Beth's Homemade Bagels

Per some requests ;-), here the the bagel recipe that I came up with to help all that cream cheese get used up. Enjoy! (For those of you at low altitude - I live at 6500 ft. - it should still work just fine.)

~ Bagels ~
3 C. of warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar (or 2 tsp. honey)
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 heaping Tbsp. instant yeast (I like SAF, you can find it at Whole Foods)
8 C. Flour (about - may vary due to humidity or lack thereof)
2 eggs, beaten 

Combine water with the sugar, salt, oil and yeast in a heat-safe container. Let rest for 5 min. (It should become foamy.)

Pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl, stir in the eggs, and then stir in the flour one cup at a time. The goal is to have a stiff yet workable dough. You may find you need more or less flour to achieve this. ;-)

Knead dough for 10 minutes (this is a great workout!) and cut into 24 equal sections of dough. Let dough sections rest on the table for 10-20 minutes.

If you have skill, you can shape each dough section into a snake and by bringing the two ended together and rolling them in the palms of your hand, cause the dough to fuse together to form the bagel shape. Otherwise if you are like me, I made the dough into a roll shaped ball, stuck my finger in the center to form a hole and then shaped it from there. (Sorry, I don't have a video. :-P)

Let your bagels rest on again on the table for 20 minutes. While you are waiting you can bring a large pot of water to boil (I used my stockpot) and lightly grease your large baking sheet(s).

Add as many bagels as you can to your boiling water without crowding them. Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute. Drain to remove excess water and place on baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes or until browned, then flip the bagels over and cook for another 10 minutes (or until browned).

Let cool a bit and then pile the cream cheese on! And believe me, I really do usually have quite the pile - but then I love cream cheese so much that I eat it plain. 

I put sprinkled chopped green onion on some of mine just before putting them into the oven. {Chloe loved it!} You could also use sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc. You could even vary the types of flour you use. One of these days I'm going to mix in some blueberries and see how that works. Yum. :-)