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Last week I had a quick post about my foray into bagel making. I had made bagels before, but that was prior to my new interest in bread making. As I mentioned in that post, I started out with the basic bagel recipe from the King Arthur website, but have made some changes that have yielded some better results.

Dough

Step One

This recipe call for a a starter of 2 1/8 ounces flour plus 2 ounces water and a pinch of yeast. In grams, this is 3 grams away from a 100% hydrated starter, so let just go with that. The day before you make the bagels, mix 60g flour, 60g water and a pinch of yeast together, cover and leave out on the counter overnight. The reason we do this, is that with a nice long fermentation (yep, bread is fermented) you start to develop that sharp/tart taste associated with sourdough and bagels. I keep a starter going for bread making, so if you do this too, you can skip this step.

Step Two

The next days when you are ready to make the rest of the dough, transfer your starter from Step One (or 120g of your existing starter) into the work bowl of you mixer and add 280g of water and give the mixture a quick stir to loosen up the starter. Now add 485g flour to you work bowl along with 1 3/4 t (11g) salt and 1 1/2 t (6g) yeast and with your bread hook attachment, work the dough slowly at first then at medium for 10 minutes. The dough should be firm but fairly wet (this dough is about 62% hydrated). Put a teaspoon of oil (I use olive oil) in a large bowl, put the dough in and give it a spin to coat the dough and allow to raise for 60 minutes (yep the usual double in volume).

Step Three

After an hour, using your knuckled, deflate the dough slightly and set aside while you prep your work area. You will need a large baking sheet dusted with flour, your scale, a large knife and a clean work area. Our goal here is to create fairly uniform pieces of dough for the bagels, I usually shoot for 90g which makes a nice sized bagel (not one of those giant ones you get at some places), so cut off a piece of the dough and weight it, trim or add until you get to the target of 90g. This is now you reference piece, try to cut the next one the same size, weight it and adjust. If you keep a little pile of the trimming (I am usually over on my first cut) then if you are short when you make a piece, you can add from there. After you make all your portions (about 10) work each piece into a ball gently so as not to degas the dough. Once you have all the dough shaped into balls, we now shape the bagels.

I find the easiest way to do this is to take my pointer finger and press it through the ball of dough until I reach the counter. Then making a small circular motion (like stirring with your finger) I slowly make the hole larger until I can pick up the bagel on my finger. Now I stick my pointer finger from my other hand in the other direction and spin one finger around the other until my fingers are about an inch apart. This will usually result in a slightly flat circle of dough (think big rubber band not garden hose), now give the dough a 90 turn and place it flat side down on the floured pan. repeat with the remaining pieces.

When all the bagels are shaped, cover them with a towel and let them raise for 30 minute while you prepare the next step.

Baking

While your bagels are raising, preheat your over to 425 and fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil (I use a Stockpot, but you could also use an electric frying pan). Boil 3-4 bagels at a time for 3 minutes (turning half way through) and then remove and place on a baking sheet with parchment paper. After all your bagels are boiled, put them in the oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.