Bagels

I have been having a bit of a bagel making session today, after making a batch of 12 yesterday that the kids practically demolished, leaving only 2 in the freezer for school lunches.

Bagels are very expensive to buy, at around $4 for 4 bagels, but very cheap to make as I worked out yesterday. The cinnamon and raisin bagels work out to about $2 for 12 regular or 16 smaller bagels, and the plain ones at around $1.50 for the same quantity. So they are well worth making if you like to eat them.

I made three slightly different batches today. One plain, one cinnamon and raisin, and one wholemeal cinnamon and raisin.
The dough for the cinnamon and raisin batch was made in the breadmaker, and the other 2 batches were done in the Kitchen Aid mixer. Both machines coped fine with what is really a fairly stiff bread dough.
Here are the bagels shaped, and waiting to be boiled.
On the left and half of the back tray are the plain bagels, with the cinnamon and raisin at the front, and the wholemeal cinnamon and raisin variety on half of the middle and back trays. I made 16 of each - they are slightly smaller than bought ones. A batch of 12 gives a bagel more the size of a typical bought one.

After the bagels rise for around 15 mins, they are dropped into a pot of boiling water with a tablespoon of molasses added to it. They are only boiled for around 30 seconds on each side. They puff up a bit during this stage, and look sort of lumpy when you take them out.

This is what they look like after boiling, ready to go into the oven.










And the final product:
Back left is the wholemeal cinnamon and raisin, Back right is the regular cinnamon and raisin, and the Plain Bagels at the front.

Needless to say, the kids were very pleased to see them when they arrived home from school. We gave a lot of the plain ones to Sandra and the kids for their lunches, and Jordan,Zach and Jayna were all very impressed and happy to try one straight away.