Homemade Long Island Bagels

With the rising price of bread, why not let some dough rise yourself and bake it? My family raves about Long Island Bagels everytime they visit, and claim it is the Long Island water responsible for its distinguishing flavor. There is a chain in the South-Eastern states called New York Bagels. I have heard they import water from Long Island to try to replicate them there. I have tasted them. They are not the same! With my daughter home from school today, I decided we would give them a try.

I modified my recipe from an old book my mother gave me from a Better Homes and Gardens series. I highly doubt the 1973 “Homemade Bread Cook Book” is still in print. I show the cover here, as well as the pictures from the bagel section. One of the greatest things about making bagels yourself is that you can top them with any ingredient your heart desires!

I offer some caveats here.

The dough is supposed to be divided up into a dozen equal pieces. I told my daughter to keep halving until she had twelve. She wound up with sixteen somehow.

For the first eight, the water was not quite boiling when I lowered the bagels into the water. They came out of the water looking much messier than the second eight, which were lowered into already-boiling water.

I also forgot to drain the first seven on a towel before baking. They came out looking more like bialies (so my husband said) and, expecting this to happen, I decided to use these for my chocolate chip experiment. As soon as the other children arrived home from school, they were all gone, so I did not actually get to taste one.

The plain bagels tasted outrageous. My daughter said they were the best bagels she ever tasted in her life!

Ingredients:
4 ½ cups flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1 ½ cups warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt

In large mixer bowl combine 1 ½ cups of flour and yeast. Combine water, sugar, and salt. Add to dry mixture in mixer bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer, gradually adding the remaining flour. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Cover; let dough rest 15 minutes.
Cut into 12 portions.

Shape into smooth balls. Punch a hold in center of each with a floured finger. Pull gently to enlarge hole, working each bagel into uniform shape. Cover; let rise 20 minutes. (I covered with a towel and put it out in the sun to rise.)

In large kettle combine 1 gallon water and 1 tbsp. Sugar; bring to boiling. Reduce heat to simmering; cook 4 of 5 bagels at a time for 7 minutes, turning once.

Drain on a towel.

Place on greased baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, until brown on outside and done in the middle.

Any extra ingredients should be added 15 minutes into the baking.

My first eight look like bialies but the second eight looked and tasted like real bagels.

I thought they were not done enough so I put them in for another five minutes.