You never know just how much you appreciate a good, chewy bagel until you can't get one, and good bagels simply do not exist out here in Hooter County, Georgia. Good bagels can be found in the city of Atlanta, but we aren't going to make the trek in just for bagels - well, we haven't gotten that desperate yet.
I studied Dad's bagel book, The Best Bagels Are Made at Home, and got to work. While I use my bread machine to bake complete loaves of book, what I really appreciate is using it to make dough. I apparently don't have the wrist action nor the patience to knead dough properly. So I fired up the bread machine to make the dough for basic NY-style water bagels.
Making bagels is not all that difficult, it is just time-consuming. You make the dough, then you let it rest. You roll out the dough, then both the dough and I rested. Of course, the dough wasn't doing laundry and really didn't need the rest as much as I did, but I still let it get in on the resting action.
Then you shape the dough into bagels, which is where I did have some difficulty. The book said that I could shape them several different ways: making a ball then poking my finger through, making a rope then joining the ends, or using a bagel cutter. I don't have a bagel cutter so I tried the two different hand methods. I learned that the best shaping method for me is to make a rope then join the ends…only join better than I did yesterday. Most of the bagels did not have a seamless join and one even came apart during the boiling process.
Okay, so I shaped the bagels, then they rested yet again while they rose. I boiled them, then baked them, and ta-da! Bagels!
There is no way that my bagels will be mistaken for those from a good New York deli (or even a mediocre mass-market bagel chain), but they are far better than anything I can get locally and I think I will make them again.
I'm so proud! And hungry, so I think I will eat a bagel.
