Montreal Bagels

I've come back from the future for this post (5-08-2017). I decided to remake these delicious bagels, and while I was at it, I took a few new shots for my Instagram account. However, the original post was a guest post for someone elses blog which meant that I had only provided one image with a link to the other blog. On investigation, I found that the other blog didn't exist anymore, hence, neither did my entry. As luck would have it, I found all the old images (and they weren't as bad as I had imaged, bonus), so I have rejigged the post with a mix of original and new images along with the recipe. If you are ever tempted to make a bagel from scratch, make these ones.

Montreal Bagels
slightly adapted from here
Makes 18

For the Bagels:
1½ cups lukewarm water
2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup honey
5 - 6 cups baker's flour
2½ teaspoons fine sea salt

For the Boiling Liquid:
3 litres water
⅓ cup malt extract

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup poppy seeds

Make the Dough:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the water, yeast and sugar.  Add the whole egg, egg yolk, oil and honey and mix to combine.  Add 5 cups of the flour and the salt and mix on low speed to form a soft dough, adding more flour if needed, it should be a soft dough, not sticky.  Continue to mix on low for 10 minutes.  Place it into a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Line two baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

Make the Boiling Liquid:

Put the water into a large, wide pan and bring to the boil.  Add the malt extract and stir to dissolve. Reduce to simmer until you are ready to boil the bagels.

Make the Bagels:

Punch the dough down and divide it into even portions (about 75g each) and roll them into balls. Poke a hole in the centre of the balls  and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 4cm inches in diameter. The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible.  Place them onto the prepared baking trays and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 225C.  Pour the sesame seeds and poppy seeds into two separate bowls. Set aside.

Bring the boiling liquid to the boil and using a slotted spoon, add three bagels to the water.  Boil for a minute on each side and scoop them out, pat them dry, dip them in sesame seeds/poppy seeds (I do nine of each), and place them back on the baking trays.  Continue with the rest of the bagels.

Bake on the bottom racks of the oven for 25 minutes rotating the trays halfway through baking.  Remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.