Tips and Talking Points: Your mixer will most likely not be able to tolerate the full kneading time and the dough will need to be finished by hand. This amount of kneading time is necessary to develop the gluten for a chewy bagel. To create a proofer, preheat your oven to 200 degrees F, then turn off. Place your dough inside the oven to proof, where it is slightly warm and draft free. Turn the oven light on for added warmth. Pre-shaping the dough into balls before rolling ropes will help your bagels rise more evenly in the oven. Don’t add flour to your work surface when rolling the dough into ropes. The friction with the surface will help stretch the dough. If freezing, freeze the bagels the day they are made for best results. They will keep up to one month.