Comments on: Homemade Bagels Are a Breeze!

By: jackie maxwell

jackie maxwell — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:20:41 +0000

here’s the scoop. i do not bake. ever. well, unless you count the no knead bread. so i don’t have a clue what a dough or a sponge or anything else is supposed to look like or feel like. i decided out of the blue that i wanted some good bagels, which can’t be bought in this town. so here i am. i am in the middle of my first batch. what i have here is a mass of gooey, sticky something that looks like it gave up on becoming dough, and one lonely, also gummy, little baked lump. (i decided to just bake one in case this went the way i thought it would go, and it did). i followed the recipe. the only thing i can think of that i did differently is that, not owning a mixer, i mixed the dough by hand and probably stretched, instead of stirring, it. would that make the dough gummy?
help please!!!
thanks in advance.

By: Charcutepalooza April Challenge: Smoked Salmon and an Entirely Home-made Breakfast « One Vanilla Bean

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:14:06 +0000

[...] used Bruce Ezzel’s recipe for bagels via Michael Ruhlman’s Blog. The recipe makes 13, a baker’s [...]

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:45:48 +0000

I’m very excited to try this. BBA is my favorite recipe but to be truthful, requires some planning and fridge space, and sometimes you just need to run out of one of them to get off track.

Would sodium carbonate, also known as either soda ash or washing soda, work? As has been mentioned, it’s difficult to find lye, and even more so to find food-grade lye. But you can get Arm and Hammer washing soda at some hardware stores (not mine, but others) and soda ash from any pool store (it’s called “pH Up”.)

It definitely raises the pH. I just want it to be food safe. Thanks!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:15:19 +0000

Michael , Are you going to add a bagel recipe to the app.

By: Bruce Ezzell

Bruce Ezzell — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 02:35:32 +0000

Hey Tom. I agree with Ruhlman. Plain or bread flour will both work, though I feel I get better results with bread flour. Treacle should work just fine. I have people who prefer them made with molasses rather than barley malt. I’m happy either way.

By: Tom in London

Tom in London — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:05:54 +0000

Many thanks. I plan to try it this weekend, but will have to resist the temptation to try to source food-grade lye and malt syrup in the meantime.

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:22:40 +0000

plain or bread flour should both work, and treacle will be fine. good luck!

By: Tom in London

Tom in London — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:44:05 +0000

I’m trying to make this recipe in the UK, where the shops offer a bewildering variety of flour. Would I use plain flour? Strong bread flour?

And is there any chance malt syrup is known by another name here? If you don’t know, I’ll have to substitute it with treacle, which I believe is the same as molasses.

By: doug

doug — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:39:05 +0000

4 half batches in and still impressed! but I still think steps 6 & 7 should say boil not simmer, yes? I’ve boiled each time, not simmered, and have been very pleased with my results. thanks guys

By: The business of bagels | Serves Four

The business of bagels | Serves Four — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:57:50 +0000

[...] when I saw that my buddy Michael Ruhlman, featured bagels on his blog, I knew I had to go for [...]

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:04:16 +0000

Hi:
I have acquired kansui (potassium carbonate & bi-carbonate of soda solution) for making true ramen noodles. This also increases the water’s alkalinity.
Can this be substituted for the baking soda?
I suppose I should just try it out and let you know, but if you have any thoughts before I try this route, I’d like to know.
Thanks,
Todd

By: doug

doug — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:53:08 +0000

4 half batches in and still impressed! but I still think steps 6 & 7 should say boil not simmer, yes? I’ve boiled each time, not simmered, and have been very pleased with my results. thanks guys

By: Bruce Ezzell

Bruce Ezzell — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 21:17:58 +0000

I am glad you like them. I like my bagels to be on the chewy side, the antithesis of the grocery store bagel. If they do seem a bit doughy fresh out of the oven, they might need a bit more time baking. Try dropping the temp 15-25 degrees and go a few minutes longer.

