Bagel Recipes & Tips

[rlibkind]

Rachel: If your expectations were shaped by Tesco or Waitrose bagels, indeed, you didn't taste the real thing.

Redsugar: Your recipe didn't mention kneading. I think you really want to develop the gluten in bagels, so they do need some substantial kneading.

Redsugar's recipe calls for honey in the boiling water, which certainly works. But if you can get your hands on some malt syrup, that's more traditional and provides a nicer sheen. You can also use it in the dough rather than sugar. If you've got enough syrup in the water, you probably don't need the egg wash, either, though it wouldn't be harmful at all.

[Waterzoy]

rlibkind.....I haven't found malt syrup here but I have seen cane syrup. Would cane syrup be a good substitute?

Rachel

[Malawry]

bump

I just made Redsugar's recipe, using bread flour (no high-gluten flour available here, I'll have to look elsewhere). My first batch didn't form rings--the dough detached where I'd pinched it together--so I reinforced the remaining dough rings and they came out okay. The oven temp and time are both way off IMO, I ended up cranking the oven to 425 and letting them bake closer to 30min (I only baked half at a time, since that's all that fits on my stone). I topped them with finely diced fresh onion.

What difference does malt make to a bagel? Should I try tracking it down?

[pax]

In 'How to be a Domestic Goddess', Nigella Lawson has  a recipe for bagels which is adapted from George Grenstein's  "Secrets of a Jewish Baker".  I have had great success with this.  One of the things she suggests is to add malt syrup to the poaching liquid to give the bagels their "sweet and shiny crust".

Enjoy making your bagels.  I don't make them often, but get a real kick out of the poaching stage.  There's something magical about it.

←

I made bagels yesterday afternoon using the the recipe mentioned above and was shocked that my first adventure into bagel making was so delicious and easy. They were golden and crusty AND chewy. The ones we didn't consume like wolves last night were soft this morning but crisped up nicely in the toaster.

I put nothing on them, no wash, no nothing, except I sprinkled some sea salt on a few of them just as they came out of the boiling pot. These were lovely, but plain was good too. Next time I'll experiement with toppings but I don't think I'll bother looking for another bagel recipe for a while, this one worked really well.

ETA: I used turbinado sugar in the water. No malt on hand.

Edited December 28, 2007 by pax (log)

[nhamilto]

The best bagel recipe I have used: http://www.sourdoughhome.com/sourdoughbagels.html

I usually have these as a Christmas breakfast (some 'real' food before the candy starts). This recipe yields a dense and chewy bagel. The only changes I have made are make them into smaller bagels and substituting neutral oil for the olive oil specified.

Edited December 29, 2007 by nhamilto (log)

[pax]

It took me a few days to get this off my camera but here was my first try. After the first batch I just started poking a hole and stretching it out rather than trying to keep the ends together.

This is the first time I ever posted a picture. I hope it works.

[pax]

Hey hey! That worked! Look at the pretty bagel!

Yes, I am a geek.

[rob7]

Hoping to get some feedback on my firt try at making Bagels. I used the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I used Sir Lancelot High Gluten Flour, and, going by Reinhart's preference, I used diastic malt powder.

The bagels overall were good....defintley better than what you can get in most stores in Central Virginia. But, having lived in NY, not quite competitive against NY bagels. They tasted great and were chewy, but, they seemed to have some imperfections. Please let me know if you know some possible causes.

1) The bagels had some air bubbles on the surface that opened up during boiling. You can see this in the picture on the sesame seed bagel.

2) Some of the bagels flattened out. When I put them in to boil, they lost their puffiness- they deflated. But, even those bagels were pretty good. They did not seem overly dense. They were nice and chewy.

I shaped them by rolling them into a rope and rolling around my palm. You can see that they are not uniform in eveness around the bagel. I'm not too concerned about this as this is obvioulsy my technique which I will work on with practice.

Also, not sure if this contributed or not, but, my water for boiling was pretty much at a rolling boil...should it be more of a simmer?

Any help \ feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[abooja]

Rob, it sounds like you may have overproofed them some, but apparently not too much as you still found them enjoyable to eat. As mentioned earlier, you might try adding some malt syrup to the water bath. That will add some color to the crust.

No one seems to have mentioned it before, but I use Jeffrey Hamelman's bagel recipe from Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. A great recipe, except I boil for two minutes a side instead of the suggested 45 second total boil. That definitely makes them chewier, which I prefer, having lived the first 30 years of my life in Brooklyn.

[mhjoseph]

OK, I'm going to try this question again.

I make bagels that I'm perfectly happy with using the BBA recipe. The only thing is, I can't get the seeds to stick without using egg white which seems inauthentic to me.

All of the recipes that I have seen say that the seeds should stick to the wet dough, well not for me. I have a pile of seeds in the bag and bald bagels.

Also, onion and garlic. I used reconstituted dehydrated onions and garlic and they always burn by the end of baking besides falling off. Are others reconstituting or using them dry, putting them on before baking or sometime during baking.

I just picked up a 50 lb. bag of Sir Lancelot from a local food distributor and am anxiously looking for answers. (At $30 it equals the cost of 3 dozen bagels from the bagel shop).

[davidtmori]

Although adding baking soda to the water might make for a chewier bagel, it is really a pretzel you are now making, because real bagel making does not include baking soda.