Bagels

Most all bagels sold today are doughs forced through tubes and mechanically cut to size. This way thousands per hour can be pumped out which can be strenuous on the dough. Making bagels at home is not difficult. It only takes a couple of ingredients that are not ordinarily in ones pantry. One is a high-gluten flour and the other is malt syrup. Either one can be found at a good natural food store or online. A high-gluten flour would have 14 percent gluten protein. A bread flour has 12 percent. I have used both but prefer King Arthur’s Sir Lancelot high-gluten flour for bagels. The recipe for bagels is in the next posts as well as step by step photos.

The folklore about bagels: Bagels were invented in 17th century Austria as a tribute to the wartime victories of King Jan of Poland, and were modeled after the stirrup of his saddle. Bread of the masses they were also popular in Germany, but they were introduced into the U.S. by German and Polish Jewish immigrants.