“A bagel is a doughnut with the sin removed.”
George Rosenbaum
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
The whistling and lyrics of the song have been a favourite for years. Each time I hear the words ‘Gorky Park‘, for some insane reason I get transported to the streets of NY, sitting in a cafe munching a savoury bagel! It’s a very strange connect, maybe a reminder of Central Park in NY … hmmm!
A bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked.The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Bagels are often topped with seeds baked on the outer crust, with the traditional ones being poppy or sesame seeds. Some also may have salt sprinkled on their surface, and there are also a number of different dough types such as whole-grain or rye.
I had a recipe in mind, one bookmarked off The Sophisticated Gourmet, which had me making imaginary New York style bagels as I read the post. To quote the young and very talented Kamran, “ Heck, this bagel recipe is so good that you’ll be bowing down to the bagel god after you take a nice bite out of one of these freshly made bagels. This recipe is a same day recipe and doesn’t require two days of dedication. You hear that impatient bakers? ONE DAY bagels!“
NY Bagel Recipe
adapted minimally from The Sophisticated Gourmet
Recipe modified from Ultimate Bread by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno
Makes 8-9 medium-sized bagels
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups of warm water {you may need ± ¼ cup more}
450g plain flour {will need extra for kneading}
50g vital wheat gluten
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
Toppings: Bagel spices from bagelspice.com
Method:
In ½ cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture, until it all dissolves in the water.
Mix the flour, vital gluten and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.
Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed. Depending on where you live, you may need to add anywhere from a couple tablespoons to about ¼ cup of water. You want to result in a moist and firm dough after you have mixed it.
On a floured countertop, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working in as much flour as possible to form a firm and stiff dough.
{Thermomix Recipe
Place all ingredients in TM Bowl, and run on speed 5 for 7-8 seconds.
Put knob to closed position, and run on interval speed for 2 minutes. {Do not leave TM unattended in interval mode.}
Turn out dough, knead briefly to bring into a neat ball for 30 seconds and proceed…}
Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Carefully divide the dough into 8-9 pieces. Shape each piece into a round. Now, take a dough ball, and press it gently against the countertop moving your hand and the ball in a circular motion pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on top of the dough slightly until a perfect dough ball forms. Repeat with the other dough rounds.
Coat a finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about ⅓ the diameter of the bagel and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Repeat the same step with the remaining dough.
After shaping the dough rounds and placing them on the cookie sheet, cover with a damp kitchen towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 220ºC.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce the heat. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as you are comfortable with boiling. Once the bagels are in, it shouldn’t take too long for them to float to the top {a couple seconds}. Let them sit there for 1 minute, and them flip them over to boil for another minute. Extend the boiling times to 2 minutes each, if you’d prefer a chewier bagel {results will give you a more New York Style bagel with this option}.
After the bagels have come out of the boiling water, place them face down onto the seeds, and then place the seed side up onto the baking tray.
Once all the bagels have boiled and have been topped with the bagel spice, transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack
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