by Nick Zukin
Creation
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g whole wheat flour
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g organic whole (or dark) rye flour
1 heaping teaspoon / ⅛ ounce / 4g barley malt powder
1¾ cups / 14 ounces / 400g pineapple or orange juice
In a large bowl, blend the flours, malt powder, and juice with a sturdy whisk. Allow the starter to sit out, uncovered, for 24 hours at about 80°F or 36 hours at about 70°F.
First Meal
¾ cup / 7 ounces / 200g Creation starter
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g unbleached bread or high-gluten flour
Heaping ½ teaspoon / Generous pinch of / 2g barley malt powder
⅞ cup / 7 ounces / 200g pineapple or orange juice
Reserve the required quantity of starter from the Creation step, disposing of the balance. Combine the flour, malt powder, and juice with the starter using a heavy-wired whisk. Allow the starter to sit out, uncovered, for 8 hours at about 80°F or 12 hours at about 70°F.
Second Meal
¾ cup / 7 ounces / 200g First Meal starter
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g unbleached bread or high-gluten flour
⅞ cup / 7 ounces / 200g pineapple or orange juice
Reserve the required quantity of starter from the First Meal step, disposing of the balance. Combine the flour and juice with the starter using a heavy-wired whisk. Allow the starter to sit out, uncovered, for 8 hours at about 80°F or 12 hours at about 70°F.
Third Meal
¾ cup / 7 ounces / 200g Second Meal starter
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g unbleached bread or high-gluten flour
⅞ cup / 7 ounces / 200g pineapple or orange juice
Reserve the required quantity of starter from the Second Meal step, disposing of the balance. Combine the flour and juice with the starter using a heavy-wired whisk. Allow the starter to sit out, uncovered, for 8 hours at about 80°F or 12 hours at about 70°F.
After this step, or perhaps the next—the exact timing is not predictable—the starter should begin to activate. That is, the starter will expand and take on a pleasantly yeasty smell. Continue feeding through the following additional steps to foster and stabilize the still-fragile culture.
Fourth through Sixth Meals
¾ cup / 7 ounces / 200g starter from the previous Meal
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g unbleached bread or high-gluten flour
⅞ cup / 7 ounces / 200g lukewarm (75°F to 85°F) water
Reserve the required quantity of starter from the prior Meal step, disposing of the balance. Combine the flour and water with the starter using a heavy-wired whisk. Allow the starter to sit out, covered with plastic wrap, for 8 hours at about 80°F or 12 hours at about 70°F.
At this point, a healthy, active, and stable starter culture should have taken hold. Feed one more time, as in the prior Fourth through Sixth Meal steps, and use the starter in any recipe that calls for it once it has expanded to about double its original volume and just begun to fall back. Alternatively, refrigerate the starter until needed.
To Use the Starter after Refrigeration
3 tablespoons / 2 ounces / 50g Starter
1¼ cups / 7 ounces / 200g unbleached bread or high-gluten flour
⅞ cup / 7 ounces / 200g lukewarm (75°F to 85°F) water
Reserve the required quantity of starter from the amount that has been refrigerated and dispose of the balance. Combine the flour and water with the starter using a heavy-wired whisk. Allow the refreshed starter to sit out, covered with plastic wrap, for 8 hours at about 80°F or 12 hours at about 70°F.
Use whatever quantity of refreshed starter is needed in the recipe you are using. But always reserve enough (at least 2 ounces or 50g) to keep the starter going for future use.
After using the starter in your recipe, feed 2 ounces of the reserved amount (disposing of any excess) with the same quantities of flour and water used after refrigeration, then refrigerate again until needed. Repeat this process for any recipe that requires starter. A stable starter culture will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. If the starter remains unused after 2 weeks, remove it from the refrigerator, reserve the minimum (disposing of any excess), feed it with flour and water, and refrigerate again. By following a proper feeding schedule, a starter can be maintained indefinitely. The longer the starter is maintained, the more stable and easy to activate it tends to be.
What Are . . .
Bagels?
