Jalapeno Bagels Recipe

Jalapeno Bagels

Recipe from Grit Country Skills Series
Guide to Homemade Bread

1 ½ cups warm water
4 tsp. Active dry yeast
1 ½ tsp, salt
1 T. sugar
4 cups bread flour
1/3 cup fresh seeded minced jalapeno peppers
1 T. plus 1 tsp dried red chili pepper flakes
1 egg, optional


WATER BATH
1 gallon water
1 T. sugar

Combine warm water, yeast, salt and 1 T. sugar.
Add flour, jalapenos and red chili pepper flakes
and mix into a ball.

Knead for 10-12 minutes, adding more flour if
necessary, until dough is stiff.  Let dough rest for
10 minutes.

Divide into 8 equal pieces and form into balls.
Punch a hole in middle with floured finger and
gently pull to enlarge hole to 2 inches.

Place bagels on greased baking sheet, cover and        
allow to rise for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oven to broil. Prepare water bath and
put it on to boil.

After bagels have risen for 20 minutes, broil for 1 ½ minutes
on each side.

Once water bath is boiling, reduce heat.  Place bagels, 3 at a
time in water for 1 ½ minutes, turning after 45 seconds.

Drain and place on greased baking sheet.  If desired, brush with
egg wash (beat egg with 1 tablespoon of water)

Bake at 400° for 18-20 minutes.

Shaped and ready to rise for 20 minutes.  I used my stand mixer for the kneading process.  The simplest way to get like-sized dough pieces is to cut the ball in half, then half that and repeat.

Broiling for 1 1/2 minutes on each side.

This is what they look like after you boil them.  It firmed up the dough so they were easy to handle.  I've made bagels before and the recipe always called for salt in the water instead of sugar.

Ready to bake after boiling and letting them drain. I did use the egg wash on both sides and sprinkled the tops with some kosher salt.

My finished product.  It was hard for me to let them cool off before tasting one!  I was pleasantly surprised that they're not hot since they have two kinds of peppers in the dough.  They turned out perfectly crusty on the outside, moist and chewy inside and taste great with a little smear of cream cheese!

I know there are a lot of steps to making these but I believe if you want to try your hand at baking bread, this is a super easy recipe to start out with!  Much simpler than making a pretty loaf of bread!