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Sourdough Bagels Fail/Win

I have been experimenting with bagels for a few weeks. I have had fails and wins. Overall the bagels have always tasted good — but they have looked odd. First, the recipe — oh, and this is an overnight recipe.

Step one is to make a sponge — like a preferment. You take 3/4 cup water at 90 degrees and mix in 1 and 1/4 cups of flour (or 6.2 ounces, if you have a scale) and 1/8 tsp of yeast — the rapid rise yeast. The easiest way to do this is to mix the flour and yeast together first and then add them to the water. You mix them together by hand for two minutes. Cover and let it sit for 60 minutes.

When the timer goes off, it’s time to make the bagels!

Add the sponge, 3/4 of water at 75 degrees, and 3/4 cup of room temperature sourdough starter to a mixing bowl. You will want to use a stand mixer for this. The dough gets kneaded for 10 minutes. Use the dough hook — can you imagine kneading the dough by hand for ten minutes?!!? Mix these ingredients together for 1 minute.

In the meantime, get your flour and yeast mixed. Take 3 cups of flour (14.7 ounces) and 1/8 tsp of yeast and mix them together. With the rapid rise yeast, you want to make sure it gets surrounded by flour to help ensure that you don’t end up with a clump of yeast once it hits water.

Add the flour/yeast mixture to the mixing bowl and then add 1/4 tsp of salt. Mix for ten minutes. You will be amazed at how the dough comes together. At first, the dough will look very dry, but slowly the dough comes together.

Take the time to scrape down the dough a few times during the ten minute mixing. Flip the dough over at least three times, as well.

The dough will be smooth when it emerges from the mixing bowl. And you get to use that scale again! We want the individual bagels to be the same size. The dough weight should be (as the scale says) 5.2 ounces. It is not easy to eyeball that amount of dough, so you will have — as I do — a few little extra pieces to get you the the right size.

This recipe will make six bagels, so if you do not have a scale then simply do your best to make six even dough balls. You want to shape them into five inch oblongs. Cover them and let the dough rest for five minutes. This dough is tough by nature and letting it rest a bit will ensure that it is not too tough.

At this point you will be shaping them into their bagel shape. This is where I have had wins and fails.

The first batch were good, but the holes — um, they were too big. I thought, wrongly, that the holes would close up, get tighter, something…. But nope. They tasted good, but when toasted, they were too crunchy.

I tired the opposite with my second batch. I rolled the bagels more like, well like rolls. And then flattened them and gouged a hole in the middle. Those bagels poofed up and looked a little like breasts. I purposefully did not take pictures! So they were good, but too thick.

My third attempt was better. I tried the roll version again, but made bigger holes in the center. Best ones so far, but they are still too thick.

I am going to make another batch tonight and I think I will go back to what the recipe book suggests and make the circles again. I’ll try to just make tighter circles.

OK, so once you have made the dough shapes, next you place the bagels on a floured tray. Use a combo of flour and cornflour. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for overnight.

In the morning, you will preheat the oven to 500 degrees and get a pot of water on the stove to boil. You want at least 3 quarts of water for the bagels. Take the bagels out of the fridge and let them warm up for ten minutes. While waiting for the water to boil, you can get a cooling rack out to use for when the bagels come out of the boiling water. They need somewhere to drip. You can put a cookie sheet under the cooling rack so that you don’t drip water on your counter. Also, get your parchment paper ready for getting the bagels into the oven.

You only boil the bagels (two at a time worked well for me) for twenty seconds. Fish them out and let them drip on the cooling rack until all the bagels have had their swim.

At this point dip or sprinkle what ever toppings you want on the bagels. Then place them on the parchment (or a baking sheet if you don’t have a baking stone) and get them in the oven! Bake for ten minutes at 475 degrees. After ten minutes, rotate the bagels and let the bake for another 5 minutes. You want them baked but not too dark!

They taste amazing right out of the oven and they freeze well, too. They are so easy. I was intimidated — especially about the boiling — but it is really simple. The bagels bob around in the water for twenty seconds. Little water bubbles come up through the hole in the middle, which at 6 o’clock in the morning anyway, is amusing.

Bagels. Simple to make and soooo good. I want to experiment with the sour more. I think I can get them more soughdoughy. I will let you know how it turns out!

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