I want my Bagels back!??

Question

I used to have bagels for breakfast when I was in LA and now, since i'm back home (italy) i'm not having any and i miss them! I wanna make them even though i know they won't ever be as good as the ones they sell, but does any1 have a recipe that's close enough to the ones they sell? THANKS!

Answer 1

i'm with you honey, i'm originally from NY and i'd die for an egg bagel with cream cheese right about now!  

Answer 2

these are really good

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder...

Answer 3

Use any pizza dough recipe for the dough.  It must be thoroughly kneeded.  Cut into 100 gram pieces and roll out and make into rounds.  Freeze on a floured wooden board until very firm.   Place the frozen bagels into boiling water (about a gallon) until they float.

Put onto an ungreased baking sheet and put toppings on.

Bake at 400F (or as hot as the oven goes) for about 20 minutes or until caramel brown.

Answer 4

The good ones taste something like this:

2 teaspoons, instant yeast

3 teaspoons, dark brown sugar

1 ½ cups, room temperature water

1 Tablespoon, salt

4 cups, bread flour

2 teaspoons, baking soda

About ½ cup cornmeal & flour for dusting

1. Mix the yeast in a large bowl with the brown sugar and the warm water. Stir in the salt and flour, ensuring all the flour is well hydrated. Knead the dough 5-7 minutes, until it is smooth. Cover the bowl and set aside for 2 hours.

2. Lightly dust a cutting board with flour. Turn out the dough onto a floured board. With a dough knife, cut a 4oz portion and mold into a ball. Allow the dough balls to rest 5 minutes. Pierce the ball with your finger and rotate the dough around until the hole is of desired size. Set the bagel on a cornmeal-flour dusted sheet tray and repeat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Dust another baking sheet with a mixture of cornmeal and flour.

5. Fill a large, wide pot two-thirds full of water, and bring to a boil with the baking soda. Drop the bagels in batches into the water; they must not touch. Boil on one side for 2 minutes. Turn the bagels and boil on the second side for 1½ minutes. They should firm and puff up. Carefully remove from the water and drain for 1 minute on a rack.

6. Place the bagels on the prepared baking sheet. Immediately place the sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the sheet tray 90  and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the bagels are tan to medium brown. The finished bagel should reach 185  on an instant read thermometer. Remove from the baking sheets and cool for 30 minutes before attempting to cut.

The quick dip in the water ensures the authentic taste of a true bagel; the interior is tender and flavorful. The blast in the extremely hot oven goes a long way to establish the definitive bagel look and crispy exterior. The combination cooking method is unbeatable and irreplaceable. If there is no tank nor caldron nor vat of steaming water to be seen in the bagel shop, all they are selling is a chewy piece of bread with a meaningless hole in the middle. Bagels are not just bread and, as such, should not be cooked in the same way. The oven alone will not accomplish successful bagel making.

And whilst we talk about holes, that characteristic void at the center must be made by hand rather than punched out with some time-saving-product-bastardizing implement. Let the dense dough rest between shaping and the hole-making step to make an indelible puncture that will keep its form in the hot water bath as well as in the oven.

Variety matters, as my students are quick to point out, "hey chef, there are more flavors than vanilla," when I go on a tirade about how overlooked vanilla is equated with plain. Oscar Wilde gave us wisdom in "the world would be a boring a place if we all shared the same sense of humor." I agree. Variety is, after all, proverbially speaking the spice of life. Except with bagels. The best bagel is the plain bagel. In all seriousness, when trying a new pizza joint, you do yourself a disservice by sampling the first slice garbed in mushrooms, onions, pepperoni and sweet peppers. The real experience comes from taking in the flavor of the sauce, cheese and crust. The same goes for bagels. Sure, there are countless shmears, smears and spreads. And a little cream cheese does well to accent the flavor of a good bagel. But, why mask the real flavor of a bagel with some horrific concoction? Fear the sundried tomato and pesto bagel. Run the opposite direction of the rosemary and olive roll with the hole.

Why not enjoy the wholly roll for what it is? The litmus test for purity of flavor, appeal of texture and success of the bagel maker is in the unabashed, plain bagel. And if it is worth its dough, it will taste anything but plain; the Polish royalty from whom the modern bagel has descended ate their bagels unadorned.  If there should be a small pile of little, crispy onion pieces at the bottom of the bag, well, that can be good, too. As long as the bag is paper and the windows of the bagel shop are foggy from the copious humidity from within, you will be treated well.

:) i lived in italy too.. now im in New York