This week was feeling like a bagel kind of week, so that’s what I decided to make!

I’ve only made bagels a handful of time a few years ago, but never with sourdough, so this was going to be another week of experimenting, learning, and crossing fingers that I’d end up with a half decent product. I was still riding the confidence from last week’s bake, so I was feeling pretty good going into bagel-making. Saturday, Halloween, I dove into this new challenge, excited to see the turn-out come Sunday morning.

Recipe

I followed the sourdough recipe from Little Spoon Farm, cutting it in half as I was making two different batches, and making minor adjustments which I’ve included in my recipe below. Each batch makes 4 bagels (so I ended up with 8 total), but it’s easy enough to multiply to make more.

  • 62 g sourdough starter
  • 125g water
  • 20g (+1 tbsp for boiling) sugar
  • 5g sea salt
  • 50g whole wheat flour
  • 200g AP flour

In a bowl, stir together starter, water and sugar. Add salt and flour until moderately incorporated.

Using a stand mixer with a dough hook, or kneading by hand, work dough for about 6 minutes.
Place back in a bowl, cover with a dish towel, and let rest for 12 hours.

After 12 hours, turn dough onto counter and divide into 4 equal parts. Form each part into a bagel shape.  Once done, place on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.
Cover tray with dish towel and let rest for 30-60 mins.

Preheat oven to 425F.
Fill a large pot about 3/4 full of water. Add 1 tbsp of sugar and boil.
Once boiling, put in a few bagels at a time, cooking 2 minutes per side. Put back on baking sheet when they’re done.

When all bagels are boiled, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Thoughts

The entire recipe and process was pretty darn simple and easy to follow!

After the 12 hour rise, the sourdough aroma was STRONG (in a good way). The end result was nowhere near as sour as I thought it would be based on the smell, which was a tad disappointing, but there was still decent sourdough flavour in both batches.

The Results

Whole-Wheat

Like my bake from a few weeks ago, the whole-wheat starter produced a saltier, more umami flavour in the bagel. There was a bit of a sourdough tang, I would have liked it to be a bit stronger, but it was definitely still noticeable.

White/All-Purpose

The difference between this and the whole-wheat batch was staggering. Despite having the same look and texture, the flavour was very different. The AP starter produced a lighter, brighter flavour. There was a lot more tang that had a clear sour taste. While the whole-wheat was more salty, the AP starter created a sweet taste

This bake was the most exciting in terms of sourdough production – the flavour profiles of the two starters are really developing and becoming so clearly different.

This bagel recipe was also a great success – it got two thumbs up from my husband and my son, so I’ll be making it again soon. Hopefully I can work out my shaping technique to get some more uniform looking bagels!

-Megan B.