so today we’re making bagels as Baker’s
both of us we can pretty much make any
kind of bread we want at home but
because it is a lot of effort we tend to
focus on the types of breads that are
hardest to find in our local bakeries
and grocery stores bagels are a real
treat for us it’s one of our favorite
breads and so we’ve got any good East
Coast bagel yeah or on the west coast
oiled real authentic East Coast bagel so
we’ve worked pretty hard to get this
recipe workable for a weekend bake yeah
we’ve got it down to now where it’s just
under 24 hours you can basically start
it on like Saturday morning and when you
get up on Sunday morning all you have to
do is proof the bagels and boil em and
bake them so Nicole’s measuring out the
ingredients for what we call a
preferment a preferment is when you
hydrate a considerable portion of the
flour with most of the water in this
case that’s actually going into the
recipe in a teeny bit of yeast and you
mix that up and this basically makes a
pretty stiff dough and Italians like to
call this this type of preferment obiga
which is basically just a stiff
preferment of a portion of the dough
Americans because we tend to say starter
no matter if we’re talking about an
actual wild yeast sourdough starter that
you made yourself that took months to
get active or just a simple preferment
to give it more flavor and pre Furman’s
the universal term but around the world
there are many many different words for
it and you do this for a number of
reasons for flavor it also really helps
bagel dough especially is a very stiff
dough and it’s kind of hard to knead
we’re going to make this recipe entirely
by hand it’s usually made commercially
in a big heavy-duty mixer but I think it
would blow out your home mixer if you
tried it at home so that’s why we’re
making it by hand and actually hydrating
the flour and giving it some time to let
rest and relax and to allow the gluten
to develop makes it a lot easier to
actually need it’s a lot less work and
we’re using instant yeast a technical
term is instant active dry yeast which
you might find the supermarket under
trade names like rapid rise or
fast-acting and it’s perfect for making
breads because you mix it right with the
flour it doesn’t have to be proofed in
water beforehand so you can see if it’s
active or not it’s just ready to go and
tell them about the water and the water
if you’re using yeast that’s dry needs
to be pretty warm and I have
about 120 you don’t want to go too hot
140 kills yeast and if it’s under a
hundred you’re not warm enough so that
it can rehydrate properly which means
you may not get a good rise out of it so
that’s very important to have warm water
and our flour here is this happens to be
King Arthur bread flour bagels are made
with bread flour it has a very high
protein content and the flour that
actually allows you to develop a really
strong gluten network in in bread makes
it a little difficult to knead because
the hydration level is so low it’s it’s
you’ll see it’s going to be pretty
pretty stiff and the other thing that
Nicole is using is barley malt syrup the
yeast like to have just a little bit of
sugar in some form to snack on and get
to going and they seem to really like
the barley malt you could also if you
can’t find barley malt syrup which can
be a little hard to find you can also
use honey
you could even use molasses and in a
pinch you could actually just use
straight sugar but I think this gives an
actual really nice sort of malty
sweetness the finished bagel it does
smell vaguely a little bit like molasses
just lighter so it has more flavor okay
so do you want to mix this now that I
got it I’ll wait up for you sure there
you go so this is our water and we have
the yeast in here with the flour and
this is the water and the barley malt
and we’re just going to add all your wet
ingredients to all of your dry
ingredients the thing I have to say
about making bagels compared to other
breads is even though there are a lot of
steps if you read the recipe you’re
really guaranteed success because when
you’re making most bread at home the
trick is to not need and keep adding in
a lot of flour and the beauty about
bagels is you’re trying to add in the
flour so it’s really nice easy to handle
dough it doesn’t get sticky it’s less
frustrating the result is perfect
because of that where’s I think
sometimes people are disappointed when
they make sandwich bread at home but the
next day it seems dry well part of that
reason is if you add even two
tablespoons too much flour it changes
the texture of the bread the next day I
mean flour really does
a lot of liquid think about making gravy
any two tablespoons of flour when you’re
making gravy can thicken a huge amount
of sauce so it’s pretty powerful so this
I usually just sort of stir it together
with the spoon to get it come together a
little bit and then I have this nifty
white rubber spatula that I just sort of
squash it around a little bit more and
all I’m doing is incorporating most of
the dry bits of flour in there and when
I get it pretty much in there I just
take it out on my PI board and you can
see that there are still a whole bunch
of little dry pieces of flour here so
I’m just going to briefly knead it and
I’m not kneading it really to develop
structure at this point all I’m doing is
incorporating all of the dry bits of
flour and the yeast and everything to
just make a nice nice smooth mixture and
this preferment once we get all of the
flour in there is just going to sit on
the counter in a bowl and it’s going to
proof at room temperature for about two
hours yeah it gives it time for the
yeast to really wake up and take action
later we’re going to put it in the
refrigerator that way this will be an
overnight dough which is fantastic it
gives you a lot of flexibility so that
you can complete bagels the next morning
when you really want them and it is
pretty flexible I mean we’ve given in
really specific times on you know what
time you’re supposed to start move to
this stage in this stage but it’s really
pretty flexible I mean because you do
have it in the refrigerator for so long
it basically stops or goes very slowly
in its development so you have a lot of
leeway if you you know happen to take
the kids out and go to the park and
you’re an hour off on your schedule it
doesn’t make that much difference and
this you can see this dough is not the
least bit sticky so I mean it’s not like
it’s crying out for more and more flour
we’re having to push push the dough into
the flour to get all the flour to go and
be absorbed so it’s a nice dough to work
with because of that so you’re not
trying to actually get it to be smooth
and shiny if you were like making a
conventional bread dough you’re just
trying to get all the dry bits in there
that’s what’s really amazing means
standard bread is probably about 63 65
percent water and bagel 50 to 55 so when
you’ve got it there and I’ve probably
been kneading for probably about three
minutes
three minutes get lots of stuff in it’s
going to still look a little broken on
the surface it’s not going to be smooth
and shiny it’s just going to be kind of
a big blob of dough and then we’re just
going to put it in a bowl cover it and
leave it on the counter at room
temperature to let it rise for about two
hours
this is our preferment that we made this
morning it sat down on the counter for
two hours then we went and did something
else and stuck it in the refrigerator
for a while now we’re back and we’re
going to make our final dough so this is
the bika what I have here is a little
bit of additional bread flour four
ounces of bread flour and here I have
two tablespoons of water
two and a quarter teaspoons of salt and
an extra teaspoon of the barley malt
syrup
I’m just dissolving the salt in the
water so it’s easier to get into the
dough same thing with the barley malt
and the reason we don’t add the salt
upfront is that it tends to stiffen the
structure of the dough plus the yeast
just really don’t like to be in contact
with the salt at that point so we are
going to add anything together I’m going
to mix it up a little bit in the bowl
first and then I’m going to take it out
onto the table and knead it and you’ll
see it’s a really really stiff hard
dough and it takes a while it’s not hard
to do it just takes a while if you just
standing here and getting the
ingredients together so here we go and
your salt will have settled a little bit
if you let it sit there so I just sort
of solve it with my finger a little and
all I’m doing is I’m just sort of
reaching in with the scraper and you can
just do this with your hand or you can
do it with a spoon whatever you have on
hand and just trying to mix in as much
as the flour is I can get in the bowl
I’m not going to get it all in there by
any means but I can get a fair amount of
it in the bowl which just makes it a
little neater so that you don’t have
flour flying around your kitchen while
you’re kneading and then once I’ve got a
fair amount of it in there I’m just
going to take it out on to the board
and then it’s the same thing that we did
this morning only the dough is even a
little stiffer now than it was this
morning so I’m turning I’m picking up
the corner of the dough with one hand
I’m sort of folding it over and I’m
pressing with the heel of my hand
against the board like that and it’s
going to look really ugly and shaggy and
gnarly for a while that’s just the way
it is don’t be worried about it and I’m
using a pretty fair amount of force to
press down sort of pushing off the balls
on my feet you need it for roughly ten
minutes and what you’re looking for when
you’re kneading the dough is they’re
trying to absorb all of this additional
flour and once you’ve got all of the
flour absorbed into the dough which is
sort of the first half of your kneading
process that’ll be about the first five
minutes of kneading once you get that
all in there you’re going to just keep
kneading the dough and what’s going to
happen is it’s going to start to get
smoother more elastic and develop a
little bit of a shine on the top not a
lot of shine because it’s a very low
hydration dough but you’ll get a little
bit so as you can see the dough is
starting to look a little smoother but I
still have this additional flour to get
in as you keep kneading it what happens
the outside of the dough from being dry
starts to get slightly sticky so you can
just scoop a little bit of the flour
over there and keep kneading the dough
ball onto that little bit of flour and
it will absorb it gradually
the punch down is just to occasionally
you just want to sort of give yourself a
nice big flat sticky surface to start
from again and then I just pull from one
corner over and that’s just developing
the gluten network in the dough
and getting everything distributed
nicely in there I’ve got all the flour
pretty much incorporated in the dough
it’s starting to develop a little bit of
a shine you can see there’s a little bit
of a shine on the dough it’s starting to
feel smooth sort of the classic thing is
it feels feels like a baby so it’s
starting to feel kind of silky on the
outside it’s developing a skin on the
outside you can see that it’s much much
less shaggy
than it was before and it has amazingly
absorbed all of that flour and it seems
sort of odd to think of a dough that
needs that much flour and it’s very
unusual bagels are really the only dough
that I know of that is this stiff and we
like to make the dough by hand just as I
think I said before because you can make
it in the mixer but you need a really
powerful mixer to do it and there’s the
possibility that you might hurt your
mixer because this is a pretty stiff
dough if this seems a little strenuous
for you and you don’t want to do quite
this much medium you can always start
the dough in your mixer and take it out
and finish it up by hand
you can let it go for about three or
four minutes in your mixer and you just
take it out onto the table and finish it
which will cut down on your time and
your exercise but it’s kind of soothing
it’s just kind of soothing to sit here
and actually touch something that’s
alive like that
so this dough is feeling really good now
it’s nicely silky smooth so I’m just
going to give you a look at it you can
see that the top is looking really good
there it’s kind of springing back it’s
smooth it’s a little blisters on the top
you can see that it’s you know kind of
stretchy if you pull it up so it is done
we’re going to put it in our oiled clean
bold
and we are going to cover it will sheet
of plastic wrap and this is going to go
into the refrigerator overnight so that
you can make bagels first thing when you
get up on Sunday morning
so this is our finished dough we put it
in the refrigerator last night it’s been
proofing very slowly and coolly all
night that’s allowing it to develop a
really nice mature flavor that you
wouldn’t get in just a straight-through
dough that you didn’t refrigerate at all
and now what we’re going to do is well
when we got up in the morning the first
thing we did was he took our dough out
and we let it warm up on the counter for
about an hour and so now we’re going to
divide the dough which Nicole is going
to do twelve twelve bagels alright we’ll
see how evenly I can do that and a
little sticky or no that has been
sitting out night it’s totally different
from the way it looked in the very
beginning yeah I remember how hard that
dough actually was and how hard it was
to get that little final bit of flour in
now the flour has hydrated completely
and it’s actually a really nice
extensible dough it does feel good
alright so this board is a little slippy
not the easiest for cutting them on
actually we’ll see how even like this
and so if you are like a fussbudget and
really precise each one of these is
about 2.5 ounces that’s how much it
makes and these are kind of what I like
to call ordinary sized bagels they’re
not huge and they’re not mini bagels
they’re just enough to have maybe one or
two for breakfast with some cream cheese
and this motion that I’m doing you just
sort of stick the sticky side of the
dough down on the table you put your
hand over it like a cup and you just
sort of wiggle your hand around keeping
the heel of your hand down on the board
and you can feel it start to pull
together in a nice tight little round
and you’ll get it you’ll feel it
immediately after you do one or two it’s
not hard at all just like going back to
when you were a kid you played with
play-doh and then if you look at it it’s
got this little seam on the bottom you
can just pinch that shut or leave it it
doesn’t actually make that much
difference and working on wood makes it
easier anytime you’re forming dough if
you’re on wood it just doesn’t stick
quite as badly the other place the only
thing that that that is the slightest
bit difficult is to just find the
stickiest part on the dough and stick it
to the board
because that’s what actually sort of
suctions it down onto the board and
makes it spin around on its own axis and
make a little ball and there are people
you can do this with both hands
I’ve actually for some reason just never
been that coordinated I just do really
well with one hand I want to try it
she’s not sure yeah because I don’t
think I have the same motion as you know
you’re right
no it’s harder than I think I put my
pressure on them yeah I’m bearing down
pretty hard yeah you do have to bear
down really hard on this because it’s
not it’s not sticky at all
you didn’t find your sticky spot mine’s
not pretty no say I think I’d rather do
it with two hands – all right I’m gonna
try it on my board
but my mouth is moving around I’m used
to doing the two hands at work you guys
know the board’s not sticky you need to
stick your board yeah okay that is not
easy is it to get a perfect a cube or it
is a little flour sorry but I mean do I
have to have it completely as perfect as
those you don’t because we’re just going
to make little rings in um um you are it
sort of helps the Rings hold the nice
shape is the only reason that you make
bowl a nice little skin on the zone so
you’re forming a skin to kind of let it
mm-hmm
get strength mm-hmm okay is that all
right mm-hmm
and if you get one that’s been sort of
the old mangled you can just sort of
fold it over itself which actually makes
it have a little sticky bottom and then
it will come back so the pressure is
really key and then using your fingers
to push it Rams and if you don’t have
you don’t have a sticky spot you can
always just break open the dough ball so
that there is a sticky spot – okay that
was getting better that one is better so
they’re not quite as evenly shaped if I
had scaled them but they’re close enough
some people like little bagels anyway
yes be fine they just have to be
reasonably close to the same size so
they all cook in the same amount of time
but these are fine so now we just cover
them and we let them sit there five
minutes our little dough balls have been
sitting here relaxing for about five
minutes and now we are actually going to
form them into the bay
this is like exciting part so I have a
sheet pan here this is or you can just
have a regular like cookie baking sheet
something with sides is kind of nice and
I’m just going to sprinkle this with
semolina flour and if you don’t have
some Alena flour fine cornmeal is just
fine I’m used both for this and either
one works just fine and all it does is
keeps the bagel from sticking to the
bottom of the pan and it also keeps the
bagel from sticking when you actually
transfer it to the baking sheet or the
baking stone in the oven and so you take
a bagel you put your thumbs through the
middle thumbs through the middle then
you just pretend like you’re a little
kid and you’re working with play-doh and
you just are sort of slightly stretching
it in it when I get the hole about that
big I switch to my to my index finger
and the next big finger and you’re just
sort of going around and around and you
can kind of twist it around as you’re go
in there and your goal is to get the
hole to be between an inch and a half
and two inches and when you put it down
on the pan it’s going to kind of close
back up a little bit but that’s your
goal so there you go
and if you have little kids this would
be a great thing to bring them in at
this point because I can’t imagine that
there aren’t any little kids in the
entire world who would not like to do
this part
and then once we get them all formed and
on the pan we’re just going to cover it
back up with our plastic wrap and hunt
we’re going to let it rise on the
counter for roughly an hour and it’s
pretty warm in here so these probably
won’t have to go quite an hour but
they’re basically going to hold the dent
when you poke them so depending on how
warm your kitchen is that may take a
little longer or a little less time and
it’s gonna you’re going to let them rise
in a relatively warm spot in your
kitchen not steaming hot not like 80
degrees not super cold not like 60
ideally right around you know 70 degrees
but if you just watch them you can have
some variability with your temperature
so the moment of truth has finally come
we’ve shaped our bagels this morning
we’ve had them rising on the counter on
their sheet pan for about an hour and
they’re all nice and poufy now so we
have a pot of boiling water it’s about
four inches of water it’s at a gentle
boil it shouldn’t be a really really
hard boil and this pot will hold about
six bagels at a time so we’re just going
to pick them up and gently drop them
into the water you can tell if they are
ready to go because they will either
float immediately or they’ll sink to the
bottom and they’ll pop back up within 15
seconds so these are completely ready to
go and you’re going to set a timer
you’re going to cook them one minute I
like to use this little spoon I find it
just a round handled wooden spoon is the
easiest thing to use you just flip them
over and you set it for one more minute
couple seconds here so our bagels have
flipped for a minute on each side I just
take them out with the little handle and
you can write back on the same pan
now so I’m going to put on some toppings
I’ve got poppy seeds and salt kosher
salt really coarse big grains of salt
for the tops and also some dried onion
that we’ve actually soaked in water so
it won’t burn immediately and you’ll
stick fighter’ to the top to the onions
you can also use sesame seeds just
whatever your favorite flavour seeds are
and I’m going to do that while Lisa gets
the next batch into the pot of boiling
water
do these go in now anyone yes I’m gonna
put those in and I’ll just take them
from right there okay
so inside the oven have a/c heated pizza
stone you could also just put these on a
preheated sheet pan how long for the
bagels bagels go 14 need to check our
bagels first batch type it in on the
pizza stone looks like they are really
pretty close I might give them one more
minute to get them really nice and
toasted I like to loosen them up just so
they’re easy to get off you can see
they’ve got really nice brown color
extra minute hey huh these are done
those are some nice-looking bagels
that’s an especially nice one so
although it took about Oh 24 hours to
get these completely to rise and bake
they’re completely worth it as you can I
think you can detect that just in
looking at the texture in these bagels
so the recipe makes a dozen you may not
want to share with people that depends
on how big your family is and all they
need is maybe a little bit of cream
cheese or nothing they’re good just as
they are
you