Bagels

These beauties take some foresight and planning, but they are absolutely worth it. And while the recipe is a bit of a task list, nothing is difficult or fiddly - feel free to include chefs of all ages and experience levels. Simply perfect for a Sunday brunch in January. Serve warm with butter, or as a base for a spread involving cream cheese, roast beef, smoked salmon, cheeses and spreads of all kinds. The best part is that most of the work is done the day before. The batch makes 16, and you can season them as you choose before baking. If you are expecting a crowd, double or even triple the recipe; for a weekend batch for two, make half as much. My family and I were thrown by the ingredients in weights, as opposed to volume. I will make a note next time we make it of what volume we used. We made some other changes as well, listed below.

Ingredients
4 cups all purpose flour instead of bread flour
1 tablespoon Barley malt syrup used instead of malt powder

Directions
We made bagels from scratch. We are almost as impressed with ourselves as we are with the results.

Sponge stage. We set this up in a few minutes and then went to the gym and went to a movie (All the King's Men - it was pretty good, too).  When we got back, it was perfect and ready to be made into dough. We used the stand mixer, and it was exceedingly simple.

After the dough cures in the refrigerator overnight, the bagels are ready to cook. Step one is boiling in water with a tablespoon of barley malt syrup and a teaspoon of baking soda, one minute on each side.

This is the part Vivian really likes: adding seasoning on top of the boiled dough before baking. Note: the foil was a bad choice. A little vegetable oil on the pan is a better  way to go, or parchment paper if you need to keep the dough off the pan.

Yummy goodness.