Forced hand

I've just settled down with a steaming cup of Sumatran coffee to write this post. My study plans are awry as usual and I had a bit of a tiff with my sister over the weekend (hell I could go on and on about that, but there's no point, really, as usual). Nevertheless. A good morning usually means a good start to the rest of the day, and it was a pretty good morning today, for a variety of reasons. Up on that list or reasons are "snow" and "getting enough sleep" and "bills paid" and "going to a great concert over the weekend" and "working a long shift on Sunday so there will be a little extra money in the bank" ...deep breath here....but, in all honesty, the primary reason as to why it's a great morning today is bagels.

I find a severe deficit of bagel availabilities in Baltimore. Screw Panera bagels, they're so bready that you might as well just buy a loaf of bread. One can stumble across a Bruegger's or a Einstein's every once and a while, chains that all make solid bagels, but to find a place dedicated to bagels...man, you have to have a car that drives quite far. And even then, I haven't heard of any bagel places worth going to unless you want to go all the way to NYC. Growing up, I was lucky that my mother liked bagels so much that she would drive out to this place called Psalm, dedicated entirely to bagel-making. She couldn't pronounce its name (I don't blame her, Ps is not easy to say), so for the longest time, I was in the dark about this mysterious bagel place. I guess that doesn't matter so much though. Their bagels were chewy and delicious and usually available for immediate consumption, and trust me, I love chewy. I even like all my sandwich breads to be chewy if possible. I cannot remember any bagel place I have loved so much, I didn't even care that their shop was called Psalm. Either way, this mysterious bagel place provided me with many breakfasts growing up, and once hitting Baltimore, it all vanished just like that. It's a crying shame. 

I've managed to go several years here without making bagels (I always thought it'd be impossibly hard), because there was always little need. There was an Einstein's on campus, so even though it was a 15 minute walk in the mornings, if I wanted a bagel that badly, I'd just go. Cafes close to my abode make bread-like bagels (blegh), which is like a Panera conundrum all over again. Einstein's was therefore usually top choice for getting that classic chew, and they'd give me my bagel with cream cheese, tomato and bacon with no questions asked.  A couple of weeks ago, having a hankering for bagels, I walked all the way over the pick up a dozen from Einstein's. Upon arrival, I think I stood for a good 10 minutes staring at the new sign in absolute horror. Einstein's had been pushed out by another cafe, which lacked bagels entirely. 

So, let's say my hand was forced. After 7 years of being in Baltimore, I typed "bagel recipes" into the search engine. These bagels emerged from the oven on Saturday morning, right in time for a lovely weekend breakfast.  As usual with my habits, I overdid it and ate three of them in one sitting. It is thus fortunate that I made more than three, and subsequently have bagels for breakfast today. If you're wondering if the bagels stood up a few days out, they did. Although some of the intense chew in their texture has been lost (which may not necessarily be a bad thing for some people), they're still pretty damn good. I loosely followed an amalgamation of rules I read online (I believe this version came from Peter Reinhardt), but I made two types of bagels (plain sesame bagels and rye bagels), following two slightly different types of methods. I will post them in two series with all their caveats, of course, although the rye bagel recipe is something I will have to fiddle with in terms of flavor. It didn't scream rye, which was disappointing, and the subtlety was lost on me. Perhaps it was because I was missing caraway seeds at the time.

I couldn't find bread flour or barley malt syrup at the local supermarket, so of course I had to trek of Whole Foods (it's closer than Trader Joe's). I didn't feel like I purchased much, but somehow I ended up stepping out with very few materials and $60 lighter. Getting the bread flour is worth it though; the higher gluten content allows for a chewier dough.

Plain Sesame Bagels

makes 9 bagels

1 TB barley malt syrup

1 teaspoon yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 1/2 C unbleached bread flour

1 C plus 2 TB lukewarm water

olive oil

toasted sesame seeds

cornmeal (for baking)

boiling liquid

1 TB barley malt syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

Day 1: Pour the malt syrup and yeast into 1 C of lukewarm water and whisk together. Sift together the flour and salt in another bowl. Add this liquid mixture to the dry mixture, adding in two to three parts, stirring with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely hydrated and a stiff coarse ball of dough is formed.  Let rest 5 to 10 minutes. After this time, knead the ball of dough until the passes the windowpane test (stretch out the dough against the light until the light shines through the dough; if the dough breaks, it means the gluten hasn't developed yet and you need to knead the dough more). The dough should be supple and smooth. Try to avoid adding more flour. 

After kneading, place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm, moist place for an hour. My house is cold, so I actually let it rise for an extra 30 minutes. The dough should be doubled in size. Once doubled, place in refrigerator to retard the rising overnight.

Day 2: Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit for an hour at room temperature. Now shape the dough into their bagel forms. I like to divide the dough evenly into the number of bagels I wanted (9 parts). Don't tear apart the dough too much or it will be difficult to shape the bagels and keep the dough sticking together. Take each ball of dough and roll it into a strip long enough to wrap around four fingers of your hand (no thumb). This roll should be thicker at the ends. Once long enough, wrap the strip around your hand and pinch the ends together. Now roll the bagel while it is still wrapped around your hand, rotating the strip around your fingers until the dough is even all around. Bagel formed. A note is that the hole should be large because you don't want the bagel to close up when it bakes. Also, another method is to roll the dough into a ball, poke a hole in the middle, and widen the hole until it is large enough. I used both methods, although the poke a hole method was definitely easier. Last note of the day is that you can shape the bagels the night before, before you place the dough into the fridge.

Once bagels are formed, let rest another 20 minutes, covered with a towel. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and heat up a large pot of water (at least 4 inches deep) on the stove, until simmering. To test whether or not the bagels are ready to be boiled, take a large bowl of water and drop in one of the bagels. If it floats, it is ready to be boiled. If not, cover and let rest longer. If it floats and you aren't ready to boil it, return it to the refrigerator to avoid over-proofing. Usually, if 1 bagel floats, then they are all ready to be boiled.

Add the remaining malt syrup, salt and baking soda to the simmering water. Drop in your bagels (mine was able to hold 3 bagels at a time) and boil bagels on one side for 1-2 minutes, then flip and boil on the other side for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the boiling liquid with a slotted spoon and immediately plant in a bowl of sesame seeds. You can also sprinkle the sesame seeds on top, but I recommend brushing with egg wash to help with the sticking (the egg wash might also give you a thicker browner crust).

Place the boiled and sesame topped bagels on a baking sheet, using cornmeal on the bottom of the pan to keep the bagels from sticking to the pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until the bagels are browned.  Chewy bagels are now ready to serve.