I realize that the prospect of making bread can be quite frightening. However, as the title of this post implies I have a secret bagel recipe that will have you making bread in under an hour. Easy-peasy fresh bread. And the good news is that you can even use dried yeast instead of fresh yeast and your bagels will still turn out perfectly well. Did I mention that these are Montreal style bagels? Whenever I'm not in New York I always find myself missing my breakfast or lunch bagels, so when I'm home I just quickly whip up a batch of these and top them off with some sesame and some rock salt. Isn't it ironic that bagels are such a New York trademark these days, even though bagels were originally invented in Poland and known since the early 1600s?
I got this recipe from one of my favorite easy recipe cook books, and have linked to it at the end of the post! Also if you want to read a post on my favorite bagels in NYC, you can read about Black Seeds Bagels here.
Recipe
50 g sugar
525 ml water
42 g fresh yeast, or 2 packets of dried yeast
20 g salt
1 kg all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
Sesame, poppy seed, rock salt, garlic or any toppings you desire
First, stir together the water, sugar and yeast until fully disolved. Add the salt and the flour and place the mixture in a large bowl (now would be the time to use a kitchen aid if you have one) and knead your dough until smooth, or for about 10 minutes. Cover your bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place to let the dough rise (I like to put mine in the oven at about 30-35°C to help the yeast do its magic).
Preheat your oven to 225°C and boil a big pot of water together with the tbsp of sugar. Form your bagels without using any extra flour by rolling sausages from the dough and attaching the ends. Leave them to rise another couple minutes on a baking sheet. Then place a couple bagels at a time in the simmering water. Once the bagels reach the surface of the water, you can remove them and put your toppings on them. It's important to add the toppings while the bagels are still wet and you can add a bit extra of the toppings, because some of it will probably fall off before you can eat it. Place the finished bagels on a baking sheet and in the oven for about 22 minutes or until golden. And there you go, fresh bread in no time.
