MM has a thing for bagels. I found a recipe on Serious Eats, and it’s done well for us in the past. Pretty easy, and I can get it done in a few hours.
But since I got the Baker’s Apprentice book, which has a bagel recipe, I thought I should try another version. Sorry, Serious Eats – found a different bagel recipe that I enjoy making, no matter how time consuming it may be…
The recipe requires making what’s called a sponge – pretty easy, because it only has three ingredients: yeast, bread flour, and water. After letting that rest for a couple hours, you’re ready to mix the rest of the ingredients in – more yeast and bread flour, followed by salt and malt powder. I didn’t have any malt powder, so I just used dark brown sugar.
There’s a note for how to make cinnamon raisin bagels as well, and since I know how MM feels about cinnamon raisin, I decided to be a little adventurous. Instead of making 12 plain bagels, I ended up dividing the dough during the mixing phase, then adding half of the cinnamon raisin ingredients. Screwed up a little, since I mixed the cinnamon and sugar in and forgot the raisins when the instructions told me to, but I’m pretty sure I fixed it by kneading the dough just a little bit longer to mix them in.
Then again, I may have overworked that half of the dough.
In any case, after leaving them in the fridge overnight, and testing them to make sure they float in water, I just boiled them up and popped them into a super hot oven! I’m positive that the next time I make these I’ll be able to do it much faster. The first try at a recipe is always the longest. And this one, with 12 steps, is already a bit lengthy.
Still, check out the results!
Onion and Salt & Pepper 
Cinnamon Raisin
MM says the cinnamon raisin are tasty – the recipe test will be when he gets into the ones that have been topped with seasonings. Then we’ll know – Serious Eats, or The Baker’s Apprentice?
Quick Edit (along with fixing a few typos): MM has determined that he really likes the cinnamon raisin bagels from Bakers Apprentice, but prefers the plain bagels from Serious Eats…