Bagel baking help needed
Hey there,
I'm new to this forum, but I have seen other posts to get some help baking bread.
The attached picture is what the bagels made today looked like. The one on the plate (and another which I ate) were pretty good for a first attempt. The ones on the foil though were far from perfect.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6849/boiled-bagels/
This was the recipe I followed (the change I made was halving everything to make a batch of 6)
There were 3 points at which I knew I could've made a big mistake.
1. Portioning: clearly some bagels look bigger than others and I don't think I did a good job making even portions
2. Proofing + Broiling: the proofing process went well and I wanted to broil them like the recipe suggested. One thing that felt instantly wrong was when I went to flip them over to broil. I might have knocked out all the proofing and handled them too roughly.
3 Boiling: I feel that I overcrowded my boiling pot and that would have made a big difference if I boiled them in groups of 2 or 3.
Any advice/tips would be helpful.
Thanks in advance!
Vishnu
Looking at the recipe the raising time is way off from any bagel recipe I have ever made, 35 minutes total raising time is just not enough, When I don't make a sourdough recipe, I use this one and have never ever had a fail. Try it out as the recipe says it's simple.
A Dozen Simple Bagels
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/a-dozen-simple-bagels-recipe
It looks like the inner dough of those on the foil is barely risen or barely cooked. Was it gummy?
My suspicion is that the boiling was a problem. I use my biggest pot, at a good rolling boil, and do three at a time. If I am lucky they float to the surface before two minutes is up. If they are stuck to the bottom I gently lift them off and remove them.
I get consistent results every time with Hamelman's recipe, even when I play with flours or add a soaker, raisins, etc. I bulk proof I hour, shape by weight (111-113 gm, often getting a half-size "tester" bagel. On Silpat in fridge overnight. Start heating water, and boil 2-3 at a time once they've warmed up slightly and pass the float test. Lacking bagel boards, I use a wet old bread towel on a sheet pan for 4 min., then flip over onto the stone.