I first made Bagels on a Hot August Sunday and wished I hadn’t, you have to have a certain amount of patience for these and if you hate queuing in shops I’d run away now! The steam and the heat from the oven are intoxicating, but well worth it and the feeling of satisfaction from all that kneading, makes it all a fantastic experience.

1kg of strong white flour

1 tablespoon of salt

1 sachet of quick yeast – you can use fresh if you like, it’s just a palaver!

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, garlic or chilli oil

500ml of warmish water, if it’s too hot the yeast will die!

1 large saucepan full of water

2 tablespoons of Demerara sugar, for poaching the bagels

Some baking sheets, oiled or greased

Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Add the sugar and whichever oil you have chosen to the water. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together forming dough, best to use a wooden spoon to start and transfer to your hands as it gets less sticky!

Knead the dough adding more flour as you go, the drier the dough the better. This is when you need a very strong person to knead the dough. It becomes very stiff and difficult to work and needs a great deal of effort to get to a smooth and workable finished product. Even in an electric mixer this can take 7 – 15 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and put in an oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel, place it somewhere warm for at least an hour – go off and read the papers and come back!

After an hour it will have risen to a big doughy mass and when you poke it with your finger the indent will stay. Remove the dough from the bowl and ‘plop’ it onto the work surface, re-knead the dough so it absorbs the oil and then divide into 3 largish lumps. Anyone who tells you cutting dough with a sharp knife is easy is trying to fool you. It’s tough and irritating!

Now knead each of the three lumps into a sausage and cut into five equalish pieces. They won’t be the same size and I think that is fine when you’re baking at home.

Now roll each of the fifteen blobs into a smaller sausage shape and curl round the ends to form a ring. Squeeze hard to make sure they stick.

This is the time to add the Demerara sugar to the saucepan of water and set it to boil. Then leave the newly formed bagels on baking sheets to rise for about 20 minutes. After this time the water should be at a rolling boil and the bagels will be fat and squishy, set your oven to it’s highest temperature or 240 degrees C / gas mark 9, now get making! This is the fun bit…

Pick up a bagel and drop into the rolling water, turn it with whatever comes to hand, after about one minute. Remove and repeat for all fifteen, I tend to do two or three at a time as I have big pans and it saves time.

Once you’ve done a trayful, place in the oven for 10 – 12 minutes, keep your eye on them they can burn quickly! Remove and relish the smell and taste! They freeze well for up to six months.

Enjoy!