Alan, bagels are very easy to make, just a bit time consuming.
You take a sachet of dehydrated yeast, add a teaspoon of brown sugar and 1.5 cups of warm water and let the yeast activate for about 10 minutes. It should have a thin layer of foam on top. Add it to 2 cups of plain flour in which you have mixed two teaspoons of brown sugar and a tablespoon of salt (salt is optional, I've made it both ways). Then work in up to two more cups of flour into the mixture with your hands. The dough should be a bit tacky. Put it in a basin in a warm place and allow it to rise for about an hour.
Then form your bagels. Mine always fill in so that they have no holes much to Mrs Chucks chagrin. Let them rise again for another hour or so. Toss them individually into a pot of boiling water. The original recipe called for the addition of molasses or golden syrup to the water but I now leave that out as it seems to add nought. Biol and turn for about 30 seconds and place on a paper towel. When all are done paint them with egg white and then it's time for the fun stuff....the toppings. My taste is for savoury so I start with a few sea salt crystals. Then some carraway seeds and finally dried onion flakes. Then it's into a hot over say 250 deg C and bake for 10 mins.
