Homemade Bagels

We've taken a turn toward healthier eating around the Cottage and that means eating foods with less ingredients.  Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on a loaf of bread or a package of bagels?  It's a little scary.....since we have a bread machine, we decided to start making our own.  Today, I'd like to share our recipe for making bagels that taste so much better.  Let's get started....

The ingredients are quite simple:

Start with the dry ingredients first:

3 C  all-purpose flour

2 tsp.  yeast

2 Tbsp. honey or sugar

1 & 1/2 tsp. salt

1 & 1/8 C warm water

Add them to the bread machine and let it do its thing!

When the dough is done, I let it rest for a minute on waxed paper.

Then it is cut into 8 (kinda) even pieces:

Each piece is rounded into a ball:

With my thumb, a hole is made in the middle:

And the bagels are placed on a floured baking sheet.

They are covered with a towel and placed in a 200 degree oven for 25 minutes to rise.

Here's how they look at this point:

Boil some water in a skillet with some baking soda sprinkled in it.  I literally scatter 2 pinches in the skillet.  The bagels need to be boiled for 30 seconds on each side.

Place them on a towel to absorb some of the moisture from boiling and then on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet. Brush them with a little egg wash.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes and this is how they look when they come out:

I love the fact that there are only 5 ingredients in these bagels and I can pronounce all of them!  I also love that they taste delicious, especially right out of the oven with butter.....or cream cheese.....or homemade jam.....you get the idea!

I hope you'll give them a try.  They are delicious and with less ingredients, I'm pretty sure they're healthier.  

I hope you'll pin, share, comment, and follow.  If you click on those 3 little lines at the top right of the blog, you'll see where to find me...or click on 'share'.