Why are my bagels wrinkly after boiling? Boiled is on the right and pre-boiled is on the left.

by Prairie-Enthusiast

10 Comments

  1. Baconbaconbaconbits

    Happens to mine as well. It’s in the proof somehow!

  2. asaltymasshole

    yeah mine are never smooth after boiling and I figure I am doing something wrong but don’t know what.

  3. hopefulhomesteader93

    They’ll puff back up in the oven. Don’t worry

  4. issabagel

    Is your water truly boiling? I’ve noticed if the water isn’t hot enough they start to over hydrate

    How is the final product?

  5. Tarheel850201

    They look over proofed to me, to be honest.

  6. PrincipalFiggins

    Oh it happens. Nothing bad at all! They’ll bake normally. It’s just about how the heat and water affects it. Your fingers prune the same.

  7. How did you shape the bagels? The poke-a-hole method, in my opinion, tends to lead to a puffier bagel because after forming the ball, people tend to allow that to proof up some, and you end up with more big air bubbles inside. That along with additional proofing after shaping can lead to a very airy bagel to the point of being overproofed. When you boil them, they will puff more, and if they are already rather puffy, they overproof in the water bath and then they collapse and get wrinkly.

    Make sure you bagels aren’t proofed to the point where they pass the traditional bread poke test. For a bagel, that’s way overproofed.

    If you don’t roll your bagels to shape because you find the dough is too sticky, then your recipe is too high in hydration. Might these be from Sally’s bagel recipe? Her recipe is really not good. Way too much water in them.

    Bagels really ought to be below 60% hydration. That makes them much easier to hand roll into bagels, and they also don’t puff so much making it easier to boil them and not get wrinkly…and end up with a nice tight chewy crumb.

  8. Same thing happens with my skin. Im not sure.

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