Does anyone make their own bagels?

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

Wikipedia links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagel


The two most prominent styles of traditional bagel in North America are the Montreal bagel and the New York-style bagel. The Montreal bagel contains malt and egg but no salt; it is boiled in honey-sweetened water before baking in a wood oven; and it is predominantly either of the poppy "black" or sesame "white" seeds variety. The New York bagel contains salt and malt and is boiled in water prior to baking in a standard oven. The resulting New York bagel is puffy with a noticeable crust, while the Montreal bagel is smaller (though with a larger hole), chewier, and sweeter. Poppy seeds are sometimes called by their Yiddish name, spelled either mun or mon.

At its most basic, traditional bagel dough contains wheat flour (without germ or bran), salt, water, and yeast leavening. Most bagel recipes call for the addition of a sweetener to the dough, often barley malt (syrup or crystals), honey, or sugar. Leavening can be accomplished using either a sourdough technique or using commercially produced yeast.

Bagels are traditionally made by:

* mixing and kneading the ingredients to form the dough
* shaping the dough into the traditional bagel shape, round with a hole in the middle
* proofing the bagels for at least 12 hours at low temperature (40-50 degrees F = 4.5-10 C)
* boiling each bagel in water that may or may not contain additives such as lye, baking soda, barley malt syrup, or honey
* baking at between between 175 C and 315 C (about 350 to 600 degrees F)

This makes it sound kind of easy. Does anyone have any experience?