Carol's Capers

I hope no one's sick of me talking about bagels! The bagel recipe is as follows. If you do try this recipe I'd love to hear how it goes. Leave me a comment!

1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
2 tbl. Sugar
2 tsb. Yeast
pinch of salt
1 egg
Enough flour to make it a moderately stiff dough
(Bread flour works best, also for a more healthy bagel add some freshly ground wheat.)

Boil the milk in a small saucepan, pour into mixing bowl and add butter and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Let the milk cool down until it's lukewarm then sprinkle yeast on top and mix. Let the mixture settle until the yeast bubbles up. About 10 minutes (?). Then add egg white and enough flour to make a moderately stiff dough, add salt in between flour. (I've been told it's best to add the salt after the flour has hit the liquids, something to do with the rising.) Kneed it into a nice smooth ball, takes approximately 7 minutes. Place in a bowl for 1 hour with a cover (plastic wrap works nice). At this point I get the water ready, it take a while for a big pot to boil. Also get two cookie trays greased. After the hour is up punch the dough back down and separate into 16 pieces. Make a rope out of each piece and form a circle. Make sure you get the ends pressed together well. They will come apart when you boil them if they are not firmly attached! After water is at a rolling boil reduce heat to a simmer. Place bagels in for 15 second or so on each side. They should swell. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from water. Place on trays and brush on egg yoke and roll bagel in the seeds of your choice. You can skip the seeds if you’d rather or put something else on like dried onion pieces. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

I took pictures of each stage of the bagel making process this morning. I'll up load them to a yahoo album soon and link.