Rye Bagels

This week is the school's February Vacation. I spent the first part of the week recovering from the flu and a cough, but now I'm making up for it with plenty of baking and crafts.

Today's endeavor was bagels. I'd followed the basic recipe for bagels from my bread book (Ultimate Bread) once before back in 2002. This time I wanted to change it up a bit to add more flavor so that the bagels didn't just taste like boiled bread. I decided to add whole wheat and rye flour to the recipe as well as caraway seeds in the dough to make rye bagels. I also learned from my cracker making a few weeks ago, that an egg wash does wonders to help toppings adhere. So I used an egg wash to add the sesame and poppy seeds to the top of the bagels.

The bagels turned out well, chewy outside, soft inside and with a pronounced rye and caraway flavor and my poppy seeds stayed firmly on top the bagel.
Rye Bagels

Ingredients
2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 cups water (divided)
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour, plus extra for kneeding
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp caraway seeds
1 egg, beaten
poppy seeds
sesame seeds

Makes 8 bagels

Directions
Sprinkle yeast and sugar into 1/2 cup of warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile in a large bowl mix the flours, salt, and caraway seeds. Make a well at the center of the flours.


After yeast has rested for 5 minutes, stir to dissolve it. Pour dissolved yeast into center of flours. Pour 1/2 cup additional water into the flours. Mix into the flour. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup water, as needed to form a firm and moist dough.

Turn dough out on a floured surface and kneed the dough until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. As you work the dough, add as much additional flour as you can kneed in, the dough should be firm and stiff.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled boil, turn to coat with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1 hour until doubled in size. Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 * F. After the dough has rested 10 minutes, divide dough in to 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Use your thumb to poke a hole in the center of the ball and then move your finger around inside the hole to widen it to about 1/3 of the bagel's diameter. Place the bagels on a cookie sheet, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare a large pot of water and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. After bagels have rested 10 minutes, use a a slotted spoon to lower bagels into the water, two or three at at time. Cook for about a minute, turning once until they rise above to the surface. Drain bagels and place on lightly greased baking sheet or un-greased silicon mat.

Brush bagels with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Slice and enjoy with cream cheese or butter.