When I mentioned to folks at work that I was planning on making bagels a few weeks ago, I got a look like I was going to try to reinvent the wheel. Of course they all wanted to try them as well.
The “classic” bagel, made most famous by the Jewish bakers of NYC, is boiled for a short time before baking. The BBA bagel formula takes this style of bagel as its inspiration and adds a sponge to get the fermentation process going earlier. Like most of the formulas in the BBA, this is a 2 day process. Unlike the other 2 day breads I’ve made so far, you get to do most of the work on day 1 for the bagels.
The bagel dough is very stiff, so stiff that the formula recommends mixing and kneading by hand (so as not to endanger your stand mixer). That of course is a non-issue for me as I don’t have a stand mixer to use anyway. After mixing up the dough, you actually get to shape the bagels before putting them in the refrigerator overnight to retard.
On day 2 its time to boil and bake the bagels. I boiled 3 bagels at a time for a minute on each side. After I had boiled enough to fill a sheet pan, I placed them in the oven per the instructions. I think for my oven, I needed to bake them longer than I ended up doing. My bagels didn’t get that nice golden brown color on the top. They were fully baked through the inside however. I sampled my first bagel when it was still slightly warm and it was good. However, the texture and the flavor of these were much better after they had fully cooled.
Oh and those folks at work? They liked the homemade bagels.
