Sourdough Bagels

Makes 9 large or 12 smaller bagels

Start with making the Levain 12 hours before making the dough. It will also take overnight proofing, so if you start on a Friday night you will have bagels for Sunday Brunch!

Levain

116-gram Bakers flour, King Arthur’s 14% Protein is great

58-gram water, warm like your body temperature, or slightly higher.

23 g Ripe sourdough starter

Mix all of the ingredients above and allow to sit at warm room temperature for 12 hours ( I keep both Levain and starter in the oven with the light on, its perfect temperature)

For the main dough

848-gram Bakers Flour King Arthur

472-gram warm water

29-gram sugar

29-gram dark Swedish sugar beet syrup (amazon $20 for two Bottles)

20-gram salt

Mix the water, sugar, salt, and beet syrup, and make sure the salt and sugar dissolve properly. Add levain and make sure it also mixes up properly before adding the flour. In a stand mixer, on low speed, let the dough come together with help of the dough hook, for about 5 minutes.

Let the dough relax at room temperature and cover for 1 1/2 hours and slap and fold for about 3 minutes, then allow the dough to rest for another 1 1/2 hours. Once this is done it’s time to divide and shape the bagels.

Use a parchment paper-lined sheet pan, sprinkle some cornmeal on the parchment paper. Weigh up the dough to 130 gram balls (for 12ea) or 170g for 9ea.

Make smooth balls, by using your cupped hand over the dough and moving your hand in a small circle, pushing down gently. Once the ball is formed, put your finger in the middle of the ball and push through and make a hole. Pull lightly with two fingers and make the hole somewhat larger. Place on the cornmeal-dusted sheet pan and make the rest of the bagels. Cover with plastic and let it proof for 2 hours, the dough should be slightly puffy. If the dough feels dense, give it another 20-30 minutes. Once proofed, place in the refrigerator overnight, about 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500F If you have a regular electric or gas oven. If you happen to have a convection oven lower the temperature to 475F

I use two small castiron pans to create some steam with ice cubes in my oven and an pizza steel or stone in the middle of the oven.

You need a wide pot with water to boil your bagels, not too deep. I usually boil 2-3ea at the time, to not overcrowd the pot and make sure they don’t stick to each other.

Bring the water to a low boil. Drop each bagel in the water for 40 seconds on each side. If you are doing larger bagels, 50 seconds on each side. Make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

If you want toppings, like sesame seeds, everything bagel, sea salt, poppy, etc. now its time to set this up, I usually put on a small plate, so I can dip it in the topping.

Once the bagels are boiled, dip them in the topping, or plain, then place the bagels on parchment paper dusted with corn meal.

Time to bake!

Put the bagels in the hot oven, spray the stone with water using a spray bottle, and place one ice cube in each of the pans if you have any. Bake for 20 minutes and turn the sheet 180 degrees to get more even color on the bagels. Give it another 10 minutes, this should be enough to give them the color you want. Let them rest on a grate then enjoy!