By: Mary Beth

Mary Beth — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:21:47 +0000

Wow, great recipe! The last bagels I baked – years ago- were from Craig Claiborne’s NYT Cookbook c 1979. Those turned out nicely, as I recall, and just now as I looked at that recipe his ratios are pretty close to yours. The main differences being no sponge, and he uses quite a bit of malted *milk* powder (1/4 c) in the dough and both the malted milk powder and sugar in the water bath.
I re-read your recipe last night and was delighted with the overnight sponge so that we could actually be eating bagels for breakfast this morning. So glad for your tips- such as that the bagels could take longer to proof depending on how cool the counter was. So I warmed up the board for resting the bagels, and also used a wok, something I wouldn’t have ordinarily considered.
This is probably one of the stiffest doughs I have ever mixed. I have a DiLonghi (formerly Kenmore) heavy duty mixer, and it handled the dough perfectly. Your tip on not walking away from the mixer is right on, as my mixer walked off the counter a few weeks ago- the first time in 25 years of using a stand mixer. The DiLonghi started right up again, thank God, but what a fright!
The bagels turned out really pretty. They floated immediately- I mean, in two seconds, and rounded out nice and plump in the oven. I baked them for 13 minutes, based on their color. Since I waited to cool them down before tasting, I was disconcerted to see that they were a tad chewier – a tiny bit doughy, and I think could have stood two more minutes in the oven. One possibility is that the oven temp might have dropped more than I thought when putting them in the oven, so I need to check my oven temp as well.
Since we like them toasted just fine, once they cooled we popped them in the toaster oven, any concerns about doughiness were gone. My family scarfed them down, and I am going to have fun making these a staple.
THANK YOU!

By: Erik

Erik — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:48:21 +0000

OK, gave egg bagels a shot today. I had some oven trouble and they didn’t rise as well as they did when I made the basic recipe, so I am going to have to try again.

Anyway, after skimming some egg bagel recipes for ideas, I used your basic idea and reduced the hydration in the sponge to 88%. I added 8 egg yolks weighing 150 g with the second flour, but this made too wet a dough and I ended up adding an additional 50 g or so of flour. I finished them with an egg wash.

They don’t have the distinctive yellow color that egg bagels often do, and because of the lousy rise they are a bit on the dense side, but the flavor is spot on. Next time around, I think I will use 10 yolks, reduce the hydration in the sponge a bit more, and maybe add a touch more yeast.

By: Bruce Ezzell

Bruce Ezzell — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:36:34 +0000

If you use whole grains, put them in the sponge to maximize flavor development. You might need to increase your water by an ounce or so.

By: holly

holly — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:03:06 +0000

These were great! It took a lot longer for my second rise but my kitchen is quite cool. I used cane syrup as the substitute for the molasses that was the substitute for the malt syrup but, otherwise, followed the recipe exactly. Next time I will try subbing some whole wheat flour for some of the white flour and hope that works well. Any advice for adding in some whole grains?

By: Bruce Ezzell

Bruce Ezzell — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:37:46 +0000

Reinhart’s BBA recipe is wonderful. If the second rise (after shaping) took 3 hours when it normally takes about 15 minutes, something was off – bad yeast maybe, or seriously cold dough? I encourage you to check your steps and give it a second shot.

By: susan

*susan* — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:36:50 +0000

I was seduced by this recipe by one thing….. the idea that I could make a sponge overnight, wake up, finish the dough and be eating bagels by noon. I even invited two people to come have fresh bagels for lunch.

But the second rise took over 3 hrs. I served a lunch of linguini with meatballs and a marinara sauce.

I am going to be honest. These bagels just weren’t that great. In spite of the long sponge rise, they tasted very “white” and the texture was too packed. I suspect they would make very good bagel chips though since they puffed up in a distinct manner.

I will go back to my favorite bagel formula which can be found in Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice. These bagels are the bagels of my youth which was spent in NYC. Salmon is curing now for my next batch.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:57:45 +0000

Thanks Bruce! How about the wrinkled appearance? More time to proof/rise?

Comments on: Homemade Bagels Are a Breeze!

By: jackie maxwell

By: Charcutepalooza April Challenge: Smoked Salmon and an Entirely Home-made Breakfast « One Vanilla Bean

By: Richard

By: Adrian

By: Bruce Ezzell

By: Tom in London

By: ruhlman

By: Tom in London

By: doug

By: The business of bagels | Serves Four

By: Todd

By: doug

By: Bruce Ezzell

By: Mary Beth

By: Erik

By: Bruce Ezzell

By: holly

By: Bruce Ezzell

By: *susan*

By: Jim

By: susan