Ok! This recipe is fun and easy, so long as you follow the process, it becomes something that you can do with ease. First warning, it’s messy. The whole reason for me sharing this recipe is because I think baking is an awesome way of channelling your kids’ school holiday energy and mess making into something productive and a tad educational. Baking is basically science, it’s not about having the ability to create passion with your flavours like cooking is, it’s more regimented. You’re following a tried method that creates chemical reactions and processes that are very particular. . Ps don’t wear black.

Ingredients

2 Tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ Tbsp granulated sugar
1 ¼ Cups warm water (about blood temp 37°C)
3 ½ Cups high gluten flour
1 ½ Tsp salt

Optional – Toppings poppy/sesame/caraway seeds, salt flakes, cheese, anything you want really.

Method

Looking at the ingredients, easy and cheap, these are things you just have in the pantry if you start baking on the regular. It also means one or two failures is inexpensive, this is baking failure is fine 🙂

First thing, gotta get that yeast working. To your water add the sugar and yeast, give it a wee stir and rest it for 5 mins. The little yeasties start munching on the sugars and produce pockets of carbon dioxide, which is what causes dough to be airy and lovely. When the baked the yeast dies and the air pockets are set.

In a large bowl mix your flour and salt, salt can be unkind to yeast, so best not to add salt straight to yeast or vice versa, so mix well. Make a well in the middle.

After 5 min the yeast mixture should have fizzed a bit and your get that smell of fermentation. Pour the mix into the well. Fold through until it forms a loose dough.

Flour your work surface and tip out dough and the little scraggly bits onto the bench.

Now is the kneading process. We need to knead because it creates structure in the dough allowing it to trap the gasses. What happens is the 2 proteins in the wheat flour gliadin and glutenin, which start rather in a mess, are combined through kneading to form a matrix and the protein we call gluten. This traps the carbon dioxide that gets farted out by the yeast as it keeps munching.

Different doughs require a different kneading process to obtain a very different result. This one is a longer and flour-ier (???) one. You’re going to want to knead your dough for about 10 mins, if you have strong hands and good technique, maybe a minute or 2 less. But you want to be adding as much flour as you can in that time. Your resulting dough should be smooth and firmer than other doughs.

Pour about 2 tsp of oil in a bowl and cover the dough ball in it, placing the dough in the bowl and covering with a wet towel.

Next you proof (aka do nothing) for 60-90 mins, you just leave the covered bowl in a nice warm spot. We are blessed in Townsville, we have a warm climate that doesn’t vary a whole lot, which makes this a little easier. The rate of fermentation and growth for yeast at 20°C is half what it is at 30°C and then at 35°C the yeast is dormant, so the temp makes a big difference. But here we have it pretty good, most of us like our house temp somewhere between 24°C and 27°C, so this is pretty good. 27°C is actually the optimum temp for the speed of proofing, the higher you go the more fermenting and the less growth you get (ie, sourdough). So leave it. Do something else (clean your bench and utensils so the flour doesn’t stick too much).

After the dough has proofed for that time, punch it down, calm down Mike Tyson, do it softly. It’s more of a press or a gentle massage. Then cover again and leave for another 10.

Tip your dough out and separate into 8 even pieces. Use a bit of flour to stop it from sticking, but not too much. Roll into a smooth ball using either your hands or one hand and the bench. Use your finger to poke a hole through the middle and softly stretch out into a ring shape.

Set these down and cover them with your wet towel. Let them rest for 20 mins. Fill a large pot about ¾ with water and put on the stove on high heat. Preheat your oven to 220°C.

After 20 mins your bagels will look, like bagels, just uncooked. Once the water is boiling carefully place as many bagels as you can fit in the water, they will grow so give them room to flourish. Boil for 60-90 sec on each side (more boiling, equals more chew, some people like chewier Bagels), remove from water and place on a towel to dry the surface. Repeat for all 8.

If you want you can top your bagels with stuff, poppy/sesame/caraway seeds, dried onion, anything you want really. This is where you do it, brush it on using a little water.

Oil a baking tray lightly and place the bagels on tray. Cook them for 17-20 mins, or until just golden. Remember you toast these bad boys when you eat them, so you can brown them more then!

Pop onto a cooling rack and enjoy! And clean up kids!