BAGELS!

Alright, I'm from NY and have high bagel standards. I'll have to say, these were DAMN good! I had all ingredients at hand. My sister and her bestie came over (my sister is the BAGEL MASTER) and we had freshness after a bit of patience (and playing Mario).

4 C bread flour
1 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP veggie oil
2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 C water

Combine all ingredients in your Kitchenaid fitted with the dough hook. Mix until a nice dough forms (about 5 minutes). Note: add 1 1/4 c water to start and add the rest at your discretion. Cut into 8 pieces (or 16 for mini bagels) and let rest for 20 minutes. Flatten the balls and push your thumbs trough. Work the dough until you have a bagel shape. Let rest another 20 minutes (trust me - it's worth it). While the dough is resting, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and also preheat the oven to 425.

After the 20 minutes is up, boil your bagels for 1 minute on each side. After boiling you can dip into toppings of your choice (we had poppy seeds, garlic powder and kosher salt on hand). Place - seed side up - on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake for 10 minutes on each side.

While it's baking you can make some whipped cream cheese. Take regular cream cheese and items of your choice (we did scallions... for a scallion cream cheese... duh) and whip the cream cheese and fillings until nice and fluffy.

You should reeeeally let these cool for 15 minutes, but I think we could only wait 5 minutes and they were DAMMED good!