Let them eat cake

Or bagels. Any sort of a carb is bound to make just about anybody happy.

Molly and I set out to make bagels this morning. I realize that after living in NYC where bagels are so plentiful and delicious and cheap and readily available, that I have become somewhat spoiled when it comes to bagels and how they should taste. Store bought bagels can do in a pinch, but I don't really want to waste the calories, money, or time on something that's just "meh." And it may or may not be obvious, but there are not a lot of bagel options here in the middle of nowhere, Minnesota.

I used to be terrified of baking breads and using yeast. It just seemed so hard and the people that did it were much more Laura Ingalls Wilder than me. My mom even gave me a cookbook signed by Sister Schubert herself, reminding me to "be gentle when touching bread." I think the first time I made any sort of dough was while we were in Korea and I wanted to make "normal" pizza. Korean pizza is delicious but is covered in odd things like corn and sometimes there is green crust and interesting sauce. I loved it and still miss it, but while we were there, I missed good ol' American pizza every now and again. So my friend Kelly gave me her foolproof recipe for pizza dough. Having success with that was enough to bolster my spirits into thinking I could make anything, so I made bread, and then a really delicious cake (that is still in heavy rotation today), and even English muffins.

Once we moved to NY, I had no real reason to make any of that anymore. It was all quicker and easier to buy fresh bread from any of the many bakeries scattered throughout the city. So I was slightly out of practice and the thought of bagels was a little intimidating. But what was there to lose? Three cups of flour and a packet of yeast?

The recipe was easy enough though, and we came out with eight bagels! I followed the recipe from Jellibean Journals. (Hint: I'm a sucker for anything labeled "the best". I can't tell you how many of "the best" chocolate cake recipes I had to try before finding the actual best one. A burden my hips still gladly bear. Heh.)

Molly helped me measure and mix and we were left with a lovely smelling fresh dough ball. We let it rise for an hour, and I think Molly might have snuck a taste in at this point.

After the dough had risen, Molly punched it down and we separated it into eight dough balls.

Hair nets are on my "to buy" list.

We rolled and stuck our thumbs through the centers and made little bagels.

Next, we boiled a big pot of water and let the bagels sit in the water for a minute on each side. Then we scooped them out and stuck them on a greased pan.

Terrible photos courtesy of the fact that I was trying to get this done quickly because BAGELS.

Garlic bagels were always Molly's and my favorite in NY, so we did a quick egg wash and put some minced garlic on top of each one.

YUM

After this, they went straight into the oven.

The smell was almost too much to handle, waiting for those suckers to finish baking.

The face of approval

Y'all. These were so so good. They were soft and the texture was perfect. Not too chewy.

Do yourself a favor and only buy whipped cream cheese to put on top of these!! I foresee myself making another few batches very very soon; maybe a few different toppings or just plain (Sam's personal favorite). If your new year's resolution doesn't involve eating good food, well, I think you might be missing out.