boil in an alkali water to give the crust sheen. This recipe is based on Peter Reinhart's in The Bread Baker's Apprentice; we've converted his cups and ounces to grams for easier and more reliable measuring.
The first time we made them, we used only All Purpose flour and the interior was too tender. Rather than buying Bread or High Gluten flour, we add Vital Wheat Gluten here to bring up the protein; we may need to tweak the amount over time. If you have Bread or High Gluten Flour, use it, replacing both the regular flour and Gluten here. The dough will be quite dense and will give your stand mixer a workout -- my 325W Kitchenaid KSM5 struggled and smelled hot after the knead, and the bowl barely contained the dough.
We boil the bagels in an alkali water solution using sodium carbonate to give them the characteristic outer surface traditionally obtained with food grade lye. Harold McGee came up with the technique of baking the baking soda to create sodium carbonate: bake it for 1 hour at 135C/275F. If you don't feel like doing that, just use regular baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
Sponge
4 g Instant Yeast
515 g All Purpose Flour
50 g Vital Wheat Gluten
600 ml Water
Dough
2 g Instant Yeast
500 g All Purpose Flour
20 g Salt
10 g Malt Powder (or 15 g Brown Sugar)
Finish
35 g Sodium Carbonate
Sponge: combine Yeast and Flours, add water, whisk until it becomes a smooth pancake-like batter. Cover and rise at room temperature, about 2 hours, until very foamy and bubbly; it should double in size and collapse if the bowl is tapped on a countertop.
Dough: Add to the sponge the additional Yeast, stir, then add the Flour, Salt and Malt. Mix with dough hook until it forms a ball. Knead 6 minutes by machine, or 10 minutes by hand. It should feel satiny and pliable but not tacky.
Divide the dough into 16 pieces, about 100 g each, and form into tight balls. Cover with damp towel and allow to rest 20 minutes.
Line 2 sheet pans with parchment and mist with spray oil.
Shape bagels by poking a hole in the center of each roll and enlarging it to be about 6 cm. Place shaped pieces 5 cm apart on parchment pans. Mist lightly with spray oil and cover loosely with cling film. Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Check to see if bagels are ready to be retarded using the "float test". Fill a bowl with cool water, place a test bagel in and it should float within 10 seconds. If it does not float, return to tray and try again every 10 minutes until it floats.
Place in fridge, covered lightly with film and retard overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 250C/475F convection.
Bring large, wide pot of water (I used 1.5 L) to a boil and add the Sodium Carbonate or Baking Soda; do NOT use a Calphalon-style anodized pan, the Carbonate will destroy the anodization. Remove bagels from fridge and boil, starting presentation side (top) down first so after you flip them, you can place the bottom on the sheet plan. They should float within 10 seconds; boil each side for 1-2 minutes, more time gives a more chewy bagel.
Sprinkle the parchment with coarse cornmeal and place each boiled bagel back -- they will have puffed up. Top the bagels with salt, seeds, etc.
Bake 10 minutes until bagels turn light golden brown.
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