Welcome to KO Cooks!

Let’s make this time at home fun! Kitchen Outfitters will be sharing ideas for projects in the kitchen while our community is home practicing social distancing. 

Our first recipe is for bagels! Bagels are a great baking project, and who wouldn’t want to be eating all the bagels right now? The dough is quite simple, with brown rice syrup or barley malt syrup being the ingredient you may not have.  That’s OK! Make them without, or substitute something fun and interesting like molasses, or even brown sugar. Enjoy with a spread of delicious cream cheese, hummus, peanut butter, or plain old butter.

Let us know how they turn out!

Plain Bagel Dough

(makes 8 Bagels)

Adapted from the Washington Post “Here’s the amazingly simple path to incredible homemade bagels”.

Ingredients

1  1/2 teaspoons (4.73g) instant or rapid-rise active dry yeast

350 grams (12 ounces; scant 1  1/2 cups) warm water (80 degrees)

623 grams (22 ounces; approximately 4 cups) bread flour

2 teaspoons (11.27g) salt

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (38.43g) Brown Rice Syrup (or Barley Malt Syrup)

3 tablespoons cornmeal, for dusting

For the optional toppings

Sesame seeds

Poppy seeds

Caraway seed

Dehydrated onion flakes

Dehydrated garlic flakes

Sea or kosher salt

 ________________________________________________________________

Mix the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl or measuring cup and let it start to foam while you prepare the rest of the dough. 

Combine the flour, salt and brown rice syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough-hook attachment. Add the yeast mixture and beat on the lowest speed until the dough starts to come together around the dough hook, about 4 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-low; beat for 7 to 10 minutes or until the dough is cohesive, smooth and stiff.

Dust a rimmed baking sheet with the cornmeal. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, then divide it into 8 or 9 equal portions (about 4 ounces each). Roll the pieces into smooth balls and cover with plastic wrap to rest at room temperature for 5 minutes.

Form each dough ball into a rope 11 inches long by rolling it under your palms. Try to avoid tapering the ends of the rope.

Shape each rope into a circle with a diameter of about 4 inches, overlapping the ends by about 1 1/2 inches. Pinch the overlapped areas firmly together, moistening them lightly with water if the ends won’t stick.

Working with one at a time, place your fingers through each ring of dough; with the pinched-together seam facing down, roll the rope several times, applying firm pressure to seal the seam to form a bagel. Each ring should be about the same thickness all around; if it’s not, you can roll it on other places around the ring to even it out.

Place the dough rings on the cornmeal-covered baking sheet as you work, spaced an inch or two apart. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or an alternative. Refrigerate overnight. The rings will have puffed and spread slightly.

When you’re ready to boil and bake the bagels, place a pizza stone or baking stone, if using, on the middle oven rack. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. (The longer you can preheat, the better; up to an hour is great.)

Fill a large, wide pot with 3 inches of water; bring it to a boil over high heat.

Drop 3 or 4 dough rings into the boiling water, stirring and briefly submerging them with a metal skimmer or slotted spoon, until very slightly puffed, 30 to 35 seconds. Transfer the dough rings to a wire rack, bottom (flatter) sides down, to drain. Repeat with the remaining rings.

Dip bagel rounds in your topping, place on a piece of parchment, using a pizza peel, slide onto your heated pizza stone and bake for 15-17 minutes.

Remove from oven and slide onto a cooling rack.