Very Tasty Bagels

We are living in a very unusual times. For many of us, our busy schedules suddenly got called off by nature. With all the time on our hands now, why not turn it into something amazing and tasty? This bagel recipe is not complicated, but you do need to be patient to let the yeast, flour and water work their magic together slowly in order to develop full complex flavours.

I adopted this recipe from www.chefstep.com and then tweaked it a little for myself.

Ingredients:

Starter:

350ml Water, room temperature

100g Strong Rye bread flour

150g Strong bread flour

3g Active dry yeast

Dough

30ml Water

400g Strong bread flour

25g Granulated sugar

25g Diastatic malt powder (I bought mine from Amazon)

10g Salt

Boiling mix

25g Malt Syrup (or honey or treacle syrup)

10g Baking soda

Now let's get to work -

1. In a mixing bowl, stir Starter ingredients together, cover with cling film loosely or damp cloth and let the mixture proof at room temperature. How long it takes will depend on the room temperature. It can take 2 hours or more. What you look for is the size of the starter double and have frothy foam on top like beer. When you tap the bowl on the countertop, the foam will collapse.

2. Mix Dough ingredient together. If you have a standing mixer, that's great. Attach the dough hook and mix the ingredients together at low speed for about 15 - 20 mins. The dough should be stretchy, smooth and pull away from the side. When you press the dough with your fingers, it should bounce back slowly. If you don't have a standing mixer, you can always knead it with your hands until achieve the same texture. Then cover the dough and let it rest for 20 mins in the fridge.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and coat it with a bit of oil, then divide out your dough into 90g portions. Keep the baking sheet and the dough covered while you are working to help retain moisture. Then form each portion into balls. This link will show you the technique how to shape your dough into a ball. Then cover them and rest in fridge for 20mins again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IUizKNCX0g

4. Now it's time to shape the bagels. Work with one ball at a time, use two fingers to pinch a hole through the centre of the dough, once you break through, use both of your index fingers through the hole from opposite directions and spin them around until you can fit 3 fingers through it. Then re-cover with cling film and proof them at room temperature for about 45 mins - 1 hours. Your bagel dough is properly proofed when it floats in a bowl of water.

5. Then cover your bagels and rest them in the fridge overnight to let flavours develop.

6. In the morning, preheat the oven to 220c. Bring 3L water, syrup and baking soda to the boil. Add bagels into the water and boil for 60 seconds each side. Then transfer them back to the baking sheet. If you would like to add toppings like sesame seeds, garlic flakes or poppy seeds, you can sprinkle them on top of the bagels now.

7. Bake the bagels in the oven for 18 mins. The bagels are fully cooked when you tap the bottom of the bagel and it sounds hollow.

That's it, now let them cool down and enjoy!!