Yesterday’s dozen

Overall same recipe and process as usual, I just reduced the amount of barley malt syrup and added some dark brown sugar. I also let the bagels uncovered for the last 5 hours in the fridge.

A lot of tearing as usual. The twist I give them during shaping is surely one of the cause, but it can’t be the only one. I don’t really care at this point, because I love the result. The last 6 bagels were a bit overcooked as you can tell from the crust colour. Uncovering the bagels gets you a thicker crust, but it wasn’t really noticeable. I forgot to take a picture of the crumb, but it was the same as my last batches (dense, chewy, yet very soft).

I am very happy with those bagels, but I never had a real NYC bagel so I can’t really know how I can improve to reach the real deal. I might make quick trip to NYC just to get this over with !

We ate those with a chives/shallots whipped cream cheese, lox and red onions. I also made a bacon/scallions whipped cream cheese which was really good too.

RECIPE, adapted from https://thia.codes/newbagels.html :

• Flour : 100% (pizza flour with 14% protein, W=360)
• Water : 47,5% (Evian, pH 7,3, room temp)
• Instant dry yeast : 0,5%
• Salt : 2,5%
• Sunflower oil : 3%
• Barley malt syrup : 4,36%
• Dark brown sugar : 2,18%
• Dough improver : 2%

PROCESS :
– 3-5 minutes mixing (dough hook speed 1)
– 10 minutes kneading (dough hook speed 2)
– 15 minutes rest
– 10 minutes kneading (by hand)
– 5 minutes rest
– 10 minutes kneading (dough hook speed 2)
– 25 minutes rest
– Shaping (rope and loop method)
– 1h30 proofing at room temperature (20-21ºC), float test with a 15gr ball of dough
– 28 hours cold retard in fridge (4-5ºC)
– Boiled for 20 seconds on each side with barley malt syrup
– Baked for 20 minutes at 250ºC (static) with steam