Unlike challah, the bagel lacks a biblical provenance. So, unfortunately, there is neither ancient myth nor prophetic symbolism to go along with the bagel. There are at least a couple of stories about its invention that, while heartwarming, are false. The most prominent is that the bagel was invented by Jewish bakers in late seventeenth-century Vienna as a tribute to the Polish troops who saved the day from marauding Turks. This tale might make sense until you consider that historical relations between Jews and the Polish military were never terribly warm. It is far more likely to imagine a little old Jewish baker using a stale bagel like a Japanese throwing star to dispatch one of the despised Cossacks. More telling still are the facts that, according to Matthew Goodman in his book Jewish Food, (a) Jewish community ordinances in Krakow, Poland, refer to bagels as early as 1610, well before the alleged act of Polish chivalry; and (b) roughly the same story of Polish military prowess has also been cited to explain the origin of the French croissant and a second Jewish baked item, rugelach. Another good story ruined by facts.
What, then, is the bagel’s origin? To put it bluntly, there is no uniformly accepted theory. The authorities are in accord that, in terms of its linguistic heritage, the bagel is a German product, with its etymology traceable to Yiddish and Middle High German words for “ring” and “bracelet.” The most clinical recounting of the bagel’s history is in Allan Davidson’s The Oxford Companion to Food: “The bagel is a Jewish bread, apparently originating in S. Germany, migrating to Poland and thence to N. America, where it has become the most famous and archetypal Jewish food.” Makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?
Another question is, Why the ring shape? Here, pragmatism and symbolism may be at odds. For the baker, it is easy to imagine an early colleague enjoying an epiphany, suddenly discerning that, if he left a hole in the middle of his rolls, he could store or carry a whole bunch of them on a stick or package them simply by running a string through the middle of the customer’s desired quantity and tying it off before sending his patron off to home and family.
The more romantic notion, however, according to Marcy Goldman in A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking, is that the round shape accords with “the ceaseless, never-ending continuity of the life cycle.” This is a superficially sensible explanation. The proof offered is that bagels are served in connection with both Jewish death and birth rituals. Maybe so, but in Michael’s experience as a lifelong Jew and dining maven, large platters of food, including bagels, are commonly served at every Jewish milestone event. The hockey puck and the doughnut have the same circular shape as a bagel, but no one seems to wax poetic about their relationship to the human life cycle.
The cross-cultural popularity of the bagel is a recent phenomenon, a mixed blessing courtesy of a bagel-making machine perfected in 1962 and put into widespread use by Lender’s a year later. Other innovations in the mass marketing of the bagel: flash freezing, upsizing, and the reformulation of bagel dough by Lender’s to make bagels spongy-soft. Others have taken things even further, eschewing boiling as part of the bagel production process.
On the one hand, modernization has made bagels ubiquitous in North America. On the other, what they sell at the grocery store today would be barely recognizable by our Eastern European ancestors—and they would make a pretty lousy weapon besides.
—MCZ
Traditional Bagels
Makes about 18
Michael created his bagel recipe shortly after he started baking in 1996. The malty, lightly tangy flavor, crunchy-on-the-outside-chewy-in-the-middle texture, and deep golden color from a short but intense bake set these bagels apart from the crowd. They take a day or two from start to finish, but most of that is to allow for cold, slow flavor development in your refrigerator before boiling and baking. They are worth the wait and they freeze well, too.
