Homemade bagels

I love London. I’ve lived here for exactly one year and I love it more and more each day. It’s always been in my heart that I would end up here finally. I think i’m just a city girl who enjoys breaks by the beach, or in the country, not the other way round. I love the hustle and bustle at night, I love the fact you can grab some half decent food at 3am, I love that it’s the most creative and diverse city on the planet, and I love that you can never tire of places to explore.

So there’s four main categories to London, split in such an innovative way – North, East, South, and West. East London is probably my favourite. It is literally FILLED with creative people, it’s like you just KNOW that that’s where you’re supposed to be. It’s in East London that you can find some of the best street food known to man, the best markets and the best bars and clubs. Yes, it has it’s bad points (I’m looking at you, misguided pretentiousness) but it’s good SO outweighs the bad. And one of those things is the coveted salt beef bagel.

I’d been told about this gem of a place before I had even moved to London – THAT famous. A 24 hour bagel shop that gives you a bagel the size of your face, filled to the brim with hot English mustard, salt beef and gerkin. Three of my favourite things. To a New Yorker, you’re probably reading this thinking “Is she kidding? – There is a PLETHORA of those on my street alone..” but hey, I’m in London, and to us, this is literally magic.

After tasting my first one at 1am one Saturday Night, it hit me just how GOOD bagels are meant to be. I’d only had the supermarket kind before and this just blew it out of the water. And there was no skimping on the filling, oh no, I couldn’t even take a bite it was that big. Dream.

I decided at that moment, that I would learn to make the perfect salt beef bagel, no matter how long it took me. I would perfect this, and I would win.

I asked around for a number of recipes, just so I could be sure, picked the best two, and spent my Thursday evening bagel making. I picked the simplest and the hardest two. I figured there was no point making it complicated if you didn’t have to, and equally, no point eating half assed bagels for the rest of my life because I had no patience to make them properly. I knew I had to bypass the salt beef for another time as it takes seven days to make, and I wasn’t wasting salt beef on bad bagels if they didn’t work. First thing’s first and all that…. and so it began.

The simple one bascially didn’t quite work the way I wanted… I was so excited when they were in the making process, I was all squealy with my housie Chrystal and like “Awwwhh look at these cute little bagel shaped dough ball things!!” And then I cooked them, and they were basically bread. Which then became like a rock after an hour. We had a good laugh (maybe I was laughing because it was either that or thinking the bagel recipe had beaten me) and I began the next batch. They. Took. Forever.

I’m warning you, this recipe takes a LONG time. It’s an oldie, but it’s the best. You begin by making a “sponge” before you make the dough, and leaving it to rest for an hour. Then you make the dough, and leave it to rest for an hour, then you split the dough, an hour, then the bagel shapes, an hour, then the fridge, overnight. THEN you boil, and THEN you bake. And yes, I said boil. That’s what makes them all chewy and amazing. So as you can see, you can’t just wake up and fancy bagels, it’s a process. But my goodness is it worth it.

I baked these bad boys at 6:30am on Friday morning. I wanted to take them into work. The entire house was filled with the smell of fresh bread and I was ecstatic. Not only did these LOOK like bagels, and smell like bagels, but they were as big as my face, crispy on the outside and wonderfully doughy and chewy in the centre. At work half of us filled them with ham hock and English Mustard and half of us toasted them with lashings of cream cheese. Both were equally as good (I had to have both, you know, just to check.) Bagel recipe – done.

Ingredients Needed:
Recipe adapted from Peter Reinhart’s bagel recipe

• 8 cups of Strong white bread flour
• 2 tbsp salt
• 3 cups warm water
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp honey

Method

1. MAKE THE SPONGE – Mix together 1tsp of the yeast, 4 cups of flour and the water until it forms a paste. Cover with cling film leave in a warm place for 2 hours or so, until it starts to expand.
2. Once your mixture has rise you need to MAKE THE DOUGH Do this by adding the rest of the flour, yeast and salt and mix until a dough forms, then knead for approx 20 minutes. If it seems a little dry and starts to break, add more water, and if it’s sticky then add a little more flour.
3. Separate your dough into smaller balls, I would go for 10 pieces. They grow MASSIVE so don’t be put off by the size!! Cover with a damp cloth so they dont dry out and leave them for 40mins – 1 hour.
4. When they have risen, roll into bagel shapes. This is super easy. Roll the dough into a long sausage shape and then turn into a bagel shape by wetting both ends and attaching. Done. Cover with the cloth again and leave for 40mins – 1 hour.
5. Once they’ve rested, take a bowl of warm water and drop one of the bagels into it. If it floats straight away then pat it down to dry it and place it back on the board. Give the bagels a light covering with olive oil and place in the fridge overnight. If it doesn’t float, leave them to rest at room temperature a little longer until it does. Then refrigerate.
6. The following day BOIL THE BAGELS. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and then fill a large pan with water and the honey and bring to the boil. Drop a bagel into the water (or two if it can fit side by side) and boil on each side for 3 minutes. Once done, place the bagel onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and give it a light coating of oil. Then BAKE THE BAGELS for 10 minutes, making sure they are evenly baked.
7. Voila, you’re done. Fill with anything you like and eat, or toast and add lashings of cream cheese. Mmmmmm…..