Growing up in America, bagels have always been a favourite of mine. I’ve yet to eat a bagel in the UK than can compete with the American version, plus poppy seed is my favourite and it’s pretty rare so I thought why not give it a try?!

These came out much better than I expected, they didn’t need long to proof either which is a bonus.

This recipe came from Lorraine Pascale, it makes 8 bagels which can easily be frozen and eaten later. If freezing, I’d suggest cutting them in half before you freeze as you can defrost in the toaster.

Ingredients

• 200 g strong wholemeal bread flour
• 300 g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 7 g of fast-action dried yeast
• 1 heaped tsp salt
• 325 ml warm water (from the tap)
• Spray oil
• 3 tbsp honey (optional)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp toppings in total (eg sesame seeds, poppy seeds)

Method

1. Add the wholemeal flour into a food mixer bowl. Add the white flour and then add the yeast and salt. Toss everything together and make a well in the centre. Pour in the warm water and mix together with a food processor. You want a soft but not sticky dough – if it is too sticky add a little more flour.
2. Knead the dough for 10 minutes if doing by hand or five minutes if by machine. It’s much easier to use a dough hook on a food processor! To test if the dough is kneaded enough roll into a ball, put some flour on your finger and poke a hole in the dough, if it springs back all the way it’s well kneaded. I had to knead mine for slightly longer and add some more flour as my dough was quite sticky.
3. Take the now kneaded dough and divide into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and place you finger through the centre, pick it up and spin it around to make the hole bigger. Keep going until the hole is about 4cm wide, as the dough rises the holes will decrease in size. Take a baking sheet and line it with parchment, place each bagel on here with space between each, allowing each to expand.
4. Spray the bagels with some Frylight and cover with cling film. You want this to be airtight, but lose enough so that the bagels can increase in size.
5. Leave the bagels in a warm area for 40 minutes, or until they have increased in size by about a third. Again to check they’re ready, put some flour on your finger and make an indent of half a centimetre, it should spring back straight away.
6. Pre-heat your oven to 180C or 160C fan. Whilst the oven is heating up, pour two litres of water into a pan and bring to the boil. Once boiling stir the honey in, this will add shine and flavour to the bagels. Drop each bagel into the water and leave to boil for 15 seconds on each size. Remove from the water and place back onto the baking sheet – I did each bagel one at a time to avoid a bit of a mess!
7. Once boiled, brush the bagels with the beaten egg and make sure they’re well covered. Add your choice of toppings.
8. Bake the bagels in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until they are golden brown and sound hollow then tapped underneath.

This has gone down well in our house, all my family have already asked for the recipe to give it a go!