Makes 8 bagels:

Ingredients

• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1.25 – 1.5 cups warm water
• Toppings: 1 T dried onion, 1 T dried garlic, 1.5 t sesame seeds, 1 t poppy seeds, 3/4 t kosher salt.

Directions

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a stand-mixer with the dough hook attached, and turn on mixer for a few seconds to combine. Add the wet ingredients (starting at the low end of the range on water — add more if needed during step 2 below).
2. Knead the dough in the mixer for 5 minutes or until smooth, clinging to the hook, and not sticking to the sides (if using a Kitchen Aid mixer, run it on level 2).
3. Cut the dough into 8 balls and let it sit for about 15 minutes. While this is happening, get a large pot of water boiling (enough so that the bagels won’t touch the bottom while being boiled).
4. Take each dough ball and roll it into a foot long snake using your hands. Keeping your hand in the middle of the dough snake and use your other hand to bring the two ends together such that the dough is fully wrapped around your hand. Rotate the dough around so that the part where the two ends come together is under your palm. Press down to make the ends come together. (If this doesn’t work, you can also flatten one end, place the other end in it, and then wrap the dough around it to encase one end of the dough in the other.
5. You should now have eight balls of dough with a circle in them. Let them rest for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 while you wait, and place a drying rack in a cookie sheet so that the bagels get crispy all over.
6. Once your water is at a persistent boil, place a two bagels in the water (more if you have a wide pot). Boil on each side for about 1 minute. Chopsticks can be useful for flipping the bagels.
7. Take the bagels out of the water (Use a spatula, they will be hot.) Sprinkle with the topping mixture (or spread on a plate and press the bagels in lightly)
8. Once all the bagels have been boiled, place them on the rack on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes on each side. If your bagels are too puffy after the first side cooks, flip them over so that the cooked side is pointing up, and flatten them using the head of a spatula.
9. Let the bagels cool, and enjoy with cream cheese, lox, etc.

Based on instructions by Ben Miller for a recipe by John Lee