 2 tablespoons of sugar, and all of the yeast, salt and flour in a bowl. Which I would of done expect the day before I made her doughnuts. I did everything the recipe said and when it came time to roll the dough out I could still see bits of yeast in the dough. So I made a small change.

In a bowl add 2 tablespoons sugar, yeast, water and oil. Stir gently and let stand for about 5 minutes. This will allow the yeast to wake up.

In a separate bowl add the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Add the yeast mixture to the well and stir to combine. Nigella suggest using a wooden spoon, so I did. If using a electric mixer this can be done using the mixer, also remember to use a dough hook attachment.

Once the dough is formed dump the dough onto a work surface that has been dusted with flour. Knead the dough until smooth.

Place the dough in a bowl that has been oiled, turn the dough so all sides have oil on it. Cover the bowl in a piece of plastic wrap and let rest for about an hour.

Once the dough has risen remove the plastic wrap and punch down. Literally punch the dough. Knead some for a few more minutes then cut into 3 some what equal pieces. Roll each third into a log and cut into five pieces. Take on of the 5 pieces of dough and roll into a log then form into a circle. Pinch the ends together. Put bagels on a oil cookie sheet, or if you have it you can use a pizza stone. I used my pizza stone and a stoneware cookie sheet for my bagels.
If you are having troubles forming the bagels you can roll the third out and using a cookie cutter cut out the bagels. Just remember to make a hole in the center.

Let the dough rest for another 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500.

On the stove, heat a pan or pot with water. Once the water is boiling add 2 tablespoons of sugar or Malt. I've never used Malt before so I used sugar. Add a few bagels to the pot. Cook for about 1 minute, if using a shallow pan flip the bagels about about 30 seconds.

Cook the bagel for about 10-15 minutes, or until brown.