Homemade bagels ~ flavored for fall!

Ever made your own bagels? I never had until Monday!

For a while now, I've been wanting to try a recipe I'd seen for cranberry nut bagels. The dough is made in the bread machine, which makes it very easy indeed. I always thought bagels would be rather time-consuming to make since they involve both boiling and baking. Here's the link for the recipe:
Cranberry Nut Bagels.
I was pleasantly surprised with how quick and easy the whole process was using the bread machine to make the dough. Also, since one is only making 8 bagels, the process can only take so long!

And these bagels are absolutely delicious! I will be making this recipe again and again.

Later, sorting through some recipes I'd saved, I found one for pumpkin spice bagels. I tweaked it in a major way and these came out very tasty, also. Here's my retooled recipe:

Pumpkin Spice Bagels

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup raisins
3 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Select dough setting and start machine.

When cycle is completed, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes. Divide dough into 10 parts. Form each part into a ball. Gently press thumb through center of ball to form a 1-inch hole and slowly stretch ball of dough into bagel shape. Place on a lightly floured surface and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 5 minutes.

While bagels rest, bring three quarts of water and one tablespoon of sugar to a rapid boil in a large saucepan. Using a slotted spoon, drop 2 bagels into rapidly boiling water. Boil for 1 minute; turn and cook for 1 minute more. Remove bagels from water with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Repeat boiling process with remaining bagels, two at a time. Place bagels on a lightly greased baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake at 375ºF for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: 10 bagels.

The raisins were my own addition; the original recipe didn't call for them. I think dried cranberries or maybe even chopped dates would be nice too, or some pumpkin seeds. These would be just delicious spread with cream cheese, but I have none on hand so haven't tried that yet.