'That's a Bagel!'
Boiled then baked, don't confuse this classic Jewish deli roll for Panera bread
Bagels are a lot harder to make than they look. If you go to Panera, you’d think they’re just bread shaped like a donut, but you’d be terribly misinformed.
They’re nothing like bread.
Bagels are dense, chewy, and slightly sweet from the barley malt the dough or dough water is made from. I make mine based off a Serious Eats recipe calling for the use of a food processor and Yukone (flour and cold water roux), meant to lengthen the span of the bagel.
Food processor?!
You read right: food processor. I nearly blew out the motor of my high-priced Cuisinart making the first few batches (processing till dough can be pulled apart to make a window pane is damned near impossible). So, my husband bought me a Ninja.
Same difference.
If you follow this recipe to the letter, you’re in danger of over-heating the dough as well; thus, killing the mere four grams of instant yeast required. I process the dough in increments, 90 seconds here, wait, maybe do some dishes, 90 seconds there. All in all, I’ve had to process the dough in about five-seven increments, sometimes in batches.
I’ve had to, most recently, knead the heavy dough by hand, and even then, I don’t get that window-pane effect. I’d have to knead the dough for an hour. (Rolling and tightening the dough into balls took a lot out of my lack of upper arm strength, too.)
If someone makes bagels for you, they really, really love you.
It’s been over a year since I made my last bagel. I took a break, because my husband said they didn’t turn out the same as before, even though I did the same thing I always did. They were still delicious, just not as chewy as he remembered, and I kinda missed him raving about how mine are better than at New York delis.
Besides, he only eats about three or four, then forgets about them, and we don’t have anyone we can make them for (other than our next door neighbors). There’s nothing more painful than throwing away moldy bagels after all that work.
Believe me.
Something told me to try again (G-d?), so I did. I was careful this time to follow the recipe as closely as possible with some caveats (see below), taking care to get the dough as stretchy as I could and boiling it longer than the recipe calls for. That helps with the chew factor.
There is a lot to adjust in the Serious Eats recipe/video. To wit:
Replace sugar with honey. Stop cooking/baking with refined white sugar. Find a healthier, more natural substitute.
Don’t listen to the Serious Eats lady. You can use any kind of yeast. I’ve used RapidRise and active — with or without liquid — with no ill effect.
Add Yukone in first, pulse with the bread flour (yes, it has to be bread flour), Kosher salt, and honey. Then, add the rest of the water.
Process the dough in batches until you’re close to that window-pane effect. Pause in between 90-sec. processing to let the dough cool down. You won’t get the stretchy, silky texture completely. Stop when you get close enough. After the fifth time, the yeast will start rising the dough and stretching it anyway.
Have a bowl of water nearby. You’ll need it to get the balls of dough to adhere and the seams to disappear when you rock ‘n roll roll roll.
Do not stretch the dough balls into rings with your fingers like that girl does in the video. You’re bound to tear the ring apart. Instead, gently use your hands to knead and stretch each dough ball into about a 3+” diameter ring. Soften the edges with your hands to create even more of a rounded ring.
You don’t have to boil in three inches of water. It can be less. It should be less. If you’re using barley malt, that water will foam and spill over. Watch the boiling water carefully; you’ll need to adjust the temperature to avoid that.
In addition to the barley malt, stir in a teaspoon or so of baking soda. Watch that the water doesn’t foam and spill over.
If there is foam, and chances are, there will be, turn down the heat a little and spoon out most of it until the crazy boiling subsides.
If you don’t have barley malt, you can use molasses or honey. When I did early on, I never had the overflow foam.
I boiled each side of the bagel for a minute, not 30 seconds. Make sure the pot’s on a rolling boil when you do this. Don’t use chopsticks to pull them out. A fine-mesh strainer’s good enough.
I also used a wire rack to put the boiled bagels on. Don’t worry about the extra water, it bakes off.
Brush bagels with egg wash (whisk an egg is all) and sprinkle your toppings on, or leave plain.
Aim for 25 minutes of baking, as the recipe says, but watch the bagels before then. Be prepared to pull them out if they get too brown. Sometimes, I let them bake for just 20 minutes.
In the future, I may experiment with other recipes. “Girl Meets Farm’s” Molly Yeh has a neat one out there. Ballerina Farm’s doing great things with pumpkin sourdough. And my Philly-based jazz/folk/rock artist friend Lili Añel (Better Days) put in a request for cinnamon-raisin.
I prefer an Everything bagel and lox, easy on the garlic cream cheese, or bagels with sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper.
Now, who wants a bagel?