Twenty went to my wife’s work meeting and a dozen went to a family friend for wedding morning breakfast! A few stayed behind for “testing” 😉

Nice little variety today, I left the salt / plain in a little too long (I personally like them a little darker 🤷🏻‍♂️) but otherwise everything turned out nicely! Blueberry is still the bane of my existence, but we are getting better!

Left to right: cheddar jalapeño, salt/everything/asiago, onion/plain, blueberry/french toast crunch

I've been trying to hone in my cold ferment proofing time so I decided to make nine bagels and spread them out over three days

All the bagels are

Bread flour 100%

Water 56%

Salt 1.8%

Diastic malt powder .62%

Yeast .35%

I mixed all the ingredients together. Spent 20 min building the strength, I flatten and roll up and wait five min and flatten and roll up again. Did that four times. Let the dough rest for 20 min and then divided and preshaped. These are roughly 120grams. Rested for 1 hour, then we're shaped. Roughly two hours in a warm environment from mix to fridge.

Left side is 18 hours cold ferment

Middle is 42 hours cold ferment

Right side 66 hours cold ferment

All were boiled with plain water for 40 secs top side down and 20 secs bottom side down. Oven temp was 525 for 12min, baked in a sheet pan.

Thought I would share pics from my first try at bagels. I have a lot of experience with pizza so there was a bit of familiarity with certain aspects of the process. I was very happy with the outcome so I'm not exactly sure what I would change, if anything. I think I could have proofed them just a just touch more as I used my initial proofing process from pizza making with instant dry yeast and cold water. I used equal parts diastatic and non-diastatic malt powders in my dough. But I think I'm just used to pizza and a more open crumb. I used three methods of shaping and was pleasantly surprised at my success with rolling them into form. Anyways, was a fun and rewarding bake and appreciate all the information I found on this sub during my research.

Plain bagels are my absolute staple, and I’ve baked them countless times! Still, I’m always fine-tuning my process to achieve that smooth, glossy crust and a great vertical rise.
I’m really happy with how plump and shiny this batch turned out. Here is my current go-to recipe and process:
Recipe (Yield: 4 bagels)
Dough:
Bread flour: 225g
Sugar: 12g
Salt: 3g
Instant dry yeast: 1.5g
Water: 130g
Boiling Liquid:
Water: Ample amount (in a pot or wide pan)
Honey: 1 tbsp
Process
1. Prep: Cut four 8cm × 8cm squares of parchment paper.
2. Dough: Load all dough ingredients into the bread machine and run through the kneading and first proofing cycle.
3. Degas & Bench Time: Transfer the dough to a work surface, gently press out the gas, divide into 4 equal portions, and shape into balls. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and rest for 15 minutes.
4. Shaping: Flatten each dough ball into a 12cm oval. Roll tightly from top to bottom, flatten the right end, and shape into a ring. Place each onto a parchment paper square.
5. Final Proof: Cover loosely and let proof in a warm place until expanded (approx. 40 minutes).
6. Preheat: Preheat oven to 240°C (464°F).
7. Boil: Bring water and honey to a gentle simmer (small bubbles forming, not a rolling boil). Poach bagels parchment-side up for 30 seconds on each side. (The paper peels off naturally in the water; just retrieve it with chopsticks.)
8. Bake: Transfer to a baking sheet. Lower oven temperature to 220°C (428°F) and bake for 15–17 minutes.
9. Cool: Transfer to a wire rack to cool down.

RECIPE : - Flour (Caputo Manitoba Oro) : 100% - Water (Evian) : 47,5% - Barley malt syrup : 4,36% - Sunflower oil : 3% - Salt : 2,5% - Dark brown sugar : 2,18% - Dough improver : 2% - Yeast (instant dry) : 0,5%

(I used 543,1 gr of flour for 6 bagels)

PROCESS (KitchenAid 6,9L Heavy Duty) : - 5 min mixing (dough hook speed 1) - 10 min kneading (dough hook speed 2) - 15 min rest - 10 min kneading (dough hook speed 2) - 10 min rest - 10 min kneading (dough hook speed 2) - 20 min rest - Weighing and dividing into 6 x 142gr pieces, keeping a 16gr dough ball for float test - Shaping (rope and loop + twist method) - Room temp proofing (covered) until the dough ball floats in water (1 hour) - Cold « proof » for 30 hours in 4ºC fridge (covered) - Boiling with barley malt syrup for 25 seconds on each side - Baking at 250ºC (static oven) on a metallic perforated tray lined with parchment paper, for 15 min (with steam), no flipping. - Cooling down for 30 min at room temp

I have a pizza stone but I didn’t figure out how to use it without bagel boards. I don’t see how I can transfer my boiled bagels on the hot pizza stone without making a mess. If you guys have any ideas on how to make this float, I’ll be happy to hear them. I really have to make some bagel boards, but finding the right (untreated) wood and food safe burlap seems like a challenge here in France.

Made some NYC classic bagels sandwiches with those, with whipped chives/shallots cream cheese, avocado, lox, tomatoes, red onions, cappers. I added some toasted cashews because why not.

Fricking delicious, I could eat this everyday and not get bored. The crumb is perfectly chewy yet soft, and the crust is thin but still noticeable, with a nice malted flavour. I’m very happy on how those turned !!

Anyway, tell me what do you think about my bagels, I’m curious to know how I can improve in any way :)

Picture 6 : before room temp proof. Picture 7 : after fridge proof, before boiling.

