I am a bagel baking genius!

When I visited America I fell in love with bagels.  You do get them in the UK - but they arent anywhere near as good and you dont get as many flavours.  So ever since my trip across the Atlantic I have wanted to try making them, 4 years later and this is my first attempt! Yes Im lazy, yes Im busy, but I also thought they would be really hard and slow to make due to all the boiling etc.  Well they were super easy to make, and they turned out great! 

This is the recipe I used...

450g plain flour

1 sachet dried yeast

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

Mix with 300ml warm water to make a firm dough.  I added fresh parsley and chives from the garden and some pumpkin seeds just to spice things up a little.

Knead for 10 minutes, leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Divide into 10 flattened balls.  Make a 3cm hole in the centre of each.

Boil for 2 minutes, turning halfway through.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes (mine only needed 20) at 220 degrees.  

And this is the result...

They are super yummy straight out of the oven.

I only made half the mix - as I wasnt sure how they would turn out and didnt want to end up with loads of gross doughy messes.  If I was doing it again I think I would make each bagel bigger, and cook at a lower temperature for a bit longer.  They got brown too quick and so are still a little bit doughy.  But that could just be my oven so some ovens might be ok at 220.

Still not quite up to American standards though unfortunately - but the baking genius satisfaction more than makes up for that!