Sourdough Bagels

A full video of this recipe is available here on my YouTube.

Recipe: 

1. Mix all ingredients together in a mixer and mix on medium speed for 5-8 minutes or until the dough smooths out. You should be able to pull a pretty good windowpane. Desired dough temperature is 78-80 degrees. 
2. Round out into a ball and place in a lightly oiled container, cover, and ferment at 75 degrees for 5 hours. 
3. Cut dough into 12 equal parts weighing roughly 127 grams. Round into balls and let them rest for one hour. 
4. Poke a hole in the dough and gently stretch it out. Make sure to over exaggerate the hole since final proofing and baking will expand it. Place 6 pieces on each sheet tray on pre cut parchment paper. 
5. Leave your dough at room temperature for an additional 60-90 minutes, cover, and place in the fridge overnight. The next day, take the bagels out one hour before you plan on boiling them. 
6. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and get a large pot of water ready for boiling. It’s very helpful to have an extra sheet tray ready with parchment paper, a slotted spoon for handling the hot bagels, any toppings you want to add spread out on a plate, and a cooling rack set up to catch the water drippings immediately after boiling. 
7. Boil 3-4 bagels at a time, placing the parchment paper directly into the water. Once it has boiled for 30 seconds or so, you can remove the paper and flip the bagel. Boil on each side for 30-45 seconds and place on the rack to drain. After it’s drained for a minute or so, place it on the toppings and put it on the sheet tray. If you don’t mind your bagels touching as they cook, you can bake all 12 on one tray, or you can choose to bake them on 2 trays with 6 bagels on each. 
8. Bake for 23-28 minutes depending on how dark you want them, and steam them for the initial 15 minutes if you have a steam function on your oven. 

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NOTES:

• You can choose to let the bagels final proof after shaping at room temperature overnight if it’s cool enough in your space, around 63-65 degrees. My favorite version of this was when I shaped them around 7pm, put them in the fridge until 11, and boiled them at 8. You can also choose to get up and put them in the fridge after the room temperature proofing and boil them later.
• For a same day bake, let the shaped bagels ferment at a warm temperature for an additional 4-5 hours until they are visibly expanded and light and puffy.
• Toppings tend to slide off if you try to add them on directly after the dough comes out of the water, let it drain for a minute or two until the outside of the dough is slightly sticky to the touch, and then cover in toppings. 
• For Simply Bread Oven owners, I baked 16 per deck in the pans. Baked at 450 with initial Steam 5 and released the steam at 18 minutes. Bake for another 8 minutes to a dark brown. 
• If you prefer a denser and not as light and airy bagel, you can take the bagels directly from the fridge to boil.