Bagels

I have been interested in making bagels with my sourdough. The recipes seem similar to pretzels but a good bagel is chewier and probably has more developed gluten. I found a couple recipes and videos on bagels. I think the key is to figure out how to get the crisp exterior and texture while still making the inside light and soft. I think malt syrup and baking soda in the boiling water helps. Adding malt syrup to the dough may also help. I like to use sourdough but the NYT recipe uses just yeast. I will probably replace 150-200g of the flour with whole wheat or einkorn flour to add more whole grained flavor. There were good tips in the video and in both recipes. I have been reading lots of sourdough recipes and techniques from Maurizio on the Perfect Loaf blog. The recipe has 3 parts and starts 2 days before baking with a levain starter. I like to mix and knead by hand. The bagel dough is very stiff and an electic mixer will have difficulty. You can leave the bagels plain or sprinkle salt or any kind of seed mixture. I got an everything bagel spice mixture and Traders Joes with sesame seeds, poppy seeds and other stuff.

Perfect Loaf recipe from Maurizio New York Times recipe from Claire Saffitz

NYT bagel video on youtube

Ingredients

Levain (day 1)

• 116g flour
• 58g water
• 23g ripe sourdough starter

Main mixture (day 2)

• 848g flour (can mix 200g or whole wheat or other flour)
• 472g water
• 29g sugar
• 29g barley malt syrup
• 18g salt
• 7g diastic malt powder (I bought some on amazon, was ok without)
• 197g levain (from previous day)

boiling and preparing (day 3)

• 3T baking soda (add to boiling water)
• 1/4c barley malt syrup (add to boiling water)
• sea salt (sprinkle on bagels after boiling, optional)
• everything mix (sprinkle on bagels after boiling, optional)

Steps

Day 1, levain

• The evening before can simply mix the flour, water, starter and cover in a jar or bowl overnight at room temperature.
• The net morning the levain should have some bubbles and be able twice the volume

Day 2, mix dough and bulk fermentation

• In a small bowl add about 50g of water for the slurry
• add barley malt syrup, sugar, diastic malt powder, salt, mix until everything dissolves
• In a large bowl measure the water (minus the 50g)
• Add levain to large bowl and break up with hands until mostly dissolved in water
• Add slurry to large bowl
• add flour
• mix with hands until combined in bowl
• knead with hands on counter for 8-10m, can add more flour is too sticky
• knead until becomes very difficult to knead
• put dough back in bowl and cover with plastic wrap for bulk fermentation

• may do a single stretch and fold after 1 1/2 hours
• leave out for a total of 3 hours until doubles and feels proofed
• using dough scraper divide into 12 pieces each about 125g
• form each piece into about 12 inch tube
• roll over hand to form bagel like circle
• place in cookie sheet, repeat for 12 bagels
• cover with plastic wrap and leave and let proof 2 or more hours on counter (in winter proofs longer)
• when looks well proofed and puffy put in fridge overnight

Day 3, boiling and baking

• first thing in morning, set oven to 475F
• boil water in a wide dutch oven
• when water is almost boiling add barley syrup and mix until water turns evenly brown
• when water is boiling add the baking soda
• add 2 or 3 bagels at a time, let boil for 60-90 seconds, may flip

• remove boiled bagels to cooling rack to let them dry
• when dry may sprinkle salt or seed mixture
• place on parchment paper on cookie sheet

• I used two cookie sheets each with 6 bagels and set oven to convection
• bake for about 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway
• after 20 minutes keep checking until the bagels and starting to darken
• let cool for 10-15 minutes before eating