Cooking From Scratch

Something that is very important to me is to provide my family with the healthiest foods possible and one way I am able to do that is cooking from scratch. At least that way I know what has gone into the foods that they are eating. It started with our main meals being made from scratch, very very little is processed foods. We have gotten to the point that all of our eggs are from the farm and we have the feed custom ground for them. Our milk is now fresh from the farm as well. We grow our own animals for butcher as well. In the summer we have a large garden and preserve as much as we possibly can. This winter I have added to the list our bread as well. It started off with making our bread for the house and once that was to the point that I felt that I could add something more I went searching. The next thing I made was homemade french bread for with spaghetti. It was wonderful. I was on a mission. What else could I make that my family enjoys to reduce what came processed from the store?
I found it.......BAGELS. Now I was really nervous before I made them the first time. Its not normal in my book to take the dough you have made and boil it, how in the world was this possibly going to turn out good when I have just boiled my dough? But I took the plunge and all I can say is YUMMO. My family loves them! I can't even keep a batch of them in the house more than 24 hours when I do make them and to me that says something!
Tonight I made English Muffins and while they are not exactly what I think of from the store, they are DELISH if I do say so myself.
So I thought that I would include the recipe for the Bagels tonight for anyone looking for an easy recipe that is very good and healthy for your family as well.

Brooklyn Bagels
4 to 5 cups all purpose flour
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1.5 cups hot water (120-130 degrees)
2 Tablespoons Honey or Sugar (I use local honey)
1 egg white
1 teaspoon water

Combine 1 cup flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl.
Stir in hot water and honey; beat until smooth, about 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; continue to work in flour until dough is stiff enough to knead. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes)
Cover with a bowl and let rest 15 minutes
Divide dough into 12 equal parts (I find this is too small and divide mine into 8 to 10 equal parts) Shape each into a flattened ball. With thumb and forefinger poke a hole into center. Stretch and rotate until hole enlarges to about 1 to 2 inches.
Cover; let rise about 20 minutes
Boil water in a large shallow pan, about 2 inches deep. Reduce heat. Simmer a few bagels at a time 3.5 minutes each side. Remove from pan; drain on a towel about 5 minutes. Place on a greased baking sheet; brush with mixture of egg white and water.
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until done.
To serve, split and toast.

Hope you enjoy!
We plan to make some variations of these into some flavored bagels for the family but for now they are still enjoying the plain ones so that is what I have been making!