Bagels

I’ve found myself eating a lot of bagels. The dense but soft store-bought kind. :-\

Wanted to do a NY-style bagel. I got a crispy chewy exterior and a light interior. Pretty damn good. Instead of malt syrup I used Dark Candi syrup in the mix. None for the boiling water. And I did a 24 hour ferment.

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The schmeeer: ;D

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At one time, I took requests and someone asked for pumpernickel.  Until I made those pumpernickel bagels, I never knew the recipe included potatoes.

Did you put lye in the boil?

Those bagels look good. I’ve made them a couple of times. Kind of a PITA, but well worth it in the end.

They look great euge.  What’s the bread texture like?  I like a toasted everything bagel with Lox and cream cheese…mmm  :slight_smile:

Isn’t that pretzels?

Well worth the effort! I’m going to have to work out a weekly schedule for these things… Too bad I don’t have any smoked salmon around. The crumb is light, bubbly and cohesive. Nothing crumbly about these bagels. The exterior is shiny, crisp and chewy. Made them with about 90% bread flour 10% AP. Next time all AP to see how that turns out.

Nice to have the KA to do the kneading.

It’s pretty common to boil bagels in lye water.  When I’ve made them before I’ve boiled them in water that’s had potatoes boiled in it.

Try buying lye these days. I ended up using baking soda.

I saw a tip in Cooks Illustrated a few months back to bake the baking soda to convert it from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate which is a stronger base.  Not as strong as lye but a good substitute according to the article.  Haven’t tried it yet myself.

Interesting: Can you provide some specifics as to time, temp and quantity in the water.

I once thought about trying to make my own lye with my stove ashes. I talked myself out of that adventure.

That Chris Kimball! He’s so clever…

What does the alkaline solution do that a sugar solution won’t? I used softened water to poach my bagels.

I know you have lye on hand euge.  A little dab’l do ya.  NY - Joisey style bagel-making.

The lye hydrolizes the proteins in the flour and allows the outside to brown well.

I read that it can be found at Lowes under the name Crystal Drain Opener, but I need to check that out to be sure. This is info from The Fresh Loaf, an extremely good website for baking. When I looked several years ago for a drain opener that contained lye, I came up with nothing at several different supermarkets.

I would be very, very, very careful about putting drain cleaner (even if it says it’s 100% lye) in anything touching food.

Lye is the ultimate multitasker… Drain cleaner, soap, bagels, bodies, whatever you need.

You just need to make sure it’s pure sodium hydroxide. It can burn you, so be careful. Here’s where you can get some lye used for soap making.

http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-25/2-lbs-Technical-Grade/Detail

I guess I need to update this. That company no longer sells the “technical grade” lye, but they do sell food grade. Here’s a link to that. It’s not too bad, but as always shipping hits you pretty hard.

http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-3/4-lbs-Food-Grade/Detail

I got my lye from dudadiesel
http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=hydroxide

Unless it is food grade drain cleaner.