Home Made Bagels! (as requested)

Alright you all asked for it (yes you guys on facebook) so here's the recipe for bagels!  As you can see this batch is whole wheat, but you can make them all white too if you prefer. (the first batch I did was white, second batch whole wheat, they were both fantastic)

Bagels!
2 cups warm water
3 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. white sugar
5-6 cups flour (more or less depending on if you use white or whole wheat)
4 tsp. active dry yeast

Stir together yeast, sugar, and warm water and let proof for 10 minutes (till it's dissolved and foamy)

Put 4 cups of flour and salt into a stand mixer and combine.  Pour in yeast mixture and let it mix using the dough hook.  Add more flour until you have a somewhat dry dough.  You don't want it to be too sticky.  Let the mixer knead it for about 5 minutes.

Place your dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a lid or a damp cloth and let it rise till doubled.

Kneed dough down a couple of times then cut it into 12 equal pieces.

Take each piece, roll it into a ball and then flatten it.  Poke a hole in the middle and then even it out.  It's kind of hard to explain so I took a short video of me shaping one.  It's the first time I've tried to video myself so enjoy, haha!

Once you have all your bagels shaped let them rest on the counter (dust some flour down first if your dough is at all sticky) for 10-15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Meanwhile, get a large pot of water boiling.  You need a fairly big pot but if you don't have anything big you can just boil them in smaller batches.

Once your water is boiling, add in 3 tbsp of sugar (more or less depending on the size of your pot, mine was quite big)  The sugar just gives your bagels that nice caramel color when baking.

Drop as many bagels into the water as you can fit without them touching each other.  Boil them for 45 seconds then flip them over and boil for another 45 seconds.

Transfer the bagels to a dry towel for a few seconds, flip, and then place onto a cookie sheet dusted with either cornmeal, wheat germ, or parchment paper.

Get a bit of butter melted into a bowl then lightly brush the bagels with butter.  Sprinkle them with salt, or cheese, or poppy seeds, whatever you like.

Finally you bake them!  For about 25 minutes or until they are well browned all around.

Enjoy!