I've been looking through Nancy Silverton's book Breads from the LaBrea Bakery with the intention of making something on my next day off. As that day approached, I realized I was having a difficult time deciding what to make because everything sounded so good...did I want fresh pretzels, bagels, sourdough chocolate cake? I wanted it all, however a diet of 90% carbohydrates probably isn't a good idea, so I made a decision based on another craving...which was smoked salmon.
The recipe from Nancy's book uses a sourdough starter (Just a heads up. I'm sure you can adapt it to suit commercial yeast needs, but I thought the sour flavor of the bagels was a delightful change from the flavorless bagels everyone seems to sell these days.)
here's what you need:
1 1/2 cups of cool water
2 teaspoons of packed fresh yeast
1 1/2 cups activated sourdough starter
6 1/2 cups of high gluten white flour (I couldn't find this at my supermarket, so I added about 6 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten)
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 tablespoons barley malt syrup
6 tablespoons milk powder
semolina flour for dusting
what to do:
use the water to dissolve the yeast and stir in your sourdough starter. Add the sugar, salt, malt syrup, milk powder and integrate the flour slowly. Once all your ingredients are well integrated, flop your dough out onto a work surface and knead it for about 8 minutes. Don't dust your work surface with flour. The dough should be firm and extra contact with flour will only make your life difficult when shaping the dough because it won't stick together when you need it to.
Once you're done kneading, cover your dough with a flour-free cloth and let it sit for 10 minutes (if you have other things to do, you could let it sit longer. Let the flavor ferment a while, why don't you). Divide your dough into four-ounce portions (there should be 18 or so) and tuck under the edges. Cover with a cloth again and let rest for 15 minutes.
The next step is to shape your dough into that classic bagel shape. To do this, first form a rope about 9-10 inches in length by submitting consistent pressure from the center of one of your portions of dough and rolling it while moving your hands away from each other. When your rope is long enough, take one end between your thumb and forefinger and wrap it around your hand and roll the connecting ends (they should overlap by about an inch and a half) together against your palm and the table until they are the same width as the rest of your bagel. Place your bagels on a parchment paper lined tray, dusted with semolina flour (the semolina flour keeps the bagels from sticking to the paper). Place your bagels 2 inches apart from each other and cover with a flour-free towel and put them in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
After 12-24 hours, let your dough come to room temperature. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and bring a large pot of water to boil (you should have at least 4 inches of water in the pot). Test one of your bagels before you throw the rest of them in. If the dough is ready, the bagel should rise to the top of the water immediately, like a ravioli. If the dough sinks, it is not ready and you should let it sit out, covered until it is a little warmer. If your test bagel floats, add two more to the pot. Let them sit in the water for about 10 seconds, turn them with a wooden spoon and let them sit for 10 more seconds. Lift them out with a strainer (I just used a spatula, to be honest) and place them back on their parchment lined baking sheets (you might want to throw down a little more semolina flour though). Let your water come to a boil before you throw in your next three bagels, and continue until they've all been boiled. Next, lower the temperature of your oven to 400 degrees and bake your bagels for 20 minutes until delightfully brown. You may also want to rotate your trays after 10 minutes to ensure even browning.
And let me know if you never want to eat another commercial bagel ever again.
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