Plain Bagels
A fresh bagel, well toasted and cream cheesy and crunch and yum is a great way to start the day. Or lunch. Bagels do require a bit of skill, but that skill can be learned in one bagel making session. Invite some friends to help and everyone gets to keep the goods. Learn to make bagels and hang with the best people you know. Not bad.
Tools
Mixer
Scale
Mixing bowls
Plastic wrap
Baking paper
Ingredients
563 g Bread Flour
13 g Salt
2+ g Instant yeast
330g Water
5 g Malt Syrup
Procedure
Place the water into the mixing bowl. Weigh the malt syrup directly into the flour. Add the dry ingredients to the water and place the mixing bowl on the machine. With the dough hook, mix the bagel dough for three minutes. You want to see the dough start to come together. Raise the speed to medium and mix three more minutes. This may take longer than you expect. No worries. When the dough has come back together and is cleaning the bowl, remove the dough to a lightly buttered clean bowl, cover with plastic and rest 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pick up the dough, pull it a couple of times to stretch it, reshape it into a ball and back in the bowl, covered, for another 30 minutes.
Scale the dough to 4 oz portions. They are folded like little loaves. That dough is then rolled into a long loaf, but is sealed on itself. The gift of YouTube makes this easier to understand.
At this point, I place them on a sheet pan lined with baking paper or a silicone baking mat which has been lightly dusted with cornmeal. Cover the pan with plastic and let the start to proof. When they have doubled in size, cover the pan and place it in the cooler overnight.
In the morning, remove the bagels from the cooler and place the pan on the counter. Allow them to start getting to room temperature as you bring a gallon of water to a boil with 2 ounces of malt syrup or molasses.
When the water boils, carefully place the bagels into the water. If you have a normal household pan, 4 at a time is good. The bagels should boil about 45 seconds. Remove them with a strainer the handle of a wooden spoon in the hole. Place them in a bowl then transfer them back to the sheetpan they came from.
I don’t have a hearth at home so I bake then on the sheet pan with cornmeal underneath. It is in part to help them come off the paper when they are dough, but also, I like the crunch.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until they are nicely golden brown. Remove, cool, slice and enjoy.
