It's Bagels!

Well today I eliminated 1 more TODO on my list and made bagels and it was great fun! I also added some sourdough starter and this prolongs the process as I like to let my sourdough starter rise at least 12-18 hours. But OH MY are they good!!

Melissa of Baking a Sweet Life is hosting this months Bread Baking Day and the theme is Breakfast Breads. What is better for breakfast then freshly made bagels!



Bagels
Recipe adapted from The Baker's Apprentice


Sponge:
1 tsp instant yeast
4 c. bread flour
2 1/2 c. water

My Changes:
Eliminate yeast
1/2 c. sourdough starter
1 TBL honey, malt syrup or brown sugar

Dough:
1/2 tsp instant yeast
3 3/4 c. bread flour
2 3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp malt powder
OR
1 TBL malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar

My changes:
Eliminate yeast, honey, malt powder, malt sugar or brown sugar

Finishing touches:
1 TBL baking soda for the water
Cornmeal for dusting the pan
Toppings for the bagels such as seeds, salt, onion, or garlic

My changes:
1 egg whipped with a little bit of water


The Night Before:

Stir the sourdough starter into the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and honey and stir until all ingredients are blended. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise over night.

Baking Day

Remove the plastic wrap and add 3 cups of the flour and the salt into the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients form a ball. You need to work in the additional 3/4 cups of flour to stiffen the dough, either while still mixing in the bowl or while kneading. The dough should be stiffer and drier than normal bread dough, but moist enough that all of the ingredients are well blended.

Place dough onto a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes.

Immediately after kneading, split the dough into a dozen equal, small pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball and set it aside. When you have all 12 pieces made, cover them with a damp towel and let them rest for 20 minutes.

Shaping the bagel is actually quite fun and brought back memories of playing for clay as a child. Pick up one ball of dough and punch your thumb through the center, then rotate the dough, working it so that the bagel is as even in width as possible.

Line the sheet pan with parchment and spray it lightly with oil before placing the bagels on the pan. Cover the pan with plastic, I used a medium plastic garbage bad and allow the dough to rise for about 2-3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Adding 1 TBL of baking soda to the pot to alkalize the water is suggested to replicate traditional bagel shop flavor.

When the pot is boiling, drop a few of the bagels into the pot one at a time and let them boil for a minute per side. Using a large, slotted spoon gently flip the bagels and boil them on the other side.



Line a sheet pan with parchment and sprinkle it with cornmeal. I used 2 pans for the 12 bagels. Remove each bagel from the boiling water one at a time, set them back onto the sheet pan. Cool.

When the bagels are cool, brush each one with the egg wash and dip the upper portion in your topping of choice. I used sesame seeds but you can use just about anything. Place the bagels back on the parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal.



Place the sheet pan into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 450 degrees, rotate the pan, and bake for another 5 minutes until the bagels begin to brown. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool on a rack.

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