I just crossed the finish line – the bagels are done! I made plain, poppy seed and caramelized onion ones. All in all, not bad. Some of them are a little bit misshapen, a little bit too big. Not perfect but I imagine they are okay.

The full recipe can provide guidance, but I think one could experiment. The first time I made the recipe, I overdid it on the flour, so the dough was a bit too dry. This time I might have underdone the flour – and the dough was a bit fluffy and bubbly. The yeast was pretty active!

Making bagels is a bit of a process – you can make a starter/sponge ahead of time, let it sit, and then later knead and form the dough. Then form the bagels themselves and let them retard (which can be done for up to 48 hours, although I went with the two-hour bare minimum).

forming bagels for the retard process

The next stage, after letting the formed bagels sit for a while, they need to be boiled in a large pot, with a tablespoon of baking soda in it. The bagels should be placed on the pan and brushed with an egg wash and then the desired toppings.

Finished bagels! Cheers to imperfection!

These are imperfect, not well-formed and the picture is dark – but I am sure they must be sort of… tasty? We shall see.