Homemade Cheddar Onion Chive Everything Bagels

Ever since visiting Montreal a few years ago, I’ve always been tempted to try my hand at making bagels from scratch. However, I always thought they were too hard – you know one of the mystery type of breads. After a colleague made them at work, I decided I need to suck it up, get over my fear and just try making homemade bagels. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy & delicious these little suckers are. In true BS fashion, let’s get right to the good stuff.

Basic Bagel Ingredients

• 3.5 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2.5 teaspoons instant yeast (measures out to one pack)
• 1.5 cups hot water

If you would like to add some variety to your bagels, toss in the following (or anything you’d really like to be honest):

Put all the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl, mix through, use the dough hook. If you don’t have a mixer you can use a food processor. With the mixer running slowly add the hot water, mix until a satiny and elastic dough forms.

Put dough in a lightly oiled bowl in a warm place to rise for an hour. It should double in volume.  In a large pot bring 6 quarts of water and 2.5 tablespoons of sugar to a simmering boil. Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Punch the dough down and divide into 10 equal pieces, shape into bagels. You can use the rope method-roll out like a rope and then attach ends. Or the hole punch method. Form dough into a ball and push thru with your thumb, stretch the dough out into a bagel shape.

Let the bagels rise for 10 more minutes.

Carefully place the bagels into the boiling water, careful not to crowd the pot. Simmer for 30 seconds and flip, simmer for another 30 seconds.

Place bagels onto a clean towel. Pat dry. If you would like to top your bagels this is the time. You can use an egg wash, and a sprinkle of garlic salt and black sesame seeds, or really anything you like.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes. I don’t have a convection oven, but I don’t think you’d have to flip them if you do. If you have a convection oven and try this recipe, please let me know if you ended up flipping them or not.

Take out of the oven to cool, slice and enjoy! Yummy!

Carlene