Sourdough Bagels

These bagels are a two day project. Because the dough is so stiff and difficult to work, I do not advise using a stand mixer (I busted the gears on my Kitchen aid doing bagels a couple years ago). Go slowly and eventually you'll get all the dough worked in. At that point you may split the dough in two and knead separately.

I had no idea if this would work or not, and the recipe is completely improvised. They turned out excellent. Very chewy crust, light interior-everything a good bagel ought to be. Perfect with some homemade strawberry jam.

You Will Need:

For the sponge:

1 cup fed starter

2 1/2 cups water

4 1/2 cups bread flour

For the dough:

All of the sponge

3 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons honey

3-4 cups bread flour

For boiling:

A pot of water

1 tablespoon baking soda

Early, the day before baking:

Refresh sourdough starter and remove 1 cup for sponge. Feed this starter as you normally do (I used 1/2 cup water and 1 cup First Clear flour) and cover to soak for 4 hours. Stir, and add the 2 1/2 cups of water and the 41/2 cups bread flour. Let sit 2-4 hours. It will be soupy.

Add to the fed starter the ingredients for the dough adding the salt and honey first and stirring in well. Add the flour until you have a stiff dough. You may need more or less depending on humidity and the ash content of the flour. Once you have a stiff dough-beat the daylights out of it. I'm serious. Take the dough, lift it over your shoulder and slap that sucker down on the counter with a serious whack. Do this over and over, folding and kneading as you go. Before you know it, the dough will begin to take shape. I know this slapping method sounds insane, but with really heavy dough that is hard to knead, it really does the trick. You should warn people in your household what you're doing as it makes a terrific "Thump!" and well, you don't want to frighten anyone. If the dough is still too hard to handle, break it in two and proceed.

When you have kneaded and beaten your dough to the point where you've developed sufficient gluten, break it into 12-15 pieces and roll them into balls. Cover them with a damp (not wet) towel and let rest 30 minutes.

After dough has rested, roll them ball smooth, poke a finger through, and shape into a bagel round. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and when they are all done, cover lightly with plastic wrap. Let these rest for about 1 1/2 hours. Place the sheets in the fridge until morning.

Baking Day:

Boil a large pot of water, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. and lightly coat a baking sheet with cornmeal. When the water boils, add the tablespoon of baking soda (it will foam a bit) and plunk in four of the bagels. I do them upside down first to make it easier to skim them out upright, but that's not a big deal. Boil 1 minutes and turn. Boil another minute. Remove with a slotted spoon or skimmer and transfer to baking sheet. If you're using toppings like poppy seeds, add them at this point so they will stick to the wet bagel. When you have a tray filled, place in the oven for 5 minutes. Rotate pan and reduce heat to 450 degrees F. and then bake another 5-10 minutes until golden. Transfer to a rack to cool. Repeat process for next tray leaving time for temperature to go back to 500 degrees F.

Cool completely before eating as sourdough really needs some time to "settle."