Bagels are fairly easy to make, boiling them in an alkali bath leaches some of the starch from the surface, which helps achieve the firm exterior but creamy interior. I've seen some pretzel recipes (which are also boiled in an alkali solution) that just dipped them in a cold solution of water and baking soda, but I've never tried that with bagels.
Traditionally, a lye solution was used, but food grade lye is not something most kitchens have on hand. Baking soda only produces a mildly alkaline solution, no matter how much of it you add. (Anything over a couple of tablespoons is a total waste.) I usually add a little honey which is also mildly alkaline.
Baking the baking soda in the oven for an hour to produce sodium carbonate is something that's on my 'to do' list, that would raise the pH significantly, but still well below that of lye. (The New York Times suggested this some years back.)
Peter Reinhart's recipe in BBA produces nine full-sized bagels (4 to 4.5 ounces of dough each), but we prefer smaller ones, 3 ounces each. That's still about 45 carbs! His recipe in the Artisan book is similar but produces 6 bagels rather than 9.
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