Sourdough Bagels

This recipe seems long and complicated, but trust me, it only takes a few attempts to get it right. Since the sponge uses sourdough but the main dough uses instant yeast, you will get the flavor of sourdough, but the security of commercial yeast. This makes this recipe pretty forgiving to mistakes in fermentation temperatures and times.

Sponge

Dough

Bagel Starch Coating

Bagel Boiling Bath

Useful (but not necessary) Tools

• Stand Mixer
• Bowl Scraper
• Bench Scraper
• Kitchen Towel
• Immersion Blender
• Scale (this is pretty necessary)

Ingredient Considerations

Flour

Ideally you want to use the strongest, highest protein flour you can get. I usually make bagels with Central Milling High Mountain. Other good choices include King Arthur Sir Lancelot and General Mills All Trumps. If you can't get your hands on any of those either plain King Arthur Bread Flour (KABF) or KABF plus some additional wheat gluten should do the trick.

Water

While it is by no means necessary, I like to use dechlorinated water. If you live in a place that treats water with chlorine, simply letting it off-gas in an open container overnight will eliminate most of the chlorine. Filtration and boiling will also eliminate chlorine more rapidly. If your local water is treated with Chloramine, the aforementioned methods will not work, but it can be removed with Campden Tablets (potassium metabisulfite). Use caution when handling potassium metabisulfite and ensure that it is dosed properly. If you don't want to go through the hassle of dechlorinating your water, tap water works perfectly fine.

Malt Powder

If you cannot find diastatic malt powder, feel free to use honey.

Salt

Any non-iodized salt should work fine, no need to get too fancy.

Schedule

Day 1

5:00 pm

Begin by mixing together the ingredients to build up the active starter for the sponge. Use a 1:1 mixture of flour and water to end up with at least 200 grams.

9:00 pm - Midnight

Allow the starter to ferment at room temperature until doubled in size. I use a rubber band around a jar to monitor its progress.

Mix together the ingredients for the sponge until it forms a shaggy ball. If using a stand mixer this should take 1-2 minutes on low speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and cover with a damp towel to ferment overnight.

Day 2

9:00 am

At this point the sponge should be very bubbly and light.

Add the rest of the ingredients for the dough on top of the sponge.

Mix and knead until a very well developed dough is formed. If using a stand mixed, 2 minutes on low, and 5 minutes on medium should be adequate. If kneading by hand, knead for at least 10 minutes.

The dough should feel smooth and you should be able to pull a windowpane on it with no or minimal tearing.

Immediately divide the dough into 12 equal weight pieces.

Form each piece into a rough ball. To round the each ball, place it on the counter and cup your hand behind the ball like so:

Pull your hand towards you, using the tension of the dough against the counter to pull its surface tighter. Rotate the ball and repeat.

Keep doing this until the ball is smooth and round. Repeat for all 12 balls.

Cover with a damp towel for 20 minutes.

9:20 am

Now we are going to shape the bagels using hand rolling. Take one of the dough balls and pull on its sides slightly to make it into more of a rectangle shape.

Continue pulling and pressing lightly until you have a log shape.

Use both hands to roll out the log into roughly a six inch rope like so:

Wrap the rope around the back of your hand so the end meet in your palm and overlap about 2 inches:

Press and roll using your palm against the seam of the bagel to seal it.

Place the bagels on a tray with lightly oiled parchment paper.

Brush the top of the bagels with oil and cover with plastic wrap.Ferment for 30 minutes in a warm spot.

Place trays in the fridge and proof for 8-24 hours.

Day 3

9:00 am

Preheat the oven to 500° F.

Mix the Ultratex 3 with the water. If you have an immersion blender, blend for 1-2 minutes. If not, whisk until well dissolved.

Add baking soda to water in a large pot and bring to a boil.

Place as many bagels as can comfortably fit, top side down, into the boiling water. Boil for 1 minute.

Flip bagels over and boil for an additional 1 minute.

Remove the bagels from the pot and place bottom down onto a parchment lined tray. Do not reuse the parchment paper from the proofing tray.

9:30 am

Bake the bagels for 5 minutes at 500° F. Then rotate the tray 180° and bake for 15-20 more minutes at 450° F or until golden brown.

Remove the bagels from the oven. Let the bagels cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 350° F while the bagels are cooling.

Brush each bagel, one at a time, with the Ultratex 3 slurry.

Quickly top the bagel with your desired toppings.

Place bagels back into the 350° F oven with the door cracked open for 5-10 minutes to let the coating dry.

Enjoy!