working in the BREAD DOCTOR's bakery over christmas break was ah.may.zing. and also very inspiring. i decided to keep running on my baking high by making bagels on my own as soon as we got home--so i wouldn't forget all the tricks and techniques that i had been taught. the hardest part will be finding/perfecting a recipe to make it bakery quality. so i found a few sourdough bagel recipes online, combined them a bit, added in things i remembered from my two week training and came up with this!
not too bad for my first try. the crust was fabulous. the inner bagel could have been a bit chewier for my liking, but i'm betting that has to do with my flour choice. i used all-purpose unbleached since that was all i had on hand, but i'm definitely going to pick up some high protein bread flour for next time (that is supposed to help with the texture and gluten development). also, i've been using honey instead of barley malt, so i'm ordering that online as we speak. however, the honey worked just fine. i'm just making enough recipes that call for barley malt, so i've finally decided it's time to invest.
i made a smaller batch as this was a test run, but my mixer probably wouldn't be able to handle much more dough than this one (as it's very tough). So, 6 large bagels (or 8 medium bagels) is probably going to be my standard.
If you haven't made bagels before, read these two recipes first:
http://honestcooking.com/peter-reinharts-new-york-style-bagels-wild-sourdough/
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=sourdoughbagels
their recipes are of course a little different than mine, but they give a great background on techniques, things to look for, and why certain ingredients (esp. the flour) are important. Even though I personally learned my bagel techniques from a master baker, the background in these two recipe posts helped me feel more confident to do them on my own. I'm also feeling lazy and don't want to go into a lot of detail on bagel formation, and these both give more details on that ;)
17.5 oz sourdough starter
14 oz flour (high protein bread flour is supposed to be best)
1 tsp. barley malt (or 1/2 Tbsp. honey in a pinch)
1 tsp. yeast
3 Tbsp. water
2-3 tsp. salt (I haven't nailed this down yet. I did 1.5 tsp. of salt and it was too little, so I'm going to slowly increase the amount until the bread tastes perfectly salted)
Mix all ingredients EXCEPT salt in your mixer for about 4 minutes. Add salt then mix for 10-15 more minutes until smooth and elastic--use the windowpane test to check the gluten development at the end of 10 minutes, and run 5 more if it's not quite ready. Your mixer is really gonna get a work out.
cover dough with a bag, saran wrap, or a damp cloth and let rest for about 20 minutes. after 20 minutes, divide the dough into 6 or 8 even pieces (depending on desired size of bagel). the coolest thing about the dough, is that you've worked it so much that now you can handle it without any extra flour. love that. little to no mess! woot.
shape your bagels (i prefer rolling out into a log shape, then forming the "0" technique), then place on a lightly greased silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. place in fridge to "develop" for 12-24 hours (I like to do this overnight).
In the morning, pull out your bagels and get a large pot of water boiling. Also preheat your oven at this time (I'm not sold on the temperature for the oven yet, so I will need to do some more testing to know what to reccommend). If you want to add toppings to your bagels, get these ready now as well (cheese, seeds, herbs, etc.)--spread them out on a pan or plate. Boil your bagels a few at a time, watching them to deepen in color. You may need to flip them over to get both sides to darken. This took about 30-40 seconds per bagel in my kitchen. Use a slotted spoon or spatula to pull out the bagels and place (rounded side up) back on the baking sheet, or (rounded side down) into the toppings. in about 30 seconds the bagels will begin to feel sticky--this is when you will pull them out of the toppings and flip them to flat side down on the baking sheet.
At the bakery, we did an oven at 365 degrees F, but most of the recipes online had temperatures closer to 450 F. I baked mine at 450 F for about 20 minutes, but next time I may try them at 400 F for a little bit longer and see if that makes a difference. Don't be afraid to let them darken a bit in the oven--this makes the crust delicious.
I can't wait to try this recipe with my new bread flour, barley malt, and to try mixing in some Parmesean cheese and herbs, or maybe some cinnamon and raisins!
Good luck :)
