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April 2011
Inspired by recipes adapted from Cook’s Illustrated and Peter Reinhart in the LA Times, modified by experience and memory.
Today’s commercial bagels are a pale and distant cousin of the real thing. A traditional bagel is slightly chewy and dense, with a distinct brown crust, permeated by tiny oval blisters. Commercial bagels are airy and sweet- more gourmet sandwich bread than a working class roll. Compared to the real deal, commercial bagel recipes add sugar, fat and extra water, increasing volume and shelf-life at the cost of flavor and texture. I prefer the original.
These are amazing plain or toasted with butter. You’ll never go back…
Makes 8 bagels
Time Span: One entire day (start dough in the afternoon, rise in the fridge overnight, boil and bake in the morning. The long rising time improves the yeasty flavor of the dough. Actual cooking and prep time around one and a half hours).
Ingredients
- 500 gms (18 oz) high-gluten flour (bread flour ok)
- 2 teaspoons table salt
- 1 tablespoon barley malt syrup or powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons dry active yeast
- 1 ¼ cups water (lukewarm, 80 degrees)
- topping ingredients like poppy or sesame seeds
- 2-4 tablespoons of baking soda for boiling water
Instructions
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Resting dough balls after
Step 4. In this case, six bagels, three bagel "holes" and one tester. |
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| Dough balls after forming into bagels in Step 5. |
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| After rising for one hour at 80F |
- Combine the flour and salt together in a bowl. Its important to weigh the flour- a sifted cup of flour weighs 125 gms, a hard-packed cup of flour 145 gms (but, if you don't have a scale, 500 gms is about 4 cups of sifted flour).
- Combine yeast, water and malt in the measuring cup, stirring until fully dissolved. Transfer to the bowl of stand-mixer fitted with dough hook.
- Slowly add flour to liquid; mix at lowest speed until dough starts to cohere. Use a rubber spatula to scrape sides of bowl and help bring the dough together; should take around 4 minutes. Increase to speed 2; continue mixing until dough is smooth, and stiff; approximately another 5-7 minutes. I like to remove the dough after 8 total minutes have elapsed to briefly hand knead - sometimes the dough hook only stretches portions of the dough ball- then return to the mixer for another 2 minutes. The dough will not be tacky, just silky smooth. (You can knead by hand, but this is a “tight” dough and it takes strength and experience to get it just right.)
- Turn dough onto the counter top; divide into eight portions, about 4 ounces each. Form pieces into smooth balls and cover with plastic wrap to rest for 5 minutes.
- Convert dough balls into bagel rings by pushing thumb through center of the dough, gently expanding into a uniform ring shape (around a 1” hole). Or, if you want to make "bagel holes" for the kids, just form a number of small 1" balls.
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Place bagels on an OILED parchment paper on a baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight (at least 12 hours; even two days ok).
- About an hour before baking, remove dough rings from refrigerator. Replace the plastic wrap with a smooth cotton towel- this allows the bagels skin to slightly dry out. Place in a warm location to rise until the bagels appear smooth and slightly puffy. Perhaps 45-60 minutes.
- Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
- Fill large pot (6 qts. or more) two thirds deep with water and stir in the baking soda to increase alkalinity (which helps brown the bagel and promotes a bubbly skin); bring to a medium boil.
- To see if the dough has fully risen, fill large bowl with cool water. Drop bagel into water; it should float immediately to surface (if not, pat dry, return to baking sheet, and try again ten minutes later. If you don’t want to test on a bagel, you can reserve a half inch dough ball at Step 4 and use that as a dedicated test sample).
- Working two to four at a time, drop dough rings into boiling water top side down. 45 seconds later, flip over using a Chinese skimmer or slotted spoon for another 45 seconds of boiling. Remove rings from water; transfer to wire rack or a cloth towel, bottom side down, to drain.
- Topping ingredients stick to the bagels best when applied to the dough rings just as they come out of the boiling water. Now is the time to shake them on and lightly press in.
- Transfer boiled rings to the OILED parchment paper on a baking sheet. Even better, transfer to an oiled wire rack with a fine (~1/4" mesh). On a rack, the warm oven air circulates over all sides, resulting in a more uniform crust.
- Bake until deep golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Faster in a convection oven. (Since every oven is different, you might experiment to determine the best cooking time. For example, on your first batch quickly remove two bagels from the oven with tongs at 12, 15, 17 and 20 minutes.)
- Transfer to wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. After fully cooled and tightly wrapped, they can be frozen for a month or more and still taste wonderful toasted.
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