I got a craving for bagels and lox when I saw smoked salmon on sale in this week's grocery flyer.
There's nothing like fresh,
home made bagels so I made a batch. But, since it had been about five years since I last made them, I forgot a few things. Like DON'T make a larger size than this particular recipe calls for. Don't crowd the bagels when boiling cause they grow and deform each other. And use the ball/poke method for shaping. The sealed rope method has a tendency to come undone while you're boiling your bagels ... no matter how well you think you sealed the two ends.
Large sized (75-80 gm) bagels using the sealed rope method (8 inch long rope)
Small size (50-55 gm) bagels, poke your floured index finger into the center of the ball of dough and then stretch the hole in the middle to create a hole that's about 1/2-3/4 inch in diameter. The holes will close up a bit while boiling.
The results were worth the effort.
I let the larger bagels bake a bit too long, I think.