If all you have access to is all-purpose or bread flour and you want to experiment a bit with your bagel chewiness, you could crank up the protein in any flour by adding Vital Wheat Gluten link takes you to Amazon. Protein in flour is what turns into gluten once water is mixed in. Kneading and rising helps to build and strengthen gluten, but the only way to increase the gluten in dough is to increase the protein count.
But what is so great about gluten for bagels? Gluten is what gives dough its elasticity, and thus makes bread chewy instead of crumbly. This is why, on the opposite end of the spectrum, biscuits are made with low protein flours to maximize their flaky crumbly texture. But, be careful not to think that more protein is always better. Too much protein will cause an incredibly dense and rubbery bread. Once you get above about 15 percent protein content, bread can get really gummy.
So, if you do opt to grab some vital wheat gluten, be modest with the amount used until you find the right mixture for you.
This is especially if your bread flour or all-purpose flour is on the low end of the protein range. The two most important elements for a nice chewy bagel are certainly high gluten content and boiling before baking, but a stiff dough is important as well. Bagel dough, depending on the recipe you are using, is probably one of the stiffest doughs in the baking world.
This is primarily important because bagel dough needs to stand up to the boiling stage. But beyond that, bagel dough is just heavily handled all the way through the baking process.
So you've moved on from sourdough or you wanted to stick to yeasted breads and you tried to make your own bagels for brunch. Congrats on having that level of drive and ambition! Still, you've probably landed here because that first attempt at making bagels didn't go quite as planned.
Maybe your bagels came out like flat discs, with zero chew, or maybe they turned into barely edible doorstops? Whatever your bagel problems may be, one thing is for sure: I do not have the answers.
For those who are visual learners, Moreira recently demoed her bagel technique on kitchenware manufacturer Great Jones' Insta-stories. But if you want the deets on why your first foray into bagels didn't work out, read on. Moreira: I like rye bagels. You can also use whole wheat, spelt, or any other flour you like.
Moreira: I've tried making bagels with tapioca starch and rice flour. I've also tried with a gluten-free mix you can buy at the store. Moreira: I mean if you're using sourdough starter , you can try. Moreira: Yeah. I think you'll get a pretty dense bagel if you don't use yeast. Wondering about the best way to cut a bagel? We covered that here. Moreira: I usually mix my dough for about 15 minutes. I do find it's better to add a little extra yeast when adding anything chunky to your bagels to give the dough more strength.
Do you mix by hand? Moreira: I mean, bagel dough is usually super dry. If you're mixing for a long time it's possible for the motor to wear out.
With a messy seam, as in the dough on the right, the bagel will split as it rises, relieving a bit of the pressure. That means that instead of pressing up against the tight skin, those air bubbles will seem to disappear.
They're still there, of course—just not as prominent along the surface of the dough, which means you get fewer of those crispy, crackly micro-bubbles that give great bagels such a unique and delightful crust. The problem of a weak seam can also be compounded by mix-ins like raisins, leading to hideously massive blowouts, so if you want to get fancy with your bagels, properly shaping the dough is an important technique to master.
Poor gluten development is another reason bagels may not form the blisters that they should. While this can stem from using a flour that's too weak for the job i. If you've got a food processor, there's little chance of that—in just 90 seconds, its powerful motor and blade will whip the dough into shape.
The problem is much more likely when you're kneading the dough by hand, or even with a stand mixer, as achieving proper gluten development will take much, much longer than you may think. So long that I don't recommend either method: over 20 minutes on a stand mixer, or up to 30 minutes by hand if you're built like The Rock, and closer to 45 for those with more of a Steve Urkel physique. An underdeveloped dough will produce bagels with a poor rise, fewer blisters, and a rougher sort of topography that may look like webbing, or like fingers stretching across the crust.
In extreme cases, the dough will have a cottage cheese—like texture, while the finished bagels will be lumpy and pale. Without proper gluten development, these bagels will be doughy rather than chewy. When boiling bagels, it's important that the water be bubbling-hot, which may require a bit of patience, as the water will cool in between batches. When I baked them, those soggy sections came out looking different then the rest of the bagel as well. Any thoughts on why there would be soggy sections?
Not every bagel did this. In my case I had some trouble getting the proofed bagels from the parchment paper on which they were rising which broke up the dough. Those pieces seemed to become more moist, could that have been the case for you as well?
This would also explain why not every bagel had this problem. That seems less like to be your issue since not all bagels showed the problem. Great article. The historic Jewish bakeries in Whitechapel, London were local to us and the bagels were known as beigels to us my family still find it hard to refer to them as bagels! Like New York and Montreal Jewish bakeries sprung up everywhere in the UK and in later years the awful supermarket versions were soon everywhere.
Thanks for your article and testings. Add Comment. Post Comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
You boil pasta, noodles, and gnocchi. You bake breads. How bagels are made Bagels are a type of bread. Proofing vs. Instructions Weigh all ingredients except for the optional ingredients into a mixing bowl of a stand mixer or in a regular bowl. If you're using a mixer, use the dough hook and knead for minutes. The dough should come together as a whole and not be sticky to the touch.
The dough will be firmer than that of a regular bread dough, that is a good thing. If you're kneading by hand knead until smooth. The dough will be firm and not sticky at all at the end. Leave the dough to rise for approx. When you poke the dough lightly with a finger it should bounce back. Because the dough is quite firm it might not double in size and that is fine. Form the dough into a simple ball and split into 4 or 8 little pieces.
Two option here: 1 shape the pieces into a tight little ball. Poke a hole into the center with your finger and expand the center hole until it's about cm or an inch in diamater. The dough should not be sticky. However, if you're afraid of it sticking to a surface, sprinkle a tray lightly with a little bit of semolina flour or use a non-stick mat. Leave the uncooked bagels to rest for another minutes, depending on how light and airy you want them.
Bring a pot of water to the boil.
0コメント