Peter Reinhart's Bagels

Adapted from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Yield: 12

SPONGE:

1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour (see note below)
2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

DOUGH

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder or 1 tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar 

TO FINISH (on Day 2):

1 teaspoon soda ash OR 1 tablespoon brown sugar/barley malt syrup per quart of water for boiling the bagels (if using soda ash, add carefully to boiling water)

Two sheet pans covered with greased parchment paper

DAY ONE: 

1.     To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-quart mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly (I set my on the water heater). It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop.

2.     To make the dough, in the same mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour and all of the salt and malt. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients for a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup flour to stiffen the dough.

3.     Using the dough hook, knead the dough for 6 minutes on setting 2 of the Kitchen Aid mixer. Remove the dough and knead by hand until the dough passes the window pane test. (The resulting dough should be firm, stiffer than French bread dough, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour – all ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 71 degrees F. If the dough seems to dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.)

4.     Once the dough passes the window pane test, knead your add-ins into the dough by hand.

5.     Immediately divide the dough into 4 1/2 ounce pieces for standard bagels. Form the pieces into rolls.

6.     Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes.

7.     Proceed with shaping the bagels. Poke a hole in a ball of bagel dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 2 1/2 inches in diameter (half of this for a mini-bagel). The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible (try to avoid thick and thin spots).

8.     Place each of the shaped pieces into the cupcake carrier. When all the bagels have been shapped, put the lid on the container and let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

9.     Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test.” Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float. Return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.

DAY TWO:

1.     When you are ready to bake the bagels, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with a rack set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the pot the better), and add the soda ash/brown sugar/barley malt syrup.Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby.

2.     Remove HALF (see Note 2) the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit. Note: I only boil the bagels for a minute at most. I have found that the longer I boil a bagel, the more soggy, deflated it gets afterwards. 

3.     Place boiled bagels onto tea towels to drain. Sprinkle with additional toppings if desired.

4.     Place your first six bagels on the sheet pans lined with grease parchment, and place the pan on the middle rack. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees. After rotating, lower oven temperature to 425 and bake for another 8 minutes or until the bagels turn a light golden brown. (In the meantime, prepare the remaining 6 bagels)

5.     Let bagels cool for at least 15 minutes.

Note: I substitute the high-gluten flour with 24 grams of vital wheat gluten mixed into KA unbleached bread flour.

Note 2: I have found that if the bagel dough gets too warm while waiting to be boiled, it puffs up and then deflates. I have also found that I like baking the bagels one tray at a time.