Finally made bagels today, which was lots of fun, very tasty, and not too much of a time commitment. It takes two days of mostly waiting, but I can imagine the prep work taking only about 20 minutes if I were used to it. The prep work gives you a couple trays of bagel dough that must ferment in the fridge overnight. The next morning, you drop the cold bagels into boiling water for a couple minutes, bake them for about 10 minutes, let them cool for 15, and you’re done.

I wasn’t used to the stiffness of bagel dough, and it definitely felt like I was doing something wrong. My standing mixer actually started smoking after trying to knead the dough for a couple minutes, so I had to do it by hand. I thought I was doomed, but after kneading and letting it rest for 20 minutes, the dough had a really great consistency and was ready for shaping. Shaping just involves poking a hole in a chunk of dough and widening the circle.

I topped some of the bagels with kosher salt and shallots, but left most plain… and they were delish.

(the bagel recipe is from the excellent book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice)