The Perfect Sourdough Bagel

There is nothing like a fresh bagel--the smell wafting from the oven, the warm chewy bread in between your fingers, and a "smear" of the best quality cream cheese money can buy. No longer do bagel stores hold a monopoly on the pleasure of a fresh bagel. With this simple and predictable recipe you can have fresh hot bagels any day. This is obviously a yeast recipe--please don't run away yet and ignore that little lying voice in your head that is telling you that this recipe will be difficult and then after hours of work you will end up with bricks or a failed gooey mess.  My method of "yeast work" is predictable and simple!

Bagels do not stay fresh long unless they have a preservative in them and seeing as I am a home cook I could not even imagine adding artificial preservatives to my food.  The good news is that Sourdough starter is a natural preservative so in my home bagels are always sourdough bagels. This means you need a starter--if you have a friend who has sourdough starter bribe them for it. (FYI I like dark chocolate, red wine, good coffee and I almost always have sourdough starter in my house!) However, it is easy enough to make your own but it does take about a week--almost no work on your part as time does most of the work. (RECIPE for Sourdough starter at the end of this post)

Ingredients:

500 g strong white flour (a mix of white and other flours like rye, spelt, whole meal are also great)
150 g sourdough starter
15 g instant yeast
10 g salt
20 g of sugar (or honey)
30 g of grape seed oil
1 egg (seperated: yoke for dough and white for egg wash)
250 g warm water
sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or flacked sea salt to sprinkle on top if you fancy.

**egg wash: 1 egg white and a pinch of salt whisk together

Method:

Tumble your flour or indeed flours into a large bowl and make a well into the center. On the ridge of your flour carefully spoon the salt. In the well put the sourdough stater, yeast, sugar, oil, egg yoke, and warm water. Take a wooden spoon and begin to stir the wet ingredients together slowly incorporating the flour along the edge until all the flour and is incorporated. **Alternatively use a stand mixer and a dough hook to mix the wet and dry ingredients together and kneed them.

Kneed the dough for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is soft and supple and still slightly sticky. Dry dough makes dry bagels! **Stand mixer will get the job done in less then 5 minutes.

Put the dough back into mixing bowl cover with cling wrap or a damp towel and let rise for 10-30 minutes. The beauty of this recipe is that the rise times are really flexible so your life does not need to revolve around making bagels. Just let it rest till your ready.

Weigh dough out into 135g balls (large bagels) or 60g (mini bagels). Make relatively smooth round balls then poke your thumb through the middle and stretch the whole in order to make a bagel shape. Remember these are homemade and I believe should look that way so just have fun, even get the kids involved. Place on lined baking tray leaving a little space between. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes or up to an hour.

Pre-heat oven to 200C

Meanwhile fill a frying pan (larger the better, I use a large cast-iron pan) halfway full of water and bring to a boil. Carefully place bagels upside down into water working clock wise until pan is full of floating bagel-wrings--wait 30 seconds then gently flip them over. Wait 30 seconds then put them back onto the baking tray.

Paint the egg wash on the bagels with a pastry brush and top with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flaked salt, or nothing...etc.

Bake in 200C oven for approximately 15-20 minutes. They should be golden brown around the edges and when you tap the bottom they should sound a bit hollow. Don't over cook them they are bagels not a crunchy bread so they will be soft and ever so slightly squidgy.

If you have enough self-controle let them cool on a wrack--if not use the faithful "hot-potato" technique to slice through and smear with cream cheese.

Eat and Enjoy!  

**we love cream cheese and jam, or cream cheese, thinly sliced red onions, rocket, and smoked salmon.



Sourdough Starter "Cheaters" Recipe

Where do I start--Sourdough bread is not the easiest bread in the bakers kitchen to make but it is one of the most rewarding and my favorite. The Sourdough starter is not rocket science and is useful in so many things--basic bread rolls, pancakes, American biscuits, cinnamon scrolls, and if you add 100 g. to any bread recipe in place of some of the water you have a natural preservative. For me,  I also find that there is something strangely comforting to have a sourdough starter growing somewhere in my kitchen--the world simply seems right. A non-"Cheaters" starter would solely collect the yeast from the air and add no instant yeast, buy all means omit the yeast and be a purist but it will take a few more days and might take a few attempts to get it just right.  You can also use what ever flour you fancy for your starter and every baker will have their own opinion on this one. For me I find a plain white flour is more versatile then a whole wheat or rye starter so that is what I do.  There are a myriad of rules with starters a few of which I confess that I do religiously or superstitiously follow but who knows if you actually need to?! No metal may touch my starter so only glass bowls and wooden spoons.  I also find a glass jar the easiest thing to store it in long term. Once your starter is truly alive you only need to feed it once a week or once a fortnight and you can let it live in the back of your fridge. I use mine a lot so it lives on the counter and gets a feed more regularly.

Now I warned you earlier that this recipe takes multiple days--don't panic! As long as you can pop in and visit your kitchen for 5 minutes each day you are fine--just like feeding the family dog!


Ingredients:
water (use bottled water if you are not sure that your tap water is chlorine free)
flour
1 tsp instant yeast

Day One:
In a glass or wooden mixing bowl, with a wooden spoon mix together 1 tsp of yeast, 100g of flour and 100g of pure water, cover with a damp clothes. (This cloth needs to stay damp the entire time so check on it once a day.) Store in dry warm location.

Day Two:
Add 100g flour and 100g pure water to bowl, mix well with a wooden spoon, cover again (making sure cloth is damp).

Day Three:
Here is what you are looking and sniffing for... a pungent sour smell when you de-frock your mixture and bubbles, bubbles everywhere, all through the mixture.  The mixture should have risen quite a lot. If you find these things you are good to go, if not feed the stater again by adding equal weight water and flour. I would add about 50g flour and 50g water, mix and recover.

*Please note: if you choose to be a purist you will NOT feed your starter on Day Two or Three simply let it grow and keep cloth damp. By Day Four or Five you should find a very sour smell and bubbles and it is at this point you will want to feed your starter, then leave it another day, check it, and if at this point you are happy that you have found the source smell, the mixture has bubbles all over, and it has risen you are good to go.

After you use your starter replenish it with a good feed (equal weight water/flour).