I made bagels for brunch today. It isn't quite the traditional method, but it does make life a little easier for the baking-impaired. Well, maybe not easier, but perhaps with better results. There are two wrinkles to it. The first is the use of a
yukone (a Japanese trick for pre-cooking some of the flour with water to gelatinise it and make your dough more elastic), and the second is to wait 24 hours before boiling and baking the bagels. Here we go:
1. Make the yukone, with 6oz/170g cold water and 3.5oz/100g white bread flour. Place in a non-stick skillet over medium heat (no oil!) and stir continuously with a spatula to remove lumps and cook until you have a porridge or mashed potato consistency. 2-3 minutes. Scrape out onto a cold plate and pat out to make a thin layer to aid cooling. Cover with clingfilm and leave to cool for 30 minutes. If too hot it might kill the yeast in the next step.
2. Make the dough in a food processor with a metal blade. Use 12.5oz/355g white bread flour, 1TBSP sugar, 1¼tsp/9g salt (2.5tsp if kosher salt), 1tsp instant dried yeast. Mix dry ingredients in the food processor, then add 3.5oz/100g warm water and the cooled yukone, put the lid on again and turn on Low until a ball of dough forms. Continue pulsing for 10 seconds until the dough becomes elastic enough until a small piece of it will stretch into a transparent 'window' between your fingers. Total time will be around 90 - 120 seconds. Turn out the dough onto a clean, unfloured surface, and divide into 8 equal pieces.
3. Make bagels (part 1)! In turn, take each of the eight bits of dough and roll it between your cupped palm and the unfloured surface. As you go back and forth, let it catch and stretch a little, just like conventional kneading. You're aiming for round balls without too many cracks, with each being palm-kneaded for about 2-3 minutes. If you made errors in dividing the dough into eight, and corrected them by trimming and combining, it might be necessary to do the fold the edges under again and again trick to make a ball fit for the kneading. All eight bits should be placed on a tray and covered with clingfilm, or in a big plastic box with a lid and allowed to rest for 15-30 minutes in a warm place.
4. Make bagels (part 2)! To form the bagels, use a wetted finger and thumb to poke a hole through the middle of each ball, then gently stretch into a 3.5" diameter ring. Try to do the stretching at the thickest parts of the ring so they end up of uniform thickness all around the ring. No need to get obsessional; these should look homemade, not machine-made. Place on oiled parchment or greaseproof paper on a baking tray and cover with clingfilm. Place in the fridge for 24 - 36 hours.
And that's as far as I've got so far. Here are my bagels before covering and refrigerating:
The next day you boil them very briefly, then bake them. The aim is to get a very elastic small-crumb interior, which should be soft and warm, while the exterior will be brown, shiny and just slightly crispy.
I know. I can't count. I made ten and not eight.
Today:
Here we go. Boil water in a big pan, adding something to encourage the bagels to be brown and shiny - honey, malt extract, brown sugar (which is what I used). Get the oven heating to 425ºF. When the oven is at temp, boil the bagels a couple at a time, so as to not cool the water. They will puff up a little, and flip them over when they seem to stop enlarging and give them 30 seconds more. Take out and place on kitchen paper to dry while the next couple go in the water. Then take the drained bagels and place them on greaseproof or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. The paper should have had a quick spray with oil. When all are boiled and on the sheet, place in the 425º oven. These took 20 minutes, but if I could count and had made eight, they would be bigger and thicker and would have taken 25 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before trying to slice and serve. Mine are going with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers. There's also some soft goat cheese (tastes like Boursin for those who like garlicky cheeses).
It was well worth the effort! Best bagels I've ever had, which might not be saying much, as I'm limited to aged supermarket stuff. Never had one properly made from a bagel shop that makes them on the premises, and nor am I likely to in rural NS!
