I’m not the sort of person to tell you that you have to make bagels. Commercially available bagels aren’t particularly good but if you live near a bakery that makes fresh bagels the odds are that they’re going to be cheap and fairly good but if you can’t get bagels or happen to live in a place where they’re not particularly available this is an easy recipe which produces really good results for a home kitchen. You can rest these overnight but I’ve found that I personally like the sweet spot of about 4-6 hours in the refrigerator (at 12 hours these start to deflate for me, your results may vary). Luckily the recipe doubles easily and already made bagels last for up to 4 days without any taste or texture difference. If you can’t find molasses most sweet stuff will suffice: honey, brown sugar, and even dark corn syrup will all produce a crisp outside texture with a chewy inside – just how I like my bagels!
Bagels
In a large bowl mix together the yeast, warm water, and molasses and allow to sit for 5 minutes until it foams.
Add to that bowl the salt and flour and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Turns that dough out on a lightly floured surface and kneed for at least 10 minutes and up to 15 until the dough bounces back at a touch and is shiny and easy to work with. Add flour in as needed but sparingly during this time. Place dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp towel and allow to rise for 60-90 minutes until its doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, prepare a baking sheet or board by dusting it with cornmeal. Punch down the dough then divide into six even portions and form the bagels. There are several methods to shaping bagels, the one I used was rolling the dough into a taut ball then putting a finger through the center and ringing the dough around my finger until a large hole formed. Bagels should be about 4" across with a fairly large hole. Shape all the pieces and place on the cornmeal lined sheet. Cover with a towel and place in the refrigerator for at least 2, but up to 18 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 230°C (with a pizza stone in it if you have one making sure to coat the pizza stone with cornmeal so they bagels do not stick) and on the stove heat a large pot filled with water (at least 2L) and a few tablespoons of molasses, enough so that the water begins to change color, to boiling.
Place a maximum of two bagels at a time in the boiling water. Allow them to sit for 30-40 seconds then flip them on to the second side for another 30 seconds before removing with a slotted spoon and immediately top with desired toppings. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
Cook the bagels on a baking sheet for 15-18 minutes until they are brown on the bottom and golden on the edges.
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