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Bagels

Yields: 8 to 12 pieces.

Dough:

  • Instant yeast: 1 tablespoon (9g)
  • Bread flour: 4 cups (480g)
  • Salt: 2 teaspoons (12g)
  • (Optional) Brown sugar, or barley malt syrup: 1 tablespoon (14g)
  • Luke warm water: 1 1/3 cups (303g)
  • Eggs: 1 (egg wash)

Water bath:

For 2 quarts (1814g) water, either:

  • Brown sugar or honey : 2 tablespoons (28g)
  • Granulated sugar: 1 tablespoon (14g)

or

  • Baking soda 15g
  • honey: 30g

Dough​

  1. Combine all ingredients and knead vigorously for 10 minutes (if you're using an electric mixer) or up to 15 minutes (if you're kneading by hand).

  2. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and set it aside to rise until it's noticeably puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

  3. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line them with parchment and grease the parchment.

  4. Transfer the dough to a work surface. Divide it into balls of 70-90g. About 10 balls.

  5. Ball each piece. Place the balls on one of the prepared baking sheets. Cover the balls with plastic wrap, and let them rest for 30 minutes or up to 2 days in the fridge.

  6. While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water (+brown sugar or barley malt syrup, and sugar) to a very gentle boil in a large, wide-diameter pot.

  7. Preheat your oven to 220°c.

  8. Use your index finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it's about 3.5cm to 5cm in diameter.

  9. Place six bagels on each of the baking sheets.

Boiling​

  1. Transfer the bagels, 4 at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Do not stack them.
  2. Preheat oven to 220, fan off.
  3. Cook the bagels for 1-2 minutes. Flip them over, and cook 1 minute more.
  4. Using a strainer, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
  5. (Apply egg wash if needed) and add seasoning.
  6. Bake at 220 for 20 to 25 minutes optionally turning them over about 15 minutes into the baking time.
  7. Remove the bagels from the oven, and cool completely on a rack.

Seasoning​

  • Dry garlic flakes: 2 tbsp
  • Dry onion flakes: 2.5 tbsp
  • White sesame seeds: 1.5 tbsp
  • Poppy seeds: 1 tbsp
  • Black sesame seeds 1 tbsp
  • Flaky see salt: heaping half tablespoon

Sourdough

Day One: The Dough

  • 383 ml sourdough starter
  • 240 ml cool water
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 2 teaspoons yeast
  • 3½ or 4 teaspoons salt
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 pounds bread flour
  1. Combine and knead.
  2. Divide the dough into 110g pieces.
  3. Cold proof for 12-24 hours.

Day Two: Boiling and Baking

  1. Remove the bagels from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 20-60 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven (and your baking stone) to 450 degrees. Fill a wide cooking pot with a couple inches of water and a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and bring to a boil.
  3. Cut the parchment paper that the bagels are on so that there are two-three bagels on each sheet of paper.

Once the oven is hot and the water is boiling, pull the baking stone from the oven and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Gently lower a section of parchment paper with bagels into the pot of water, flipping it so the bagels go into the water face-first. Tug off the paper and discard it. Boil the bagels for 20 seconds, flip, and boil for another 20 seconds. Keeping the bagels face up and using a slotted spoon, transfer the bagels one at a time to the baking stone. When the stone is full, bake the bagels for 16-18 minutes.