Homemade Bagels

Last night I decided to try my luck at baking homemade bagels. I came across a recipe online and thought they looked tasty. And there were only six ingredients listed, so I figured it couldn’t be all that difficult. My roommate tends to measure the level of difficulty involved in a recipe by counting the number of ingredients, and I’ve since fallen for this fallacious logic at times. The recipe wasn’t tough, just terribly time consuming. I think I started at 8 p.m. and finally pulled them out of the oven after 11 p.m. (waaay past my bedtime). There were many steps—mixing, kneading, rising, shaping, resting, holing, boiling, and finally, baking. And I certainly didn’t pick the best day of the year to be standing over a hot oven and vats of boiling water, but oftentimes I don’t work through these types of details ahead of time.

The finished project turned out pretty good. The bagels have gotten good reviews from my guinea pig taste tasters at work. One wrote, "I was very impressed. Not only did it taste highly superior, but it even LOOKED good. Let me know when you open your restaurant and I'll be there..." Well, personally I don't think they're quite as picture perfect as the ones above, but a close resemblance and an encouraging first attempt. I was telling a co-worker about my bagels in a meeting this morning, and another co-worker overheard and was like, “what possessed you to make your own bagels? Why not just buy them at Einstein’s or something?” Ha. Good question.