Bagels

I have said in my other posts  that when I decide to make something new to me but common, like lemon bars, for example, I do not follow the recipe completely. I read a bunch of bagel recipes and did my own thing. My family loves bagels - our breakfast and lunch. I know there are so many bagels on the market and for the longest time I was happy with Noah's bagels and bought them in bulk at Costco.  Then I looked at the ingredient list and as I suspected I found High Fructose Corn Syrup.  In my case, I read labels and find it in so many things, so I can't completely avoid it, if it is in breads and most of the jams, and even in catchup. While it is nearly impossible to rid your diet completely of HFCS, unless you are planning on buying everything organic and make your own breakfast cereal, one can make baby steps and try. Making bagels at home is just one way, also I save money doing it. 

to make about 1 dozen
6 -6 1/2 c of flour
3 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp salt
3 tsp yeast
3 tbls oil
2 c warm water

My KitchenAid mixer does a fantastic job, I do not even get my hands sticky. The dough it really stiff and tough. Avoid the temptation of adding more water. Once the dough is formed, it is cut in pieces and rolled or formed into a ball, then into bagel. Arrange them on the baking sheet and let them rest for no more then one half hour or while the water is boiling. I boil water in my large shallow pan and couple of tbsp of sugar. Drop the bagels in to the water and boil about 1 minute on each side. Place on the baking sheet, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. alternately you may add the seeds to a small plate and dip the wet bagel in it. Arrange on the baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven at 425F for 20 min.

My husband loves onion bagels and I had to figure out how to make those. To the list of ingredients for those bagels I add

1 small onion finely chopped and sauteed til golden brown
1/2 cup of sesame seeds
1/2 cup of poppy seeds
1/4 c of sunflower seeds
2 tblsp of caraway seeds
reserve about a 1 tbl sp of the mixture for topping the bagels.