Sourdough New York Style Bagels

Moving to Kansas from New York, I knew I’d be giving up a few things; bagels, pizza and the beloved and most treasured of all, bacon egg and cheese on a roll. There aren’t real bagel stops here, or deli’s, sorry Kansans, you have your bbq, we have our breads and sandwiches. I miss walking into a steam filled bagel shop where the windows are all fogged up from the fresh bagels, and it smells like heaven. Making bagels from scratch will fill your home with the same heavenly smell and you’ll be transported to that time you were waiting on line, and eyeing the bagels from behind the person in front of you’s head, thinking what kind of cream cheese you want, or if you want to go the lox route.

I’ve made this recipe with active dry yeast and it’s good as well, but using wild yeast gives it a great flavor that really reminded me of a great Brooklyn bagel.

I adapted this recipe from King Arthur Flour’s Water Bagels, replacing the instant yeast with starter and adjusting the flour and water accordingly. The starter I use is a 1:1:1 ratio.

Recipe adapted from: KingArthurFlour.com

Adapted by: Tierney Larson

Ingredients:

For the bagels:

1 cup (226g) of ripe fed starter

1 1/2 cups (340g) of lukewarm water

1/4 cup (35g) Non-diastic malt powder

2 tbl (25g) sugar

1 tbl (14g) Kosher salt

5 cups (600g) Unbleached All Purpose Flour

For the water bath:

2 quarts of water

2 tbl non-diastic malt powder

1 tbl sugar

Topping:

Everything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds, poppy seeds or za’atar

Ok so..

In a medium bowl, add your ripe starter to the water, and swish it around to break it up and combine. Add the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the water and starter mixture. Stir with your hand slowly until the mixture in combined but still shaggy. Cover and let sit for 30min.

After 30 minutes, continue to mix the dough by stretching and folding your way around the bowl for about 3 minutes. Place in an oiled container, tucking the dough under itself, and cover. Let rise for 3 hours, doing stretch and folds every 30 minutes. After 3 hours, place in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning take the dough out of the fridge and portion out into 16 balls. Roll the balls on a clean surface so that the surface gets taught, but doesn’t break the skin of the dough. Poke a hole with your finger in the center of each ball and using two fingers twirl your fingers in a circular motion to stretch the middle of the bagels out into a bagel shape. Make them pretty big as they will shrink when you boil them.

Place the shaped bagels onto 2 or 3 baking sheets covered with parchment or a sil pat. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, or a reusable plastic proofing bag. Let rest for 45 minutes, until they look slightly puffy. While they rise preheat your oven to 425F (preheating a pizza stone inside if you have it).

When the bagels are almost ready to go, set a large wide pot of 2 quarts of water, the malt powder and the sugar, over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Place 3-4 bagels in the boiling water for 30 seconds on each side. Using a spider or slotted spoon, remove the bagels and dab them on a paper towel, then place back onto the lined baking sheet and sprinkle with everything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or za’atar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and let cool on a baking rack, or eat straight out of the oven!