6 cups / 2 pounds / 900g unbleached white bread flour
3 teaspoons / ¼ ounce / 10g instant or bread machine yeast (or 1 packet active dry yeast)
2 tablespoons / 1 ounce / 30g kosher salt
¼ cup / 2 ounces / 60g granulated sugar
⅓ cup / 2 ounces / 60g nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup / 12 ounces / 350g Sourdough Starter
⅓ cup / 3 ounces / 100g barley malt syrup, plus more for boiling
1½ cups / 12 ounces / 350g lukewarm (75°F to 85°F) water
Semolina flour, for dusting
Toppings, such as sesame or poppy seeds, dehydrated onions, or kosher salt (optional)
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, place the flour, instant or bread machine yeast, salt, sugar, and milk powder. (Alternatively, if using active dry yeast, stir it into ½ cup of the lukewarm water to proof for 15 minutes, or until the water begins to bubble or foam.) Add the starter and the ⅓ cup / 3 ounces barley malt syrup to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Add the 1½ cups lukewarm water, holding back a tablespoon or two. (Alternatively, if using active dry yeast, add all the water in which the yeast was proofing plus the remaining 1 cup lukewarm water, holding back a tablespoon or two.) Mix on the lowest speed to combine for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice, if necessary. Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for another 2 to 3 minutes. If needed, add the remaining tablespoon or two of water (and more, if necessary), a little at a time, until a fairly firm but tacky and elastic dough has formed. Continue to mix for another 2 to 3 minutes to develop the dough. (If the mixer begins to strain or stops altogether, remove the dough from the mixer, divide in half, and finish mixing the dough one half at a time.)
Turn the dough out onto an unfloured work surface. (If the dough is too sticky to handle easily, lightly flour the work surface.) Using a bench scraper or similar implement and a kitchen scale, divide the dough and weigh it into 3½- to 3¾-ounce pieces.
Line each of two baking sheets with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Dust with semolina. On an unfloured work surface, use two hands to gently but firmly roll out each piece of dough into a 10- to 12-inch rope. If the dough begins to pull back, allow it to rest for a minute or two before resuming. Form each bagel ring by encircling the back and open palm of one hand with the dough rope, with the two ends overlapping by about an inch. On the work surface, firmly roll the overlapping ends back and forth under your palm until an unbroken ring is formed. As each ring is formed, place it on one of the baking sheets. Each baking sheet should have space for a dozen rings spaced ½ to 1 inch apart. Once all the rings are on the baking sheets, cover each sheet with a dry linen or other lint-free cloth and refrigerate. (While forming the bagel rings, take care to keep other dough pieces from drying out by covering them with a damp towel or by spraying them lightly with water from a spray bottle.)
Refrigerate the bagel rings for 12 to 48 hours, the longer the better to allow the surface to dry out. The dry surface will help promote a thicker, crispier crust on the bagels once they are boiled and baked. The long rest also promotes yeast activity (the bagel rings will puff up slightly) through slow fermentation.
Once the refrigeration period is complete, position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 475°F. Fill a stockpot about three-quarters full of water, set it over high heat, and bring the water to a rolling boil. Add the ⅓ to ½ cup barley malt syrup. The water should have the medium caramel color of cola.
Near the stockpot, place one or two clean, lint-free cloths, folded in half or quarters. If using seeds or dried onions as a topping, fill a small, wide bowl half full with each topping. If using salt, pour a tablespoon or two into a small bowl or ramekin. Place the topping bowls near the cloths. Prepare additional baking sheets for use, lining with silicone baking mats or parchment. Place near the cloths and topping bowls, if using. The proximity of stockpot, towels, toppings, and baking sheets should form an easy-to-maneuver assembly line to allow bagels to move quickly from the boiling kettle to the oven.
Transfer the chilled bagel rings (one or two at a time) directly from the refrigerator to the boiling water. Boil each side for 10 seconds, flipping the bagel rings with a slotted spoon, wide-mesh strainer, or similar utensil. Transfer the rings from the water to the cloth to drain briefly.
If using seeds or onions as a topping, place each ring top down in the topping bowl, then transfer carefully to the baking sheet. If topping with salt, sprinkle lightly on top of the bagel ring, then transfer carefully to the baking sheet. Once one sheet is full (6 is the ideal number, spaced 1 to 2 inches apart), lower the oven heat to 450°F and place the sheet in the oven. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating once or twice to bake as evenly as possible, until the bagels are a deep golden brown.
Transfer the hot bagels from the baking sheet to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool for at least 30 minutes before eating. Bagels are best if eaten within a day if left out, or they can be wrapped well in aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month, then thawed as desired. Putting them in plastic or the refrigerator may lengthen edible life but will ruin their crispy crust texture. Toasting previously stored bagels will restore the crust texture.
