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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