Bread Baking Babes Bake Bagels (aka BBBBB)

This month our Bread Babe Karen Kerr ("Karen's kitchen stories") made us bake bagels! I like bagels, the kids love bagels, so for us a wonderful choice. O... these are bagels with cheese... I love bagels with baked cheese, one kid hates cheese and one can't (shouldn't) eat anything with milk. To please everybody, I made the recipe and made 4 bagels with cheese and 4 plain ones. Everybody happy!

This was a spot on recipe. I didn't have an Asiago cheese unfortunately (I love it though!), so I used Parmigiano in the bagel and some Dutch grated cheese to sprinkle on top. And that worked really well. It was fun to bake bagels again, mine were a bit flat on the bottom, but we didn't mind that one bit. Thanks Karen for letting us bake these!

Do you now crave for cheese bagels? Or you can make plain ones if you want. Get ready and bake along with us and become our Bread Baking Buddy. You have until the 29th of this month and send your contribution to Karen (karen.h.kerr(at)gmail(dot)com) and she'll send you a Bread Baking Buddy badge to add to your post and you'll be on display in the round up on her blog. So have fun, enjoy baking and eating! We're all looking forward to your bagels.

Asiago Bagels

Makes 8 bagels

(PRINT recipe)

dough

7 g diastatic malt powder, or 1 TBsp barley malt syrup

1 tsp instant yeast

10 g salt

255 g water

454 g unbleached bread flour

87 g grated Asiago cheese

topping

some grated Asiago cheese

to boil the bagels:

2  liter of water

1,5 TBsp barley malt syrup

1 TBsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Stir the malt, yeast, and salt into the water.

Measure the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer, and pour the water mixture over it.

Mix on low with the dough hook for three minutes. The dough should be stiff, but not super dry. Adjust the water if necessary. Cover and let sit for five minutes.

Mix again on low for another 2 minutes.

Transfer the dough to your unfloured work surface, and knead the cheese in by hand, for about one to two minutes. If the dough seems a bit too dry, wet your hands a few times as you knead. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or bucket. Turn the dough to coat with the oil. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball.

Line a baking sheet (or two quarter sheet pans) with parchment and spray with spray oil or brush it with oil.

One at a time, roll each ball into an 20 – 25 cm strand. Wrap it around your hand, overlap the ends under your palm, and roll the ends together on the work surface. Sometimes a few drops of water helps glue the ends together. If the dough resists rolling, let it rest, covered, to relax the gluten. Alternatively, you can poke a hole in the middle of the ball of dough and gently pull the dough out into a circle with your thumbs. You're aiming for a 5 cm hole.

Place each shaped bagel on the parchment. When done, spray the bagels with spray oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or up to 2 days.

On baking day, remove the pan from the refrigerator 60 to 90 minutes prior to baking.

Preheat the oven to 250ºC

At one hour, check to see if the bagels are ready by doing the "float test." Fill a small bowl with water and place one of the bagels in the water. If it floats, they are ready. If it doesn't, wait another 20 to 30 minutes. (note: If your bagels look puffy, they will float, I didn’t bother doing this)

To prepare the poaching liquid, bring 2 liters of water to a boil. Lower to a simmer. Add the malt, baking soda, and salt.

Lower a bagel, top down, into the simmering water. Simmer about 45 seconds on one side, and then flip with a slotted spoon. Simmer for another 30 seconds. Using the slotted spoon, place it back onto the oiled parchment lined baking sheet with the top up and sprinkle with some grated cheese topping. Continue with the rest of the bagels.

Place the baking sheet into the oven and reduce the oven to 230ºC. Bake for 8 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet, and bake for another 12 minutes.

Cool the bagels on a wire rack for about 30 minutes.

(adapted from Peter Reinhart's “Artisan Bread Every Day”)