Preheat oven to 420℉ / 215℃.

In a mixing bowl, add the yeast, brown sugar and warm water. Mix until sugar is dissolved and wait a couple minutes for the yeast to activate.

Add the salt and stir.

Gradually add the bread flour to the yeast mixture and stir, making sure to get out any lumps. Make sure you use bread flour which makes your bagels nice and chewy (as opposed to all-purpose flour which makes fluffier bagels).

Knead dough for ten solid minutes (or 15 minutes if you’re going slowly). Or, use a mixer with a dough hook on medium speed for 5 minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise at room temperature for about 75 minutes or until doubled in size.

Separate dough into 8 equal sized balls on a tray with baking paper or a nonstick mat. Make sure they are relatively smooth. It doesn’t need to be perfect.

To make the holes, poke into the center of the dough down to the bottom of the tray and stretch it out a bit.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Boil bagels 1 minute on each side and transfer back to baking tray.

Egg wash the bagels and dip or sprinkle sesame seeds.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Cool for 20 minutes on a wire rack