Sourdough Bagels

Combined from these original recipes:

1 2

Prep time: 2 hours + overnight (or 2-3 hours) || Cook time: 20 minutes || Serving: 16 || Rating 11/10

Ingredients

Bread flour

If you do not have bread flour, you can create it if you have vital wheat gluten on hand

For one cup, mix:

• 125g all-purpose flour
• 5g vital wheat gluten

Sponge

• 500g bread flour, or all-purpose flour
• 500g warm water
• 2 Tablespoons active sourdough starter

Discard Sponge

• 500g sourdough discard
• 250g bread flour
• 250g warm water
• 1 teaspoon yeast (optional)

Dough

• sourdough sponge, above
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup neutral oil (light olive oil, avocado oil, etc.)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 500g bread flour, or all-purpose flour

Boiling liquid

• 2 Tablespoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup honey (optional)

Toppings

• sesame seeds
• poppy seeds

Instructions

Sponge

This needs to be done the night before making the bagels.

1. Combine water and starter, and mix well
2. Add the flour. Mix thoroughly, and scrape down sides of bowl with a spatula
3. Cover lightly with plastic wrap
4. Allow sponge to sit on the counter overnight

Discard Sponge

Instead of creating a sourdough sponge overnight, you can use your sourdough starter discard instead. You do not need to make this the night before.

1. Add ingredients to bowl, and mix well
2. Allow the sponge to sit on the counter for 2-3 hours

Dough

1. Combine the sponge with the eggs, oil, honey, and yeast
2. Mix in the salt
3. Incorporate approximately 350g flour. If the dough does not yet have enough strength to be turned out onto the counter for kneading, add additional flour 1/4 cup at a time until it reaches the desired consistency
4. Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes, incorporating additional flour until the dough becomes 'tacky' rather than 'sticky'
5. If the dough begins to tear, you can wet your fingers in water, and continue to knead to add a small amount of moisture
6. Immediately separate the dough into 125g pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, and then into a cylinder about 20-25 cm long
7. Bring the two ends of a piece together and pinch and twist them, rolling that section of the circle between your hands to be sure it is fully sealed
8. Place the dough ring on a parchment/silicon-lined baking sheet
9. Repeat until all the cylinders are processed (I usually only put 5-6 bagels per sheet)
10. Cover the sheets with a damp kitchen towel, and allow to rise for an hour
11. Over high heat, bring a large, full pot of water to a rolling boil
12. Preheat your oven to 475F if using convection, or 500F if not. Note: I usually start the oven once the second sheet of bagels is about half processed
13. Add baking soda (and honey, if using) to the water, and keep the heat on high.
14. Add two or three bagels to the boiling water
15. Using a slotted spoon, gently dislodge them from the bottom of the pot if they stick
16. Gently agitate the water
17. Allow the bagels to boil for one minute, or until they begin to float
18. Remove the bagels from the pot, and place on a kitchen towel (use the same towel that was used to cover the bagels while they were rising)
19. Flip the bagels once, and immediately add the topping of your choice to both sides of the bagel. I like to use a deep plate filled with the topping. Add a bagel, mix, flip, and mix some more until it is thoroughly coated on both sides
20. Place the topped bagels back on the parchment/silicon-lined baking sheet
21. Repeat the boiling and topping steps for the remaining bagels
22. Place baking sheets into the oven, and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown
23. Flip the bagels, and return to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until a deep brown colour
24. Remove from the oven, and allow the bagels to cool
25. I like to immediately slice, and freeze any bagels that I don't eat right away, as I find that they keep very well this way