Herman/amish Friendship Bagels

Day 2: Feed Bagel Bowl Starter 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup sugar. This leaves you with 2 even cups of starter. (If you have the Amish Starter, this helps to wean the starter off the sugar a little. If you have the Herman Starter, you could probably skip day two and move on to day three. But this step does help make sure that your starter is young and active enough to make the bagels so you might not want to...) Day 3: Make Firm/Intermediate Starter by feeding bagel bowl starter 2 cups of flour. (omit sugar and milk it will begin to look like dough rather than pancake batter) Day 4: Add to firm starter 3 1/2-4 1/2 (Herman will be wetter than Amish and need more) cups unbleached bread flour, 1/2 teaspoons salt, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 cup cool water. In a Stand Mixer, Mix the dough until it forms a ball, then knead for 8-10 minutes. If working by hand, knead for 12-15 minutes. Dough should be stiff, but satiny, dry to the touch, but stretchy. Cut the dough into 6-14 pieces, roll the pieces into balls, cover with plastic and let them rest for 5 minutes. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment, oil, cornmeal or semolina. To form the bagels, poke your thumb through the center of the dough and work the dough stretching it until the hole is quite large. Place the bagels on the prepared sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Day 5: Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil and prepare another cookie sheet for baking. Gently drop the bagels into the boiling water one at a time or in small batches. After 1 minute, flip the bagels with a spoon and cook for another minute. Place on the prepared sheet and bake until they are lightly browned. Transfer to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes.