mariadnoca
Moderator
Heather's Bagels
These will take two days to make, or three if you want to make the pre-ferment the night before dough day, which I do because lazy and easier. You will also need fridge space for two cookie sheets of bagels to go in overnight. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m seriously tipping my hat to Heather because these are the best bagels I've ever had, including NYC. I honestly couldn’t believe I made them. My picky nyc bagel neighbors swooned. From my friend Heather the baker in NY. My notes are in parentheses. They are a project vs recipe imho, but they aren’t difficult. She demo’ed making them with her two year old helping (who clearly had made them more than I ever had, because this was my first attempt.)
These will take two days to make, or three if you want to make the pre-ferment the night before dough day, which I do because lazy and easier. You will also need fridge space for two cookie sheets of bagels to go in overnight. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m seriously tipping my hat to Heather because these are the best bagels I've ever had, including NYC. I honestly couldn’t believe I made them. My picky nyc bagel neighbors swooned. From my friend Heather the baker in NY. My notes are in parentheses. They are a project vs recipe imho, but they aren’t difficult. She demo’ed making them with her two year old helping (who clearly had made them more than I ever had, because this was my first attempt.)
- Servings: 9-ish large bagels (see my note within recipe)
Ingredients
- Pre-ferment:
- 165 grams, or 1 and 1/3 cup, flour
- ¼ TEASPOON yeast
- 200 ml water, or 200 grams, OR ¾ cup plus 1 TB (lukewarm)
- Dough:
- All of the preferment you made in the morning or night before
- 3/4 tsp yeast
- 2 Tablespoons sugar, preferably turbinado/raw sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Salt (if you are using kosher salt with a large grain, I like to add a pinch more)
- 1 Tablespoon barley malt powder (I do ¼ cup if I’m using malted milk powder instead)
- 660 grams or 5.5 cups bread flour. You may find you need to add a little more flour if you are using All purpose.
- 300 grams, OR 1.25 cups of water (lukewarm), possibly more in low humidity.
- Boiling:
- 2 Tablespoons of Baking soda
- 2 T either honey or brown sugar
- Toppings:
- Your choice, optional (my note: don't go overboard on the minced onion. Favorites include
- Minced onion
- Sesame seeds
- Poppy seeds
- Fennel seeds
- Flax seeds
- Optional, dough add ins such as raisins, mini chocolate chips, cheese, etc
- Night of Day 0 or Day 1:
- Pre-Ferment:
- Mix water/yeast, give it a minute to dissolve some, then add flour in your bowl, mix all, cover with plastic wrap, leave it alone for at least 8 hours. More hours is fine.
- Day 1:
- Dough:
- Add water and yeast. Again, give a minute to dissolve. Then flour, sugar, malt (if using), and pre-ferment. (I used malted milk powder because I had it on hand.) You’re going to mix and knead the heck out of this. (NOTE: Depending on if your area is in dry winter, you could need up to 40 grams or 1/3 more water. If it's very dry there, start with more. Range is 300-340g.) I do 12 minutes in my mixer using the dough hook. If you’re using a kitchenaid you can maybe get away with ten. A lower to mid speed on the mixer is fine. If you’re doing it by hand you are going to have to knead at least 15 minutes. You want the dough to be pretty smooth and not really sticky. If adding cheese, chips, raisins, etc. fold in after done kneading.
- Then you will cover your bowl of dough and leave it 2-3 hours. If your house is below 70*F it will be on the longer-end of that, if your house is warmer, it will be on the shorter-end. I go about 2.5 ideally. You can poke it and see if it pops back immediately (not ready) or kinda slow (ready). While you are waiting you can prep your baking pans.
- You will need a couple of pans so the bagels can be spread out. If you have two cookie sheets that is going to be enough as long as they fit in your fridge together. I like to line with parchment and spray the parchment with cooking spray. If you don’t have parchment you can use waxed paper with spray or just the tray greased. DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY BAKE ON THE WAXED PAPER ASK ME HOW I KNOW.
- After the rising time, it is time to divide. If you have a scale, I do 5 oz pieces. If you don’t have a scale, just do about 9 equal pieces. (Note: these end up very large or more “sandwich” sized, mine were 5 1/8 oz for 9. I would make a bit smaller next time.) A bread knife works great to cut the dough if you have one.
- After they are divided you will pre-shape into balls. If you have made rolls before you’ve probably done this part. You want a smooth round ball with a bit of surface tension. I will demonstrate this in a video because I am crappy at explaining it with words. (No she’s good with words, to create tension, while on the board, “spin and tuck” the dough to shape/create a tight ball.)
- After you have finished with the pre-shape, you will go back and make the bagel shape. Basically you take the ball, poke your thumbs in the middle and stretch. Try not to tear the dough. If it’s springing back to hard right now, don’t force it, we will go back to it. Also *try* to keep the circle even but I never can.
- After you have shaped the last one, go back to the first and stretch the hole. You need it a lot bigger than you want the final hole to be in the baked bagel. By now the dough should be pretty relaxed and should stretch easily. If the dough is still tight and snaps back, walk away for about 5-10 minutes, then do the second shape. Again, I will demonstrate this. But the holes should be about 2 inches.
- Don’t go crazy, eventually you will have to just decide they are good enough (again, ask me how I know.)
- Put them on your greased/sprayed baking sheet. Spray them lightly with cooking spray, cover REALLY WELL with plastic wrap and put in your fridge overnight.
- Day Two:
- The next morning is when you will bake. They should be in the fridge at least 12 hours, but I’ve done up to 18. It is flexible. Don’t worry if they don’t seem to have risen, that’s fine.
- For a non-convection oven (w/ one ymmv), you will need to preheat your oven to 460F degrees. If you have a baking stone or pizza stone that is perfect. If you don’t, you can use a baking pan but you might want to double layer the parchment or even another baking pan to protect the bottoms from browning too fast. (I used a standard heavy duty, not the flimsy kind, 1/4 sheet pan at room temp and it was fine.) You will also need to set up a large pot of water to boil on the stove. A BIG pot, you don’t want to overcrowd. I wait until it is boiling and add a couple of tablespoons of Baking soda (2T) and either 2T honey or brown sugar* (you can also add barley malt powder or syrup). The baking soda is important. Be careful when you add as the water will boil up.
- *If you have an extra large pot (I used standard stock pot size) you can add more, but too much soda will create a metallic taste, so be mindful of that.
- Once everything is very heated (water boiling, baking stone HOT) you will boil your bagels. The bagels should float when you put them in the water and at the very least within 30 seconds. If they do not, leave them out on the counter for a little bit. I only do two at a time, I hate when the squish and misshape each other. Only boil 2-3 minutes, flipping halfway through. I only do two minutes. Take them out of the water and set them on your parchment or baking pan. Then boil the next set. If you can’t fit them all in the oven at once you can bake in two batches but don’t boil right away. Boil right before the bake. If you are adding any toppings they will go on after the boil but before the bake.
- The bake will be 16 minutes. They will be darker than you’re used to but they will be good! If you insist they be lighter, you can bake them like 13 minutes. They need to be at least golden.
- Cool on rack. The hardest part. PLEASE try to wait a half hour before you cut them. You can take pictures and an share them while you are waiting. The texture will be so much better if you wait! The gluten is basically gelatinous and needs to cool to set or it will gum up.
- Storage:
- After completely cool, store in ziplock or freeze. They thaw quickly.
