Homemade Bagels

 

Homemade Bagels Recipe

★★★★★4.9 from 426 reviews

• Author: Sally
 
• Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
 
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
 
• Total Time: 3 hours
 
• Yield: 8 bagels

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Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (between 100-110°F, 38-43°C)
• 2 and 3/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast*
• 4 cups (520g) bread flour (spoon & leveled), plus more for work surface and hands*
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar or packed light or dark brown sugar (or barley malt syrup)*
• 2 teaspoons salt
• coating the bowl: nonstick spray or 2 teaspoons olive oil
• egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

For Boiling

• 2 quarts water
• 1/4 cup (60g) honey (or barley malt syrup)*

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Instructions

1. Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm water and yeast together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes. The dough is very stiff and will look somewhat dry.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, knead the dough for 4-5 minutes. The dough is too heavy for the mixer to knead it!
4. Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel.  Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 60-90 minutes or until double in size.
5. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
6. Shape the bagels: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release any air bubbles. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) Shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a hole about 1.5 – 2 inches in diameter. Watch video below for a visual. Loosely cover the shaped bagels with kitchen towel and rest for a few minutes as you prepare the water bath.
7. Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).
8. Water bath: Fill a large, wide pot with 2 quarts of water. Whisk in the honey. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high. Drop bagels in, 2-4 at a time, making sure they have enough room to float around. Cook the bagels for 1 minute on each side.
9. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. Place 4 bagels onto each lined baking sheet.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. You want the bagels to be a dark golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Slice, toast, top, whatever you want! Cover leftover bagels tightly and store at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Notes

1. Overnight Make Ahead Instructions: Prepare the dough through step 4, but allow the dough to rise overnight in the refrigerator instead of at room temperature for 60-90 minutes. The slow rise gives the bagels wonderful flavor! In the morning, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let the dough rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Continue with step 5. I don’t recommend shaping the bagels the night before as they may puff up too much overnight.
2. Freezing Make Ahead Instructions: Baked bagels freeze wonderfully! Freeze them for up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then warm to your liking. You can also freeze the bagel dough. After punching down the dough in step 6, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then punch the dough down again to release any air bubbles. Continue with the rest of step 6.
3. Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer | Baking Sheets | Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats | Large Pot (such as a large 5.5 quart dutch oven) | Pastry Brush
4. Yeast: Use instant or active dry yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise time may be up to 2 hours. 1 standard packet is about 2 and 1/4 teaspoons, so you will need a little more than 1 packet of yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
5. Bread Flour: Bagels require a high protein flour. Bread flour is a must. Here are all my recipes using bread flour if you want more recipes to use it up. All-purpose flour can be used in a pinch, but the bagels will taste flimsy and won’t be nearly as chewy.
6. Barley Malt Syrup: This ingredient can be a little hard to find, but truly gives bagels that traditional malty flavor we all know and love. Most natural food stores carry it. I offer alternatives such as brown sugar in the dough and honey in the water bath; I’ve made bagels with these alternatives AND with barley malt syrup and honestly love both versions.
7. Bread Machine: Place the dough ingredients into the pan of the machine. Program the machine to dough or manual, then start. After 9-10 minutes, the dough will be quite stiff. Allow the machine to complete its cycle, then continue with the recipe.
8. By Hand: If you do not have a mixer, you can mix the dough together in a large bowl then knead by hand for 10-15 minutes.
9. Bagel Varieties: See blog post above for various add-ins and toppings. Note that the toppings are added after the egg wash in step 9. Some readers have used this bagel recipe to make whole wheat bagels by replacing half of the bread flour with whole wheat flour. I haven’t tried it, but let me know if you do!
10. Halve or Double: You can halve this dough recipe by simply halving all of the dough ingredients (do not halve the water or honey for the boiling step). No changes to the recipe instructions. For best taste and texture and to not overwhelm your mixer with excess heavy dough, I do not recommend doubling this dough recipe. Instead, make separate batches of dough.
11. Adapted from a mix of recipes I’ve tried: King Arthur Flour, Cook’s Illustrated, and Complete Book of Breads

Shepherd's Pie

 

sHEPHERD’S PIE

yield: 8 SERVINGS

 

prep time: 20 MINS

cook time: 1 HR 10 MINS

total time: 1 HR 30 MINS

INGREDIENTS

Potato Layer:

• 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 4-5 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 - 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 egg yolk

Meat Filling:

