New York Style Homemade Bagels

Ingredients:
3 1/3 c. white bread flour (I used King Arthur), plus more as necessary for kneading.
1/2 Tbs. salt
1 1/8 tsp. rapid-rise yeast
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 Tbs. vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
1 1/8 c. arm water, plus more as needed
1 Tbs. malt or sugar, for poaching the bagels
2-3 baking sheets, oiled or greased

Directions:
Combine the flour, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl. Add the sugar and oil to the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid, mixing to a dough with a wooden spoon.
Knead the dough either by hand or with a dough hook in an electric stand mixer, trying to add more flour if you can. Often with doughs, you want them as wet as you can manage; here, dry is good.
The dough will be very stiff and hard work, but knead until you’ve got a really smooth, elastic dough; even with the dough hook and an electric mixer, this takes about 10 minutes.
Form the dough into a ball and put into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat all around, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it to rise for about 1 hour. It should be well risen, and, when you poke it with your finger, the impression should remain.
Now punch the dough down, really punch!
Then give it a good knead and divide the dough into 3 pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece into a rope, then cut each rope into 2-3 pieces. Roll each piece between the palms of your hands into a ball, and then roll into another rope, curling it around to form a ring. Seal the ends by overlapping them a little and pinching them together. At about this time, put on a large pan of water to boil. When it boils, add the malt or sugar to the water.
Set the bagels on the baking sheets, cover with tea towels and leave for about 20 minutes, by which time they should be puffy. Now preheat the oven to 500 degrees F or your maximum oven temperature.
When the water is boiling and the bagels are nice and puffy, start poaching them. Drop a couple bagels in at a time into the boiling water and boil for 1 minute on each side. (I used a couple wooden spoons to gently lift them in and out of the water.)
After you poach them, put them back onto the baking sheets, well spaced, and then bake them for 10-15 minutes or until they’re shiny and golden brown.
Makes 8 bagels. Get some cream cheese or butter and smear to your heart’s content!!!