* Exported from MasterCook *
Bagels, Fresh Mini Homemade
Recipe By :Peter Reinhart via Lauren
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread-Bakers Mailing List Breads/Muffins/Rolls
Low Fat Posted
Snacks
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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Sponge:
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached bread flour -- see note 2
2 1/2 cups water -- room temperature
Dough:
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached bread flour -- see note 2
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder -- or 1 T dark or light malt
syrup, honey, or brown sugar (see note 1)
To Finish:
1 tablespoon baking soda
There are a lot of notes for this one, so you might want to skim
ahead to the end first. Otherwise, these are utterly glorious as-is,
chewy with a crispy and tough exterior and a soft, flavorful
interior. I have it on good authority that these are as good as, if
not better, than the Old School variety.
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, rehydrated dried minced
garlic or onions (Deb note: this was what I chose, and found the
taste very authentic), or chopped onions that have been tossed in oil
(optional)
First, make the sponge for the bagels. Stir yeast into the flour.
Stir in the water until it forms a sticky thick batter. Cover the
bowl with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm spot in your kitchen
for about 2 hours or until the mixture is foamy, bubbly and almost
double in size.
To make the dough, stir in the rest of the yeast to the sponge using
a stand mixer {use the dough hook}. Stir in 3 cups of flour, salt and
malt powder or syrup. After a minute or two, the dough will come
together into a ball. Continue to sprinkle the remaining 3/4 cup
flour into the dough with the machine on low. {At this point, I had
to remove the dough and knead the rest of the flour in by hand.
If you keep your dough in the mixer, continue kneading for 6 minutes.
If you transfer the dough to the counter to knead by hand, knead for
10 minutes. At this point, all the flour should be incorporated into
the dough and the dough should be soft, smooth and firm. If the dough
is too dry {rips} add in a little water. If the dough is tacky
{sticky} then add in a little more water.
Divide dough into 4 1/2 ounce pieces for normal 'standard size'
bagels and 2 1/4 oz pieces for mini bagels. Roll dough into smooth
balls and place on lightly greased parchment paper. Cover rolls with
plastic wrap or a damp towel and let them rest for 20 minutes or so.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly spray with non
stick cooking spray. Take each roll in your hand and carefully pinch
a hole into the center forming a bagel. Try to keep the bagel as even
as possible doing your best to avoid thick and thin spots. {You can
also roll the dough into a rope and form bagels that way-I just
thought it was easier to poke the hole in the center.
Place each bagel 1-2" apart on the prepared pans. Mist the bagels
with non-stick cooking spray and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let
the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, check to see if you're ready to finish the bagels.
Drop a bagel into room temperature water. If it floats within 10
seconds, then they are ready to be boiled and baked or retarded in
the fridge. If the bagel doesn't float, pat it dry lightly and return
in to the pan to continue to proof. Check back every 10 to 20 minutes
or so until a tester floats. Once a tester floats, place bagels into
the fridge until you are ready to cook them OR get ready to boil and bake!
When you are ready to bake the bagels, preheat the oven to 500F with
the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of
water to a boil, and add the baking soda and optionally, a few
tablespoons of barley syrup.
Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the
water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit. After 1 minutes flip
them over and boil for another minute. If you like very chewy bagels,
you can extend the boiling to 2 minutes per side. While the bagels
are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with
cornmeal or semolina flour. {I didn't have any semolina so I just
kept the same parchment covered baking sheets and sprayed a little
more non stick cooking spray on them and it worked just fine!} If you
want to top the bagels with sesame or poppy seeds, do so as soon as
they come out of the water so they stick!
When all the bagels have been boiled, place the pans on the 2 middle
shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately 5 minutes, then rotate
the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180F rotation. If
you are baking only 1 pan, keep it on the center shelf but still
rotate 180F. After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450F and
continue baking for about 5 minutes, or until the bagels turn light
golden brown. You may bake them darker if you prefer. I ended up
baking mine 15 minutes to get the golden color I like, turning my
pans 3 times, once every 5 minutes.
Remove the pans from the oven and cool the bagels 5-10 minutes before
removing to a cooling rack.
12 extremely large, 16 regularly large or 24 miniature bagels
Cinnamon Raisin Bagels: For cinnamon raisin bagels, increase the
yeast in the final dough to 1 teaspoon, and add 1 tablespoon of
ground cinnamon and 5 tablespoons of granulated sugar to the final
dough. Rinse 2 cups of loosely packed raisins with warm water to wash
off surface sugar, acid, and natural wild yeast. Add the raisins
during the final 2 minutes of mixing. Proceed as directed, but do not
top the bagels with any garnishes. When they come out of the oven and
are still hot, you can brush the tops with melted butter and dip them
in cinnamon sugar to create a cinnamon-sugar crust, if desired.
Note 1:
In his introduction to bagels, Reinhart mentions two ingredients that
are not exactly ordinary, but completely essential to the bagel
texture and flavor. The first is barley malt powder or syrup, more
for that typical bagel shop flavor than anything else, and something
that was readily available at Whole Foods and a bunch of other
stores. Sadly, I cannot tell you if this ingredient is as essential
as he said because I woke up with a startle at 7 a.m. the next
morning, "Oh my god I forgot to add the barley syrup!" Don't you hate
it when that happens? Later, I read a recipe that suggested you add
the barley syrup to the boiling water bath, and I did so in my later
batches, figuring it wouldn't hurt to get the flavor in somewhere. I
ended up feeling that these bagels had a slightly darker, and more
stereotypically-bagel color than the earlier batches, so I am adding
this as an optional step.
Note 2:
The second is high gluten flour, a step above the extra gluten in
bread flour. (Though he says regular bread flour will work in a jam,
I'm used to getting top-notch bagels, and was convinced I'd be able
to tell the difference.) This can be ordered online or available in a
specialty store (though I couldn't come up with one in NYC that had
it). Or, you can beg your local bagel shop for some of theirs, and
given that the other two options would take time and energy, I turned
to our beloved Murray's on 8th Avenue. They came through, and then
some, and I am now the proud own of some ten pounds of super-high
gluten flour, and a sinking feeling that I'll be making bagels again
or some very tough cookies (bah!) this winter. The crazy, it keeps coming.
I had difficulties getting my seeds and onion bits to stick to the
top of the bagels. Though the recipe does not call for an egg wash, I
would definitely use one next time to get them to stick, after the
boiling and before the baking.
Source:
"based on Peter Reinhart's Bagels (see recipe)"
S(Internet Address):
"http://www.laurenslatest.com/fresh-mini-homemade-bagels/";
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 325 Calories; 1g Fat (4.2%
calories from fat); 11g Protein; 65g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary
Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 807mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 1/2
Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.