• 2 - 2 1/2 pounds ground beef, turkey, lamb, or sausage (or a combination of any)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 large carrots chopped small, about 1 cup
• 2 cloves garlic, finely pressed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 1/4 cups low-sodium beef or chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 teaspoon fresh
• 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, or 1 teaspoon fresh
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch pan with cooking spray (I've also used a slightly smaller ceramic casserole dish with good results, too, just makes the layers slightly thicker).
• Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan and cover with 1-2 inches of water. Add a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes or so (it will depend on how large or small the potatoes are cut) until the potatoes are tender.
• Drain the potatoes and return to the pot. Mash the potatoes lightly. Add the butter, milk (start with 1/2 cup and add more if needed), Parmesan and cheddar cheeses, salt and pepper to taste, and garlic powder. Mash together until smooth and creamy. Stir in the egg yolk until combined.
• For the meat and vegetable mixture, in a large 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, add the ground meat, onion, carrots, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook, breaking the meat into small pieces, until the meat is no longer pink and the vegetables are starting to soften, 5-7 minutes or so. Drain any excess grease from the mixture.
• Sprinkle the flour over the meat and cook over medium to medium-high heat for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Stir in the tomato paste, broth, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, thyme, and rosemary. Bring to a simmer and continue to simmer gently for 10 minutes.
• Stir in the corn and peas.
• Pour the meat mixture into the prepared pan. Spread the mashed potatoes over the top all the way to the edges of the pan creating a seal over the meat mixture. Sprinkle the 1 cup cheddar over the top of the potatoes.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until the edges are golden and the casserole is bubbling. Let it rest out of the oven for 10 minutes before serving.

NOTES

Multi-Tasking: the ingredient list looks daunting but I promise this all comes together quickly. While the potatoes are boiling, I start the meat and vegetable mixture - multi-tasking is your friend.

Meat: you can use a variety of different ground meats here. I've made this once with just ground turkey and another time with a combination of ground beef and sausage. Yum! Danielle, who sent me the recipe, uses ground lamb and sausage which would also be delicious (ground lamb is a bit hard to find where I live).

Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

 

Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

★★★★★5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Kate Jones, adapted from Food Network

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Ingredients

6 cups Rice Krispies

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt or flaked sea salt, plus more for sprinkling on top
1 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows, plus about 1 cup of additional mini marshmallows

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Instructions

In a large, heat-proof bowl, toss together the Rice Krispies and 1 cup of mini marshmallows. Set aside.

Spray an 8×8″ baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large, heavy pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. When it’s melted, reduce the heat to medium and add the brown sugar, whipping cream, and corn syrup and cook for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently to keep the caramel from scorching. When the caramel is thick and syrupy, add in the salt and stir to combine, then remove from heat and add the 10 ounces of marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are dissolved, then quickly pour over the Rice Krispies and stir quickly to coat completely. Press into the prepared baking pan and sprinkle with sea salt. Allow to cool completely (I allow mine to cool in the freezer so I am then allowed to eat them more quickly) and then cut into squares.

Slow Cooker Apple Cider

 

Ingredients

• 1 orange
• 10 medium apples (use a variety– I use Honeycrisp and Granny Smith)
• 3 cinnamon sticks (or 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon)
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• granulated sugar*

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Instructions

1. Peel the orange and place the segments in a 4 quart or larger slow cooker. (Pictures show unpeeled- we prefer peeling it for a less bitter flavor.) Rinse the apples, cut into quarters, and place in the slow cooker. Add the cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, and sugar. Add just enough water to cover the fruit.
2. Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours. (Or high heat for 3.)
3. After 6-7 hours, the fruit will be very soft. Use a large spoon to mash the fruit and release its liquids. Allow the cider to cook on low for 1 more hour.
4. Very slowly strain the chunky liquid though a fine mesh sieve into a large pot or pitcher. You can discard the solids. Strain the cider one more time to rid any other solids. Serve the cider warm.
5. Leftover cider keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 5-7 days. Warm up on the stove before serving or enjoy it cold.

Cowboy Dinner

 

COWBOY DINNER {CORNBREAD BEEF AND BEAN CASSEROLE}

yield: 6 -8 SERVINGS

 

prep time: 30 MINS

cook time: 45 MINS

total time: 1 HR 15 MINS

INGREDIENTS

Beef Mixture:

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 1/2 cups salsa, store bought or homemade
• 1 (15-ounce) can black, pinto, or white beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 to 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cornbread Topping:

• 1/2 cup (85 g) cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups (213 g) flour
• 1/3 cup (71 g) granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup milk

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch pan and set aside.
• In a large 12-inch skillet set over medium heat, cook the ground beef, onion, salt and pepper, until the meat is fully cooked. Drain the grease from the pan.
• Stir in the corn, salsa, and beans. Spread the beef mixture evenly in the prepared pan and set aside.
• For the cornbread, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center and add the oil, eggs and milk. Whisk together until just combined (don't over mix).
• Sprinkle the cheese over the beef mixture. Pour the cornbread batter over the top and spread evenly all the way to the edges.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes until the cornbread is baked through. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean and the top should spring back lightly to the touch. Let the casserole rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.