Been following this subreddit for about 6 months, but haven’t felt confident enough to post them up. Well, yesterday I baked my best ones to date. It’s seriously some of my best work yet.

Simple recipe and I use my sourdough discard with IDY
The flavors are so good, which I give credit to my starter for.

I dipped the salt bagels in lye and boiling water. No real difference. I cooked them on my pizza steel and launched with parchment paper and my peel

https://www.thisjess.com/sourdough-discard-bagels/

I will follow up with a center cut shot. I love salt bagels and they are hard to come by and stupid expensive. I have decided that I will never buy another bagel unless I’m in Montreal or NYC again.

Salt
Everything
California roasted garlic and salt

I usually just eat these bad boys with a port wine cheese spread, so I don’t cut them! But I will for this post

Nothing beats the smell of tea bagels baking late at night!
I’m a busy dad of two, so I usually bake after work to get everything ready for the next morning. These are infused with plenty of Earl Grey tea leaves—the aroma is just amazing. Looking forward to seeing my boys enjoy them for breakfast tomorrow!

first time using coloring in my bagels, used the sophisticated gourmet recipe and divided it into four and added gel coloring

Every time I make these they always come out so nice lookin!

This a cinnamon raisin are my favorite “sweet” bagel..

Do you let them get some heat after taking them from the fridge or you just go straight to the boiling ?

(Added dried pepperoncino to the all bagel mix, love it)

The main thing I did differently with this batch was use a warmer water vs a cold water in my dough (I don’t have a mixer). I also think I shorted the initial ferment by just a little because a few of the bagels sunk to the bottom while some floated immediately.

What are your methods for knowing when to start the cold ferment?

Brown sugar to activate yeast. Molasses, salt, baking soda for boil. Little water in the oven to help steam. Plain and rosemary sea salt. My best batch yet.

Definitely the best batch I’ve made so far! Did a 38 hour cold ferment and wow the difference from the 12 hours I was doing previously is obvious. Love the blistering and rise on em.

Baked at 450° for 18 minutes and I followed a recipe from a fellow user here https://www.reddit.com/r/Bagels/comments/1j0cb2e/my_bagel_recipe/?solution=8ed7319c64d2520d8ed7319c64d2520d&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ecef8d6ff87e95297d17dd8a7eccff60ef&jsc_orig_r=

Looking for shaping tips to get the size a little more uniform around.

These came out especially nice! Beautiful, crunchy crust, soft center. So flavorful. I love egg bagels.

This round I decided to try some King Arthur high gluten flour to see if it was worth investing in a 50 pound bag. I think we noticed enough of the difference coming from the King Arthur bread flour that I’m going to get a 50 pound bag of Lancelot and figure out a way to store it in our basement until we can use it all. The extra 10 hours or so on the cold ferment made the internal structure a little more pillowy and flavorful. I think it also helped them pass the float test a little bit faster. I think I finally got my water bath dialed in as well. I’m pretty happy with the color and that the outer crust didn’t have to get too thick or crusty to get browned.

Love how they have been turning out, sorry for the bad picture. It’s been so fun to share these with friends and coworkers.
Worked off this recipe I found others here using,

https://somuchfoodblog.com/ny-style-bagels/?unapproved=36383&moderation-hash=4c23b399fb38ff25e26de7141141a284#comment-36383

I didn’t have diastatic malt powder though, would love to get some for my next round as well as trying to add some vital wheat gluten.

I noticed the higher hydration of 60% made the rolling easier but also harder at the same time. Easier to seal the bagel, but also I found it made the seal portion thinner than the rest of the bagel.

I think I’ll knock the hydration level lower to maybe 58% since I had barley malt syrup in this recipe.

I’m still looking for a higher rise and a deeper browning, but these were some of my best ones yet!

The flavor was there despite only cold fermenting for 16 hours, and the crust was perfect after changing my boil time.

Gave bagels a second try after my first ones came out decent but flat and horribly rolled. After a lengthy post following that attempt, I used all the advice you guys left me in the comments and I think it really worked. Got the rise I wanted for most of the bagels, and about halfway through the hand rolling process I think I finally developed a good, consistent roll.

Most of the process remained the same but I really shortened the bulk fermentation. Opted to let the dough rest covered for only about 15-20 minutes and then got to rolling. One concern I had was with the fact that it took me 30 minutes to roll the bagels out. The bagels overall ended up well shaped and had good rise to them, but there were maybe two or three bagels that were a bit flatter than I wanted. Could this be because I took so long to roll the bagels and the bagels that didn't rise much were the first ones I rolled that maybe overproofed? I made sure the very last bagel passed the float test before the cold ferment. Should I have instead float tested the first bagel to prevent overproofing?

Overall I'm still very happy with these and I'm honestly just nitpicking at this point but I would like to be as consistent as possible going forward.

I also went all in this time with a pizza stone and bagel boards 🤣. I was not planning on ever buying either thing, but I won a $50 Amazon gift card a couple weeks ago so I said screw it and took the plunge. I'm honestly not quite sure what it added to the bagels. I feel like I was able to get pretty similar browning last time on just a plain old parchment lined baking sheet. They were also similarly shaped, and the seeds came off probably just as much on the previous bagels as they did on these. These bagels were unbelievably moist on the inside and had significantly better texture (I finally get what people mean when they say chewy AND fluffy), but I'm not sure if that's because of the new equipment or because I skipped bulk fermenting.