Making Bagels

By now I've gotten the hang of making Gravlax.  It takes about 4 days, easy to assemble, set timer to rotate at about 12 hour intervals, then enjoy for quite a while since I make about a kg at a time, quartering and freezing what I am not about to use.  During the eating time, I seek out bagels.  The best packaged ones come from Shop-Rite bakery though they are expensive.  I will buy a reduced package, which is clearly past optimal.  The next come from Trader Joe's.  These have become my staple, but after a day they need to be toasted to be serviceable.  Shop-Rite brand and others get purchased when on sale, but they are mass produced and not very good even when toasted.  Einsteins and Manhattan Bagel make good stuff but are expensive and I prefer the kosher certification  for home use.

So I'll try making my own.  There are two styles, NY and Montreal, where the dough recipes are not all that different.  I do not have malt extract and don't plan to get any but some Montreal recipes substitute maple syrup which I have.  The recipes use a bit more flour than I might have expected.  Not particularly difficult, basically a variant of bread with a boiling step before the baking step and perhaps some dexterity in forming the bagel.  Whether it's really worth the effort for a dozen packaged in 4s and frozen is unlikely but worth a try at least one time.