Texas 3 Cheese Bagels
These are big-ol' bagels! There's nothing like the chewy satisfying taste of a good bagel in the morning and these are some serious bagels. This recipe makes 6 pretty daggum' large bagels that will satisfy the hearty appetites of all your cowboys. If you want different toppings, we've listed a few ideas, but we're partial to the cheese on these.
Texas 3 Cheese Bagels
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 ½ cups of warm water
4 ½ cups Texas Pure Milling Bread Flour (plus extra for kneading)
1 tsp. salt
2 cups 3-cheese blend (Asiago, Cheddar and Jack)
Optional Toppings:
Caraway seeds
coarse salt
minced fresh garlic
minced fresh onion
poppy seeds
sesame seeds
Directions:
Put the warm water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let sit for five minutes. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix on medium speed with a dough hook 4-5 minutes.
Remove from mixer and form into a bowl. Place in a large gallon sized bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to raise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and allow to rest about 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Take the dough and press gently against the counter top in a ball.
Coat a finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about ⅓ the diameter of the bagel and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Repeat the same step with the remaining dough.
After shaping the dough rounds and placing them on the cookie sheet, cover with a damp kitchen towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425ºF.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce the heat. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as you are comfortable with boiling. Once the bagels are in, it shouldn't take too long for them to float to the top (a couple seconds). Let them sit there for 1 minute, and them flip them over to boil for another minute. Extend the boiling times to 2 minutes each, if you’d prefer a chewier bagel (results will give you a more New York Style bagel with this option).
If you want to top your bagels with stuff, do so as you take them out of the water, you may use the “optional toppings” (listed above). Divide the Cheese mixture over the tops of the six bagels.
Once all the bagels have boiled (and have been topped with your choice of toppings), transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack.