Note: To make these bagels without sourdough starter, add an additional 6 ounces of flour and 6 ounces of water to the quantities listed in the recipe. The bagels will not have quite the same flavor as the original, but the result will still be satisfactory.
Pumpernickel Bagels
Makes about 18
Rye flour and caraway seeds add a flavor twist, and caramel coloring—sugar that has been commercially cooked down to a deep, dark brown, almost black, color—lends a rich cocoa appearance to these bagels. Once you have learned the basic craft of bagel baking, the trickiest part about making these is tracking down the caramel coloring, since it is primarily a commercial ingredient. Determined home bakers can obtain caramel coloring with a few mouse-clicks or a phone call or two (see Sources and Resources). The recipe calls for liquid caramel coloring, though 2 tablespoons of powdered can be substituted and combined with the other dry ingredients. Pumpernickel bagels are delicious unadorned but taste best with a light sprinkling of salt baked on top.
3 cups / 1 pound / 450g unbleached white bread flour
3 cups / 1 pound / 450g light rye flour
3 teaspoons/ ¼ ounce / 10g instant or bread machine yeast (or 1 packet active dry yeast)
2 tablespoons / 1 ounce / 30g kosher salt
¼ cup / 2 ounces / 60g granulated sugar
⅓ cup / 2 ounces / 60g nonfat dry milk powder
1½ cups / 12 ounces / 350g lukewarm (75°F to 85°F) water
1 cup / 12 ounces / 350g Sourdough Starter
⅓ cup / 3 ounces / 100g barley malt syrup, plus more for boiling
3 tablespoons / 2¼ ounces / 65g liquid caramel coloring
⅛ cup / ½ ounce / 15g ground caraway seeds
Semolina flour, for dusting
Kosher salt, for topping (optional)
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, place the flours, instant or bread machine yeast, salt, sugar, and milk powder. (Alternatively, if using active dry yeast, stir it into ½ cup of the lukewarm water to proof for 15 minutes, or until the water begins to bubble or foam.) Add the starter, the barley malt syrup, and liquid caramel coloring to the dry ingredients. Add the 1½ cups lukewarm water, holding back a tablespoon or two. (Alternatively, if
using active dry yeast, add all the water in which the yeast was proofing plus the remaining 1 cup lukewarm water, holding back a tablespoon or two.) Mix on the lowest speed to combine for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice, if necessary. Increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for another 2 to 3 minutes. If needed, add the remaining tablespoon or two of water (and more, if necessary), a little at a time, until a fairly firm but tacky and elastic dough has formed. Continue to mix for another 2 to 3 minutes to develop the dough. Add the ground caraway seeds (plus a few more drops of water) and mix on the lowest speed just long enough to incorporate and distribute them evenly in the dough, 1 to 2 minutes. (If the mixer begins to strain or stops altogether, remove the dough from the mixer, divide in half, and complete mixing the dough one half at a time.)
Turn the dough out onto an unfloured work surface. (If the dough is too sticky to handle easily, a distinct possibility when using rye flour, you may flour the work surface lightly.) Using a bench scraper or similar implement and a kitchen scale, divide the dough and weigh it into 3½- to 3¾-ounce pieces.
Line each of two baking sheets with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Dust with semolina. On the work surface, use two hands to gently but firmly roll out each piece of dough into a 10- to 12-inch rope. If the dough begins to pull back, allow it to rest for a minute or two before resuming. Form each bagel ring by encircling the back and open palm of one hand with the dough rope with the two ends overlapping by about an inch. On the work surface, roll the overlapping ends back and forth under your palm until an unbroken ring is formed. (While forming the bagel rings, take care to keep the other dough pieces from drying out by covering them with a damp towel or by spraying them lightly with water from a spray bottle.) As each ring is formed, place it on one of the baking sheets. Each baking sheet should have space for a dozen rings spaced ½ to 1 inch apart. Once all the rings are on the baking sheets, cover each sheet with a dry linen or other lint-free cloth and refrigerate.
