Desayuno

I have had New York bagels at five thirty in the morning when they were still almost too hot to touch, and I have had Montreal bagels right out of the oven on the coldest day of my life. These are not those. But they are fun to make, and any bagel is good right out of your own oven.

This recipe is based on the one in the New York Cookbook. At least, I think it is. The first time I made bagels, that was the recipe I used.

Dough:

• 5 cups (600g) bread flour
• 2 tsp (10ml) molasses
• 1 tbsp (15g) active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp (15g) white sugar
• 2 tsp (10g) salt
• 1 tbsp (5ml) olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups (350ml) warm water

Toppings / Optional:

• Optional: dehydrated onion
• Optional: sesame seeds
• Optional: poppy seeds

Equipment:

• sheet pan
• baking stone
• large pot

Add the yeast and the sugar to the warm water and let stand for ten minutes. When the yeast has started to foam, pour it into a large bowl and add the oil and the molasses. Mix in one cup of flour and stir until there are no lumps. Add the salt and all the rest of the flour. The mixture will be very dry. It will be dry enough that you may well think you did something wrong. Don’t worry. It really is supposed to be like that.

Knead the the dough until it starts to come together. This is a very dense dough. It will be difficult to work, but it should come together after a few minutes. If you need to add water, you can, but only use a few tsp at a time. This dough is supposed to be dense. If you have a stand mixer (I do now, thanks to my awesome friends, but I did not at the time I took these pictures) go ahead and use that.

Knead for ten to fifteen minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you are using a mixer, stop it after ten minutes and give the dough a rest, then knead by hand, just for a minute, to see if it feels done. You don’t need to give it a full rise here, but the flour does need some time to fully hydrate, and the dough needs some time to relax so you can work with it. Set the dough aside, covered with a clean kitchen towel, for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Divide the dough into ten equal portions. If you are Alton Brown, you can use your kitchen scale to weigh the dough, divide by ten, and then use the scale again to make exact portions. I always plan to do something like that. In the end, though, I usually decide that I can eyeball it and get close enough, and then, as the cook, I can pick the biggest one to test when they are done! This is how the world is supposed to work, right?

Let the portions rest for ten more minutes before continuing. I know there are all these pauses, but it makes it easier to work the dough. Once the portions have rested, roll them out to about six inches, bring the ends together overlapping about 1 inch, and roll the two ends together. Don’t overthink this. Just place the two ends over each other, put two fingers through the hole, and give it a couple rolls back and forth on the board.

Now you have to wait again! And this time for longer. 30 to 40 minutes. But don’t worry, you will have something to do. Put your pizza stone int he oven and preheat to 500 degrees (260c). line your sheet pan with parchment paper, and set out another sheet pan, or a plate, with the toppings of your choice for dipping the bagles in. Fill your large pot 3/4 full of hot water (plus a dash of salt), and bring to a boil.

Now the fun part! Also the part that takes timing. Using a slotted spoon, gently lower two or three bagels at a time into the water. Let them cook for 40 seconds on each side. Be gentle, you don’t want them to deflate! The water should be just under boiling at this point. Very hot, even bubbling, but not bubbling violently.

As the bagels come out of the water, place them on the pan or place you filled with the topping. The topping will stick to the wet bagels. Then move them to the parchment lined pan. Keep dunking, flipping, dipping, and moving until you have all your bagels par cooked and topped. This is the point in the recipe when I usually realize that I should have doubled it, because it’s to much work for only ten of anything, even if they are good. But if you make much more than ten, you won’t have time to eat them before they become old bagels, and you can get old bagels at the grocery store without doing any work at all.

When you have all your bagels ready to bake, lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees (230c) and place your pan directly on the baking stone. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, or until they look too good to leave in the oven any longer, and you are compelled to take them out and have one, even though you will burn your fingers when you slice it open.

Posted by Tom