Before I got hit by that truck and swallowed by Moon Eater, I actually planned to write about making bagels and bagel waffles. It is time to get back on the blogging bike, so here we are.
Being a Jersey Girl there are few things I love more than a good bagel....emphasis on the word good. Until I left my home state I didn't realize that the rest of the country does NOT have access to the good bagels I was so spoiled by. So to get my fix, I had to learn how to make them.
Bagels made at home will always be slightly different than those made in gigantic professional ovens equipped with built in misters, but you can come darn close. They will far surpass anything available outside of the NY metro area and don't even get me started on grocery store bagels.
First....mise en place miss en place (humming) ...we need a catchy little jingle about miss en place don't you think? :) There are surprisingly few ingredients in these little rounds of goodness.
You will need
4 cups bread flour
(very important, AP flour does not have enough protein...in fact you could even add vital wheat gluten if you wanted to bump that up even higher, makes for an even chewier bagel)
1 tbslp brown sugar
(this is a sub for malt syrup which most people would have to order online, I try and make life as easy as possible when sharing a recipe. Malt syrup does add a slightly different flavor, if you happen to have it, go ahead and use it)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp canola oil
2 tsp (slightly less than one packet) dry yeast
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup warm water (this will be dependent on the relative humidity in your home)
Combine your yeast, sugar and water in a measuring cup to proof until foamy. Measure out your dry ingredients into the bowl of a mixer if that is the method you will be using for kneading, or a large mixing bowl if kneading by hand. A word on that....bagel dough needs to be VERY stiff. Because of this, kneading by hand can be a challenge, though it is possible and i've done it many times. Because I make everything in larger than normal batches, I now leave this task to my hobart. If you are rocking this old school, do not be tempted to add more liquid than the recipe maximum. That dense chewy texture that makes a bagel lovely will disappear. Kneading will get easier as your going.
Mix the dry ingredients until combined and add the oil and proofed yeast mixture and knead for 8-10 minutes.
Once you are done kneading lightly grease your bowl and cover your dough.
Allow dough to rest until just about doubled. I do this in my oven on the proof setting, but a draft free warm spot on the counter will work as well. Notice it is not as smooth as some other bread doughs. That is because of its stiff nature.
Once risen, turn out your dough and punch it down.
Next cut your dough (once it has rested) into equal pieces and form into smooth balls (about golf ball sized). I make my bagels mini sized because we have many littles eating smaller portions. If you want a full size bagel, make your dough balls the size of a paddle ball instead.
I will show you how to form a traditional bagel in a bit, but I went a little off the rails at this point. I decided I wanted to try skipping the boiling and baking and make them on a waffles iron! Hey, don't laugh it was delicious :)
So if you would like to follow me down this particular rabbit hole, here is how you do it.
First preheat your waffle iron and spray with Bakers Joy (one day they will call me ;). I used what I have, which are segmented belgian waffle irons. In all honesty I think a traditional, non segmented iron would have worked better so if you have that run with it.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and set aside with a pastry brush.
Allow your dough balls to rest briefly and roll out as round as you can. I rolled mine about 1/4 inch thick.
Close your iron but don't press too hard. Normally I would latch my iron shut, but I found when I did this the lines which make the segments were just too pinched. Bread dough being harder than waffle batter, it just made them split into four pieces, which is fine for just eating with some cream cheese spread on top (and eat it that way we did) but for a sandwich you want it to remain a whole round.
Cook until the recessed areas are golden and crisp. If your iron has a timer on it, ignore it. It takes longer to get to beautiful for the bagel waffles than it does traditional waffles. You will just have to peak and check :)
We made egg sandwiches with most of ours, saving some for a schmeer of cream cheese. The little wedges once broken or cut apart were perfect for little hands :) We LOVED these. They were crisp on the outside but intensely chewy the way a good Jersey bagel should be. It was like a bagel made almost completely of the crust....heaven!
Ok, back on the normal track now :)
So before we exited stage left to make the waffles we had rested balls of dough. Stick your thumb directly into the center of the dough.
Take your finger from your other hand and put in the hole and gently pull and and spin to make the whole bigger.
Now there are many people who prefer to roll the dough into a snake, wrap it around all of their fingers and pinch it together at the palm of the hand forming the circle (with a much bigger hole) I have seen people do this like robots and they come out beautifully. I am not one of these people. My experience with that forming method is that when you go to boil the bagel the pinch separates. Plus I don't think they are as pretty...and i'm a girl...so that matters :)
Allow your newly formed bagels to rest for about 20 minutes on a tray spray with...you guessed it...Baker's Joy!!
This resting time should be enough to allow you to get your pan of water prepared and your oven preheated to 450 F. I use a flat bottom pan with 3 inch high sides. Fill 2/3 of the way with water and to that add 1 tblsp of baking soda. The baking soda helps give a beautiful brown crust to your bagel. This is also the method used for making soft pretzels....yep thats why they are so nicely browned. The boiling itself adds to their signature chewiness. Now I neglected to get pictures of this step....blogger fail....but it's very straightforward. Bring your water to a steady boil. Place a few bagels at a time into the water. Boil for 2 minutes on each side, drain well by lifting out with a dowel stuck in the center and letting the excess water fall off into the pan and remove to the same sprayed tray while you boil off the rest. They puff significantly during this step, so you may find that you need more tray space than you began with.
My next step is not traditional. I brush my bagels in egg white at this point. I know I know.....some bagel making chef is writhing in pain at the thought but let me explain. I have beautiful ovens.....Bosch thermadore double ovens, all the bells and whistles ovens....BUT any home ovens, no matter how fantastimagical , will fail in replicating precisely the environment created in large professional ovens. I have made these bagels without brushing them and they are still delicious, but the crust is just a little less crackly and chewy. So brush I do.
My 9 yr old son helped me form the bagels, his are of course the truly perfect and most delicious ones , having been touched by an angel (hey, I'm aloud...he's my baby son :)
After brushing is the time to add your toppings. This time I just added sesame seeds to some but you can use anything (or everything, those are my favorites) you like.
Bake at 450 until GBD....golden brown and delicious (I love Alton Brown).
Enjoy my lovelies :)
I will see you back again soon....i'm thinking actual belgian waffles nest time :)
