Sunday was a big baking day. Not only did I make roast red pork, I also decided it was time to try baking some more bread-based treats from my new sourdough starter. You may have already seen my Pretzel Adventures post, so sourdough pretzels should come as no surprise. However, I also decided to try making my own bagels, too.
After dividing my starter and returning 1/2 cup to its container with fresh flour and water, I took the bulk of it which had been growing nicely for a few days of feedings and mixed in some brown sugar and flour. I then set it near the fireplace to rise for several hours. Sourdough is definitely slower than commercial baking years in my experience, but so far, I'm persuaded the wait is worth it!
Initial lump of dough
Several hours later...
Once it had raised, I kneaded more flour into the dough and began shaping it. I was working more by feel than by measurement, so if you want to follow along, I hope you can tolerate such vague descriptions!
The bagel instructions I found suggested boiling a gallon of water with just a tablespoon of sugar for the bath. While the water heated, I formed disks of dough, pressed a hole in the center with my thumbs, and made it into a more even ring shape by stretching it out gradually. After preparing four such toroids, I started making dough ropes and tying pretzels of various sizes to see what would work best.
I used my greased baking sheet as a staging area before boiling, as shown above.
My usual pretzel boiling method involves a slotted pancake turner to lift the dough from the boiling water once it starts to float, but I tried using the handle of a wooden spoon to snag a bagel through the hole. It was not the best method, and the maimed bagel almost collapsed in transit to the baking sheet. Back to the old system for the rest!
I mixed some chia seeds, sesame seeds, and poppyseeds for the bagel topping, and then added some coarse salt for the pretzels. Before I boiled the pretzels, I dumped in the last baking soda I had in the box, forgetting to account for the greater volume of water than usual, so they didn't brown as much as I expected. Oops!
Bottom left: the maimed bagel
Regardless of these setbacks and no ides how quickly the sourdough would even bake, I went ahead and put the works in the oven at 425°F for 20 minutes. The photo at the start was snapped about midway through when I did my first check on progress.
I should have given the bagels a bit longer, maybe 5 minutes, tops, and pulled the pretzels right away. I did the reverse. The center of the bagel was slightly too soft and moist, although it wasn't raw dough. The pretzels were more crispy and crunchy than prior efforts despite the pale exterior. One note on saving these overnight for breakfast, though: while the texture was still excellent, they did not really keep well. These are best straight out of the oven. Nonetheless, it was an overall success, and I think this kind of sourdough treat might become a regular thing!
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