When I think about bagels it’s always New York on my mind. And New York in my brain is obviously connected with Manhattan, and Manhattan leads straight to Woody Allen. So, there is nothing weird in the fact that I fall in love with bagels completely. Can you imagine a better companion for lecture of “Pure Anarchy” or amazing conversation between Allen and Eric Lax? Perfect afternoon: warm blanket, homemade bagel, a cup of good tea and Woody Allen.
But there is something more about bagels. They taste just fabulous on Sunday mornings, with fresh hummus or almond cottage “cheese”. Lazy Sunday in bed with black coffee and our beloved people. Time goes slowly, music is so calming. Only a little, but very hungry doggie interrupts peace and quiet, by her attempts to get a bite of bagel. After such morning your only option is to go for a walk or visit you fav bookshop, or just meet with friends to see movies.
I don’t know why bagels make me so nostalgic. I just want to spend whole day with a good book or movie.
Bagels fit perfectly to Cracow, too. Maybe because before the become the symbol of New York there were widely known in Cracow. What’s more the roots of bagels seem to be in Cracow, as well. They were given to pregnant woman, so they produced completely different emotion than nowadays.
But I think everyone has his/her own bagel story. What is yours?
Today I have a recipe for bagel which is a perfect companion for good book or movie. And if you live/visit Cracow you have to try this bagel recipe! And after lazy morning with bagels you have to go for an endless walk in Kazimierz or Podgorze in Cracow.
My bagels are based on recipe found in Kinfolk, but I also read other sources. This is two-day recipe. First day we prepare the dough, next we cook and bake bagels. Main issue I was dealing with was a lack of barley malt flour. This ingredient is claimed to be essential, because it has an enzyme diastase which makes bagels more chewy. But I could’t find malt flour anywhere, besides I want to make the recipe that will be easy for you to prepare. So I used gluten instead. You can also try to substitute it with brown sugar or malt syrup.
Because I didn’t have malt syrup I use the agave nectar, but I don’t think it make a big difference.
The flour- it should be high gluten one, I use usually the 550 type.
Istead of egg you can add 1 tbsp chickpea flour dissolved in 2 tbsp water, or 1 tbsp apple vinegar and 1 tbsp canola oil.
My bagels came out crispy, chewy and soft inside. Delicious. They are the best on the same day, but also good 2-3 days later. I use poppy seeds as topping, but you can try with onion, sesame etc.
And here you have perfect songs for baking and eating bagels!
Based on this recipe
Ingredients:
12 bagels
2 teaspoons (6 g) instant yeast
2 1/4 cups (510ml) lukewarm water
3 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
3 teaspoons salt
1 tbsp apple vinegar*
1 tbsp canola oil*
2 1/2 tsp canola oil
2 tbsp agave nectar***
4 1/2 tsp gluten**
7 1/2 cup bread flour****
For poaching liquid:
3 liters water
1/4 cup agave nectar**
1 tbsp soda
1 tsp salt
Toppings:
poppy seeds, sesame etc.
1 cup=240ml
* instead of egg, you can also use 1 tbsp chickpea flour dissolved in 2 tbsp water
** in original recipe you should add barly malt flour, unfortunately is hard to get, so I decided to replace it with gluten. I also did a little resaerch and you can substitute it with malt syrup, but some authors say you shouldn’t (2 tbsp malt surup instead 4 tbsp malt flour). I also read about brown sugar, but I haven’t tried it yet.
*** agave nectar is instead of malt syrup
**** during the kneading you may need more flour than 7 1/2 cup, so you should prepare about 1 kilo of flour
Day one:
1. In a large bowl, whisk the yeast into the warm water and let stand 5 minutes, until dissolved.
2. Whisk in the sugar, salt, egg replacer, oil and honey. If you using malt flour add it to the bowl with other ingredients, but if you are using gluten you should mix it with the flour first .Gradually add 7 cups of the flour. Add the remaining 1 cup of flour as needed. Mix with with a sturdy wooden spoon until cohesive. The dough should not be sticky, but still soft and pliable.
3. Knead dough on a clean, dry work surface for 10 minutes by folding and punching the dough into itself.
4. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover with a clean dishtowel and allow to rest for 50 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces . Roll the dough pieces into small balls.
6. Now is time to make the wholes in our bagels. First method: poke a hole in a ball of bagel dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 5 cm in diameter. Second method: Roll out the dough into a long rope. Wrap the dough around the palm and back of your hand, between the thumb and forefinger, overlapping the ends by several cm. Press the overlapping ends on the counter with the palm of your hand, rocking back and forth to seal.
7. Place bagels on oily surface, remember to put them far away form each other, because they may extend a little. Put in the refrigerator over night or up to 2 days.
Second day:
1. Remove bagels form refrigerator 30-60 minutes before cooking. Remember that when you remove them they grow a little so give each bagel enough space.
2. Before cooking you need to perform a floating test .Pour cold water in a bowl and put bagel into.If i doesn’t drown it means that ALL bagels are ready to cook. If it goes down you shoudl remove it from the water and wait another 15 minutes and do the test again.
10. Brig water with agave nectar, soda and slat to a boil and keep it simmering. Put 2-3 bagels in the simmering liqiud and cook 1 minute each side. Before you put them in the water you can put your finger througgh whole again to make sure the whole aren’t to small. Drain on a paper towel.
11. Put cook bagels on baking tray and put the toppings on.
12. Bake in 230C/460F for 20 minutes. Bagels should be golden, crispy but soft inside. My bagels went golden very quickly, so after 5 minute I reduce heat to 200-210C and bake them for another 10-12 minutes. Baking time depends on oven. You need to watch bagels during baking, Myabe mine baked faster because of agave necatr, maybe with malt syrup the will bake for 20 minutes.
Nutrition info:
1 bagel with poppy seeds:
360 calories
protein: 15 g; fat: 6,3 g; carbohydrates: 60g, fibre: 4 g;
iron: 4,9 mg; calcium: 141 mg; zinc: 1,6mg
