RECIPE: East Coast-style homemade bagels (yes, you can make them at home!)
Well, let’s state the obvious: I have been taking a long hiatus from posting recipes here on Hayes in the Fog. Job changes, job additions, life has been happening at full-speed ahead, and the increase in my in-person teaching/classes has come at the cost of posting recipes here. COVID-19 has flipped everything on its head, including my baking habits. Instead of teaching others at the San Francisco Cooking School each week, I’m now at home again baking for myself and fully embracing the #quarantinebaking movement.
Given the difficulty of procuring otherwise-normal sundries at stores right now, like bread, many people have turned to baking at home. (If I had a nickel for every picture of sourdough bread I’ve seen on Instagram in the past month…). Until two days ago, I was running dangerously low on sugar, so the baking projects I took on were more bread-focused than usual. Case in point: these bagels. After I made them earlier this month and posted a picture of them on Instagram, I was bombarded with folks asking for the recipe. (You’re welcome.)
I made my bagels smaller than “normal”, at 3 ounces per bagel, but feel free to make fewer, bigger bagels. Or go very mini with 2oz bagels instead: you do you. At 3 ounces, they’re still big enough to act as the base to a breakfast sandwich yet won’t carry quite the same weight that a jumbo bagel sometimes does.
Lastly, I HIGHLY recommend doubling this recipe if you have the supplies to do so, since it is a commitment to set up the boiling station. The bagels freeze well; I slice them before freezing so I can reheat with ease.
East Coast-style homemade bagels (yes, you can make them at home!)
By: Kathleen Hayes, adapted from the San Francisco Cooking School; yield = 9-10, 3 ounce bagels
SCHEDULE IT
There are two ways to plan out your bagel-making. As with most breads, you do need to plan your time accordingly.
Option 1 - over two days: on day one, make your sponge; on day two, mix, shape, proof bagels in the morning; in the afternoon, boil and bake them off.
Option 2 - over three days: on day one, make your sponge; on day two, the day before you plan to bake your bagels, mix/shape/proof them (and stick in the refrigerator overnight); on day three, boil and bake off your bagels.
MISE IT
Sponge
210 grams water
8 grams honey
210 grams bread flour
Pinch of active dry yeast
Final bagel dough
All of the sponge
195 grams water
8 grams brown sugar
495 grams bread flour
4 grams active dry yeast
15 grams kosher salt
Boiling station
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup baking soda
Ice bath
Whatever toppings you want!
Special equipment
Spider, for retrieving bagels from the boiling station
Large mixing bowl, for ice bath
MAKE IT
Sponge
Combine all the ingredients for the sponge and mix with a spatula until no dry patches of flour remain.
Place sponge in a covered container that will provide room for the sponge to expand and let sit at room temperature for a minimum of 12 hours and a maximum of 24 hours.
Bagels
After the sponge has matured, combine all ingredients for the final bagel dough into the bowl of a standing mixer and mix on low to medium low speed for 3 minutes.
Scrape down the bagel as needed and continue mixing for another 4-6 minutes. The dough will be quite stiff but well developed.
Divide dough into 3 ounce pieces. Cover pieces loosely with a piece of plastic wrap as you proceed to the next step.
Shape each 3oz piece into a bagel shape by a) hand-rolling out each piece as if you were making a pretzel by forming a cylinder with tapered/thinner ends; b) connecting the ends and overlap them by 1 inch to form a circle; then c) rolling the overlapped part of your bagel on the table again to get the circle to come together.
Place shaped bagels on a parchment-lined, cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet. Wrap loosely with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 6 hours or as long as overnight for its proofing.
After its proof, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F, create an ice bath, and prepare your boiling station by combining the water, honey, and baking soda into a dutch oven and bringing the ingredients to a rolling boil.
Carefully place bagels into the boiling water (likely 2-3 at a time, depending on the size of your pot) and leave in the water for 45 seconds, rotating once around 20-25 seconds. The bagels will float and puff slightly.
Remove the bagels from the boiling water and place directly into the ice bath. Once the bagels have cooled off slightly, press one side into whatever toppings you want and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Repeat the prior two steps until all the bagels have been boiled, chilled in the ice bath, topped, and placed on a baking sheet.
Bake until golden, about 15-18 minutes.
TWEAK IT
Use whatever toppings your heart desires! My heart (and stomach) generally want copious amounts of poppy seeds, but sesame seeds (black or white), everything, garlic, salt, or cheese all work great.
Change the size of your bagels, or take up my suggestion above to double the recipe since you’re going through all the trouble of the boiling station.
Sub in 5-10% whole wheat flour to give your bagels a heartier flavor.
Mix inclusions into your bagel dough (Wegman’s supermarket, where I grew up, would make their poppy seed bagels with the seeds baked throughout the dough rather than on top!); note that if you add things to your dough, it’ll slow down how quickly your dough proofs.
Use barley malt syrup in your boiling station instead of honey and baking soda. I never stock barley malt syrup at home, but that’s what we used in pastry school when making bagels.
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