Sourdough Bagels
I’m not entirely sure why, but something about summer makes me want to bake bread. I realize it’s counter-intuitive, being 40 degrees outside and wanting to crank the oven to max for a crispy crust, but I can’t help it. I think it has something to do with thinking about jams and pickles, then fermentation, then sourdough cultures, but I don’t know for certain.
I used to bake bread regularly. Like, if we had bread in the house, it was because I made it, not because someone bought it. I stopped this practice when I started Atkins, for obvious reasons, and never really picked it up again in the same way I had before.
There are a couple reasons for this. One is simply because we eat less bread, but also because we live in Montreal now and it’s much easier to find good bread. Better bread than I can make. And as much as I’m not put off by the time consuming nature of making a good baguette, it’s not particularly efficient to do so for two. Most importantly though, after each interval of abstinence from bread baking, I seem to get worse at it. This might just have something to do with living in a cold house without a “hot spot” to speak of to properly proof anything, but I think I might just actually be losing the bread maker’s touch.
Of course every once in a while that doesn’t stop me from trying to prove the theory wrong, so I mixed up some stone ground organic flour and water in a poolish (a batter-like sourdough starter) and waited for the yeasts to start fermenting and make something delicious. I was extremely happy when it started bubbling away and had a lovely aroma of fresh yogurt or cheeses rather than the somewhat more acidic smell I would often get with ordinary supermarket stuff.
Then it was just a matter of figuring out what to do with it, and I decided to make bagels. A while back I purchased a new electric hand mixer that came with dough hooks, and I couldn’t picture how they could possibly be useful. Well, good news! Those things totally beat the crap out of dough and possibly work better than any stand mixer could, developing some serious gluten. It’s also a good workout on your hands, since there’s quite a bit of resistance while doing so. I was concerned it was going to blow the motor, but it held strong. Bravo!
The bad news is that even though the motor held strong, one of the dough hooks didn’t, snapping off mid-beat and causing me to lose control of the mixer on high speed, where it flew off the counter and started bouncing around the floor like a live wire. This is a huge disappointment because I’ll never be able to whip up gluten that strong by hand, especially so quickly, but I’m not going to buy new dough hooks if they’re only going to last a single usage. Woe is me.
I had a minor problem with this bagel recipe and that was with patience, which is ironic because I let my poolish mature for three whole days before I used it. I did not let the dough rise quite enough before boiling the bagels, which caused them to sink instead of float, and I can’t help but blame this ineptitude for my difficulty baking them properly.
The flavor of these bagels were incredible, though because I’m so accustomed to the sweeter Montreal sesame bagels, tasted more like a mature, round pretzel than what I equate with a bagel. This is especially true because of the salt content, while I’m pretty sure Montreal bagels are salt-free. Regardless of their shape or flavor, I will definitely be making these again, when I find enough gusto and the proper amount of patience to do so.
For the poolish…
- 1 cup organic, stone ground flour
- 1 3/4 cup filtered water, room temperature
- Mix half of the flour with half of the water in a sterilized jar. Cover the jar with cheesecloth and place in a warm place overnight.
- Add a quarter of the flour and water to the jar to refresh it. Cover and set aside again for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, you may begin to see tiny bubbles form and a cultured smell. This is a good sign. If not, do not be discouraged. Add the remaining flour and water, cover and set aside again for at least 24 hours, or until you can see that the culture is active. If you are not using the culture at this point, seal it tightly with the lid and refrigerate it to retard the yeast or they will overproduce, die and give the culture an off-flavor.
For the bagels…
- 1 cup poolish
- 3/4 teaspoon instant (NOT dry active) yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 ounce honey
- 3 1/2 cups (420g) bread flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- If you refrigerated the poolish, make sure to bring it to room temperature first.
- Combine the yeast and warm water in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes to activate.
- In a separate large bowl, add the poolish, honey, half of the flour and the salt to the bowl and mix until incorporated. Add the yeast mixture and continue to mix, adding the remaining flour, bit by bit, until you have a stiff dough that is no longer sticky.
- Beat the dough, if you have a super powerful mixer with a dough hook that doesn’t snap like mine did, or remove the dough from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth and stretchable.
- Divide the dough into four ounce pieces and roll into balls. Set aside for a few minutes to relax the gluten and make them easier to form into bagels.
- Once the dough has sufficiently relaxed, take one of the dough balls and roll it into a 6″ long rope, then loop it around your hand and seal to form a circle, or bagel, if you will. Make sure where the ends meet are sealed well or you’ll end up with a horseshoe later. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and dust lightly with flour. Place the prepared bagels on the pan, cover loosely with plastic and set aside in a warm place to proof for 90 minutes
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and preheat the oven to 450 degrees with the rack positioned in the center.
- Lower the heat so that the water is reduced to a simmer (only lightly bubbling). Add the bagels, one at a time, in small batches to the pot. Cook until they float, flip them and cook for another minute or two more.
- Lift the bagels out with a slotted spoon and let them drip dry before placing them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and dusted lightly with flour. Repeat the boiling procedure with the remaining bagels.
- Press the tops of the bagels into sesame seeds, if desired, and bake them (seed side up) on the baking sheet until browned, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes (to finish cooking) before eating.
This makes about 8 bagels. Freeze any bagels not eaten within two hours in a bag. Thaw and toast for breakfasts as needed. This recipe is based on the one from Crust and Crumb by Peter Reinhart.