Home Made Bagels

We eat bagels for breakfast often, and have grown to love Thomas's honey wheat quite a lot. They are chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. One of David's old favorites is blueberry and mine used to be cinnamon raisin, but they both contain coloring and other additives. Not surprisingly, they all contain preservatives.

I decided to try to make my own bagels, and what do you know, though it took some time, (2 hours or so), it was a lot of fun and they turned out great!

Honey Wheat and Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
inspired by this recipe

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups (whole wheat and white wheat mix)
2 packages (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast or 4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 Tbs sugar or honey
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar

In a bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast.
Combine warm water, 3 Tbs sugar or honey and the salt.
Pour over the flour mixture.
Beat at low speed of electric mixer for about 30 seconds scraping the bowl as you mix. Beat 3 minutes at high speed.
Stir in as much remaining flour as you can mixing with a spoon.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (knead 6-8 minutes total).
Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

(if you want to add cinnamon and raisins, add 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup raisins now and knead well)

Cut into 6 or 12 portions, depending on the size you want. (6 will be similar to Thomas' bagels in size)
Shape each into a smooth ball.
Make a hole in the center of each and pull gently to make a 1 1/2-2 inch hole.

Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover, let rise 20 minutes.
Broil on low 5 inches from heat 3-4 minutes, turning once (tops should not brown).



Heat 1 gallon of water and 1 Tbsp of sugar to boiling; reduce heat.
Cook 4 or 5 bagels at a time for 7 minutes, turning once; drain.



Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375* for 25-30 minutes.






Let cool, then slice. Enjoy!