Bagels
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Cook time: 
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Makes: 8 bagels
 
Ingredients
Dough
  • 260 gr water
  • 12 gr dried yeast
  • 10 gr butter
  • 5 gr honey
  • 500 gr bread flour
  • 9 gr salt
Finish
  • 1 litre water
  • 20 gr honey
  • 2 elpl sesame seeds
Instructions
Dough
  1. Pour the lukewarm water in a bowl, add the yeast and butter and mix well. Let the yeast wake up for 5 min.
  2. Add bread flour, honey and the salt. Knead the dough until elastic and smooth. It will be quite a stiff dough to work with.
  3. Let the dough rise, covered with cling film, in a lightly floured clean bowl, in a draft free spot for about an hour.
  4. Divide a dough in the required amount of portions. Make a hole in the centre and shape it like a bagel.
  5. Place the bagels individual and lightly floured little squares of baking paper on a tray and let them proof for half an hour or until doubled in size.
  6. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Finish
  1. Bring the water with the honey to the boil. Gently lower each bagel in the poaching liquid using the baking paper, trying not to deform the bagels.
  2. Poach each bagel for 1 minute on one side, flip it over to poach the other side for again a minute.
  3. Take them out of the water carefully with a slotted spoon and place them on baking paper on the baking tray.
  4. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.
  5. Bake the bagels in the oven for 15 minutes or until fully cooked and golden.
  6. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack.
Stuff to know
Poach the bagels carefully to avoid them deflating.
Tap the bottom to see if the bagels are fully cooked. A hollow sound should occur.
Preferably, use special bread flours when making bread.
Coat the top with seeds of your liking: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc.
Use white flour for white bread and granary flour for granary bagels. For wholemeal bagels, use 3 parts brown flour to one part white flour.
Add herbs to the dough or chopped dried tomatoes for a savoury version.
Recipe by Jeroen Valkenier Recipes at https://jpvalkenier.com/bagels-2/