Next bread on the BBA challenge lineup – bagels. I was really looking forward to making these because I LOVE bagels. There are places in Germany where you can buy bagels (even good ones), but I hardly ever get to go there. So I have to live without them or make my own. I’ve never made bagels before, so I decided that they were the perfect challenge for this month’s Bread Baking Day hosted by imafoodblog who chose the topic “Something you’ve never made before”.
I was kind of surprised when I read the recipe. Bagels are boiled and then baked? I had actually never thought about how bagels are made. Anyway, I made the sponge (only 1/2 recipe), went thru all the dough making procedure, divided the dough into 12 pieces (I wanted to make mini bagels – with little kids in the house, I prefer smaller portions) and formed them into 12 rolls. I again was soooo impressed by the instructions in the book – the rolls looked perfect (as you can see in the picture).
I covered the rolls with a damp towel and let them rest for about 25 minutes. Then I shaped the bagels – I used the rope-around-your-hand method – and put them on a lined sheet pan where they sat for about 20 more minutes. The float test went just fine, so I put the covered pan in the fridge for the bagels to be retarded overnight.
The next day I took the bagels out of the fridge and was disappointed. I couldn’t get them off the baking paper. I totally deformed them while peeling them off the paper. Also, they were really flat and I didn’t have any idea why. It later dawned on me that I better should have used the poke-a-hole shaping method because I wanted small bagels – but half the dough with the shaping method for big bagels obviously results in half as high bagels – duh!!!!
Anyway, I brought a wide pan of water to a boil, added baking soda, dropped the bagels into the water and flipped them over after 1 minute. Then I placed them on the sheet pan again and topped them with sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and flax seed. I wanted to use poppy seed, too, but couldn’t find it in my jam-packed pull-out unit. I baked the bagels for 5 minutes, rotated the pan and continued baking for another 5 minutes.
As I said, the bagels were deformed and flat, but they tasted really well!!!! I’ll definitely make them again soon, but will use the poke-a-hole shaping method. Furthermore, I’ll have to grease the baking paper a little more so the bagels won’t stick to it.
I used the poke-a-hole shaping method and it worked well. It looks like your dough might not have been stiff enough. Some others had problems with the bagels deflating and I think it was mostly because the dough was too soft. It needs to be stiffer than you think! It killed my arms kneading it
Glad to hear they tasted great! I loved the bagels and can’t wait to make them again sometime!
I just read all the bagel comments and the corresponding postings on your bagel posting – when I was done I realized that my dough definitely was not stiff enough. My kitchen machine definitely had NO problem kneading the dough. I’ll add more flour next time.
Yeah…the bagels are a challenge. But even if they look a little weird they taste great! Hard to go wrong with bread
My bagels looked exactly the same! I also did 1/2 recipe, and made mini-bagels. Did you have to cut down the time in the oven? I wish I would have. They were good the first day, but by the second day they were hard as a hockey puck. I definitely want to try making them again!
No, I didn’t cut down the time in the oven. I don’t know how they would have tasted the second day because I put them in the freezer. But out of the freezer they were really good, too.
It’s true about the stiffness–I am afraid I’m going to blow up my kitchenaid if I make it again. I can’t even imagine trying it with ultra-high gluten flour.
Well, just say you were trying to make bagel chips!
I have also never made bagels before. I grew up eating NY bagels, so I wonder how these would stack up to my bagel snobbery. I will remember to make sure my dough is stiff when I get around to making them. Thanks for joining us for this month’s BBD!
I agree with all of the above comments…My dough was so stiff, I had to take it out of the mixer and knead by hand. And I’ve always used the poke a hole method. This is one of my favorite recipes…have you tried it again??
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