Yeast Water levain bagels- lye bath
As far as I can tell these are a first ! No one’s ever posted an Apple Yeast Water levain bagel. I used to make bagels all the time. Have always and only used the formula from Wild Yeast blog. They are always perfect. I always use a lye bath. It’s extremely easy and so dilute there’s no danger at all.
Three qts water and add 3 tsp lye. Bring to boil. Can reuse stored water. I’m stirring up another batch of bagels in the next couple days so covered and left on back burner.
I subbed my unfed stored YW 150g added to 150g t80 flour as that’s all I use now for white flour. They were shaped and left to rise 4 hrs and retarded 5 hrs after shaping. Boiled 20 seconds per side and baked at 400 for 18 min. Fragrance is fantastic and a beautiful brown shiny crisp crust. Will post crumb in the AM with homemade jam 😊
Comments
Great looking bagels. Did you make a levain or just added the YW direct instead of commercial yeast?
I use lye for my pretzel rolls all the time but not bagels. I’ve been hesitant to use it for bagels worrying that they would taste like pretzels and not bagels. What’s your take?
Ian
Thank you Ian!
I used unfed stored rye starter 20g and added unfed 150g apple yeast water and 150g t80 flour. These are the best bagels I’ve tasted or made ever! I’ve eaten a lot of bagels and used to make them all the time but stopped for no good reason 😳.
I didn’t have non- diastatic malt so used 2 g of diastatic malt as a substitute. I’m going to convert the Diastatic to Non-Diastatic by baking 1/2 of the container at 350 degrees for 5 min to deactivate the enzymes ( read online and confirmed with chemist husband) so I can get the proper amount of malt flavor but that said these taste great.
They aren’t pretzel bagels —— it’s not possible to make a real bagel without the original lye bath. The darker pretzel overtone flavor on a pretzel vs lighter malt flavor of a bagel is due to the % solution. I made a .5% solution 5g lye / 1000g water. It’s the perfect amount to get the rich brown extremely thin crust and chewy crumb. I’m delighted at how these turned out.
They are awesome pretzel bagels! They are a great mash up of two delicious foods and I think they’re great Caroline. Do they have a bit of pretzel flavour?
Benny
See the explanation below and Ian’s findings. Original all the way.
So I did some searching and it seems that like with pretzels lye is the more authentic way to go. I’ve used barley syrup and baking soda in the past so now will have to use lye next time.
The lye is the key it’s the amount that’s the key to the color and overall flavor profile.
Thank you Ian and Benny! The links still work for Wild Yeast Blog and she archived the posts. These are so easy and so good but I do think the YW is a game changer.
What wonderful bagels Caroline! Thanks for sharing, need to feed my yeasties and be the second one in the world to try your formula.
Think we're missing part of your formula as it can't only be 150g YW to 150g flour, what is the mix like for the final dough?
One more thing, my family has been making great home made bagels for at least two generations without lye in the boiling water, I've always felt some sort of family loyalty to not boiling them any other way.
Family loyalty ???? We are talking bagels here LOL !!! You will have to step away from the family and go all out original. Here's the link I mentioned to the Wild Yeast Blog. Susan was a steadfast fixture in the baking world for a longtime and is greaty missed. Her Yeastspotting was so informative and I learned SO much from her. Her baking techniques stand the test of time and you won't find anything she posts that doesn't work. Do a search for her SD bagels. She doesn't use lye but but but.....:)
https://web.archive.org/web/20180309121706/http://www.wildyeastblog.com/recipe-index/
Haha 2nd in the world...I like the sound of that !!! If you find anyone else who has used YW to make bagels let me know !! I'm about to make more levain for another batch, Thank you for posting. ( don't know if I have ever told you but my oldest brother was a Jon....not a common spelling...a wonderful sweet man ) .
Fruit Yeast Starter: Onion Cheese Bagel
She made her fruit yeast starter using berry yeast water
It didn’t come up when I searched for YW bagels. I’m in VA too. She shapes and boils differently and no lye in her water. But it’s great to read others experiences. c
fantastic! Much to chew on here.
To be honest, the bagels I've made at home -- following some well-recommended recipes -- were never any better than Lender's. So I'm looking forward to checking out Susan's formula.
Plus, I'm sure there's a certain frisson in bathing them in poison, no matter how dilute.
Rob
I hadn’t thought about it but I gave my neighbor two of the bagels and told her they were dipped in lye water and now I wonder if she will eat them as there was a skeptical look on her face!
Do try Susan’s recipes they are outstanding! c
They look great Caroline. You are tempting me with the YW thing.
And I am +1 for the lye - I used food grade caustic soda for the last batch of bagels I made - which was a long time ago!
Lance
The YW definitely is my favorite to work with. Also the t80 flour I get from France has made a huge difference in my baking. I use it whenever a white flour is called for. It’s so easy to work with and basically the gluten development is present almost without any effort at all on my part.
Definitely get some more lye. I won’t live long enough to use all this! Thanks again. c