INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Once the dough has risen, turn it onto your work surface, punch it
down, and divide immediately into as many hunks as you want to make
bagels. For this recipe, you will probably end up with about 15
bagels, so you will divide the dough into 15 roughly even-sized  hunks.
Begin forming the bagels. There are two schools of thought on  this.
One method of bagel formation involves shaping the dough into a  rough
sphere, then poking a hole through the middle with a finger and  then
pulling at the dough around the hole to make the bagel. This is  the
hole-centric method. The dough-centric method involves making a  long
cylindrical "snake" of dough and wrapping it around your hand  into a
loop and mashing the ends together. Whatever you like to do is  fine.
DO NOT, however, give in to the temptation of using a doughnut  or
cookie cutter to shape your bagels. This will pusht them out of  the
realm of Jewish Bagel Authenticity and give them a distinctly
Protestant air. The bagels will not be perfectly shaped. They will  not
be symmetrical. This is normal. This is okay. Enjoy the  diversity.
Just like snowflakes, no two genuine bagels are exactly  alike.  Begin
to preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.  Once the bagels are
formed, let them sit for about 10 minutes. They  will begin to rise
slightly.  Ideally, they will rise by about  one-fourth volume... a
technique called "half-proofing" the dough. At  the end of the
half-proofing, drop the bagels into the simmering  water one by one.
You don't want to crowd them, and so there should  only be two or three
bagels simmering at any given time.  The bagels  should sink first,
then gracefully float to the top of the simmering  water. If they
float, it's not a big deal, but it does mean that  you'll have a
somewhat more bready (and less bagely) texture.  Let  the bagel simmer
for about three minutes, then turn them over with a  skimmer or a
slotted spoon. Simmer another three minutes, and then  lift the bagels
out of the water and set them on a clean kitchen  towel that has been
spread on the countertop for this purpose. The  bagels should be pretty
and shiny, thanks to the malt syrup or sugar  in the boiling water.
Once all the bagels have been boiled, prepare your baking sheets by
sprinkling them with cornmeal.  Then arrange the bagels on the
prepared baking sheets and put them in the oven. Let them bake for
about 25 mintues, then remove from the oven, turn them over and put
them back in the oven to finish baking for about ten minutes more.
This will help to prevent flat-bottomed bagels.  Remove from the oven
and cool on wire racks, or on a dry clean towels  if you have no racks.
Do not attempt to cut them until they are  cool... hot bagels slice
abominably and you'll end up with a wadded  mass of bagel pulp. Don't
do it.  Serve with good cream cheese.  TO CUSTOMIZE BAGELS: After
boiling but before baking, brush the  bagels with a wash made of 1 egg
white and 3 tablespoons ice water  beaten together. Sprinkle with the
topping of your choice: poppy,  sesame, or caraway seeds, toasted onion
or raw garlic bits, salt or  whatever you like. Just remember that
bagels are essentially a savory  baked good, not a sweet one, and so
things like fruit and sweet  spices are really rather out of place.
Submitted By  HUNT@AUSTIN.METROWERKS.COM (ERIC HUNT) On 15 MAR 1995
064641 ~0700  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at
www.synapse.com/~gemini

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