While it was still fun, I had a harder time with the bagels than the buns. There are fewer steps, and it takes a lot less time, but you'll see where I slipped up as I take you along my cooking journey...
First you put the basic mixture (yeast, flour, yadda, yadda) in a bowl and knead the dough. This is another one of those recipes where flour will be your best friend because sticky dough = bad baking experience.
Then, like normal, you let the dough rise--this one sat for about an hour, covered by plastic wrap.
I used parchment paper to turn out my dough, cut it into 12 pieces and molded them into little balls. If the dough is sticky, get out the flour!
Then you gently make a hole in the dough ball and shape it into a bagel. If you please, you can then dip it in sesame seeds or poppy seeds or what have you.
Then you boil a huge pot of water and drop a few bagels in at a time. The recipe said the dough would float to the surface of the water, but mine didn't. I can't image this altered the quality of the bagels significantly.
Where I really went wrong was when I stuck the bagels in the oven. I didn't spray the pan (I know, I know!), so the bagels were basically superglued to the baking sheets I used. This made for a fun 20 minutes or so of scraping. Also, my overly-sensitive smoke detector went off just as I was pulling them out of the oven, which scared the bejesus out of me. But, these things happen, and now I know for future bagel baking to spray the pan! Above is a pile of the few undamaged bagels. Now, who has some cream cheese?
I want to try one now! But you're too asleep for me to ask permission.
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