I just came back from visiting my family for a week.
A week where I didn’t cook, bake, clean, do the dishes, the laundry, prepared the lunch boxes or really cared about what time it is. Yup, I went there without the kids.
It was an amazing week with a pretty painful finale. On the way back my flight got delayed for 4 hours while passengers were already inside the airplane! I missed my connection flight, I haven’t slept all night and was issued an early morning flight home instead, so I was basically on my way home for a day and a half.
saying that I was a walking dead when I got back home would be an understatement. Too bad Air Canada couldn’t make an effort to make sure the end of my vacation was as good as the vacation itself.
Although I’m back, I still feel kind of disconnected from reality, sort of floating, so naturally I’m not in the kitchen all day and I don’t have as many ideas as I have when I’m down to earth.
My husband suggested we have bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon for breakfast, but of course, I’m not really here so I forgot to get the bagels when I went shopping. Nevertheless, the solution was obvious -I was going to make bagels and we were going to have our planned breakfast, for supper.
I feel so much safer when I know exactly what goes into my food, so making these homemade bagels is definitely a win-win. I get to serve light supper (or breakfast), I get to eat healthier and I may even have some time left to actually watch something on TV without passing out – woohoo.
These are soft, easy and great tasting bagels. You can also add some fried onion to the dough or cinnamon and raisins. Enjoy.
- 1Kg Whole Wheat Flour
- 3 tsp Dry Yeast
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- 1 Tbsp Salt
- ¼ Cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 ½ Cups Warm Water (not hot! you’ll kill the yeast)
- 1 Egg
- 2 Tbsp Water
- Sesame - In separate plate
- Put the flour and yeast in a mixer bowl and combine
- Add in the salt, honey and oil and half of the water and start mixing using the kneading attachment on low speed.
- Gradually add in more water (drizzle it in) and when you see the dough start to form, change the mixing speed to medium and keep mixing until you get an even, soft, almost non sticky dough.
- The dough should be soft to touch and non sticky. If it’s a bit sticky that’s ok.
- You may end up needing a bit more or less water, depending on your flour absorbance.
- Put some oil on your hand and pat the dough all around until it is covered with a layer of oil (this will make dividing it easier later on)
- Cover the mixing bowl with dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the egg wash by whisking the water and egg together and set aside a plate with sesame for dipping.
- After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the bowl and divide into 12 pieces (they shouldn't stick to you surface since the dough is oiled.
- Form each piece into a ball (tennis ball sized) and then push your thumbs in the middle to form the bagel hole. Widen the hole until it’s about 2-3 inches big (don’t worry it’ll shrink while baking),
- Dip each bagel (both sides) in the egg wash and then in the sesame and place on the parchment paper covered baking sheet.
- Make sure the bagels are at least 2 inches apart because they will grow while baking.
- Let the bagels rest in the baking sheet for additional 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 460F (can be 450F if this is the highest on your oven)/ 240C.
- After the 30 minutes passed, bake the bagels on the middle oven rack for 20 minutes or until browned.
