Peter Reinhart's Bagels

This is a long one! If you are looking for a challenging bake that can pay off in the end, this is the one for you. This will get you 12 ginourmous bagels or 16 normal sized ones, so it'll make a good amount. It's got the boiling, it's got malt, it's got a cool rise, it's got it all and then some.

This one ultimatly comes from Peter Reinhart as the title of this page suggests, but I found it on Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients

Sponge

• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 4 C high gluten or bread flour (see notes)
• 2½ C water

Dough

• ½tsp instant yeast
• 3¾ C high gluten or bread flour
• 2¾ tsp salt
• 2 tsp malt powder OR 1 Tbs malt syrup (dark or light), honey, or brown sugar (see notes)

To finish

• 1 Tbs baking soda
• (Optional)

Steps

This recipe has a long cool rise, so I've split it into two days for clarity

Day One

1. In a large (4-quart) mixing bowl stir together the yeast and flour. Add water and mix together until a smooth sticky batter forms. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 2 housr, until the mixture looks very bubbly and doubled in size.
2. In the same mixing bowl (or transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer) mix in the second round of yeast. Add 3 cups of the flour and all of the salt and malt. Stir/mix until ingredients form a ball, then slowly work in remaining flour.
3. Dump dough out on the counter and knead for 10 minutes (or 6 minutes in a mixer), the dough should be stiffer than bread dough and there should be no dry flour. If it's too dry or too wet add water or flour, respectively. At this point it should pass the window pane test and feel satiny but not tacky.
4. Divide the dough into 4½ ounce pieces for normal sized bagels. Form each piece into a ball.
5. Cover balls with a damp towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
6. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment and lightly oil. Form the balls into bagel shapes. Either poke a hole through the center and gently rotate and expand hole until 2½ inches in diameter, making sure the ring of dough is even. Alternatively roll out the balls into 8 inch ropes (may be difficult since they are elastic and shrink when let go, if this happens let them rest a bit longer) then wrap the dough rope around your hand and overlap the ends by several inches, rolling the overlap on the counter to seal.
7. Place each shaped bagel on the sheet pans with 2 inches between bagels (less spacing for smaller bagels). Very lightly cover all bagels with oil spray and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Let pans sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
8. Check to see if the bagels have risen enough by using the float test. Fill a small bowl with room temperature water and gently place one bagel into the water, if it floats within 10 seconds the dough has risen enough otherwise more time is needed. Take the bagel out of the water and place it back on the pan and pat it dry. If the dough is risen enough place the pans in the refridgerator, otherwise leave them at room temperature and re-test in 10 to 20 minutes with a different bagel.

Day Two

You can leave the bagels in the refridgerator up to two days, it doesn't need to be exactly 24 hours.

9. Preheat over to 500°F with two racks placed in the middle. Brind a large pot of water to a boil (a wider pot is preferable). Add the baking soda. Have a slotted spoon or spider ready to fish out bagels.
10. Remove the bagels from the fridge and gently drop them into the water, being careful not to over crowd the pan. They should float within 10 seconds. After boiling for 1 minute flip the bagels over and boil for another minute. You can extend the time to 2 minutes per side for an extra chewy bagel. While the bagels are boiling sprikle the parchment paper lightly with flour or cornmeal. When they are done gently lift them out of the water and place them back on the sheet pan. If you choose to add a toping do so now.
11. When all the bagels have been boiled place the pans in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes, then swap the pans and rotate them around. At this point lower the oven temperature to 450&fradeg;F and continue baking for 5 minutes or until they turn light golden brown or the desired color.
12. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

Notes

• High gluten flour is different from bread flour in that it has even more gluten. The original recipe says bread flour can be used in a pinch though. Apparently you can find high gluten flour online, or in specialty stores. When I've made this in the past I've adulterated bread flour with some vital wheat gluten from Bob's Red Mill which is like 75% gluten. I didn't do the math to get an exact amount, I just guessed and it turned out well enough.
• Malt powder is a bit of a strange one for most cooks, it's NOT malted milk powder you use in milkshakes. The original recipe says that it was found at whole foods, so not a super specialty but I've not been able to find it on their website. My recomendation is to go to a homebrew beer store and ask for the smallest amount they will sell you of a dry malt extract (anything light/pale in color will do). This will be the cheapest option by far, but you're gonna end up with more than you know what to do with. My local store will only sell in half pound increments, but that half pound costs $4. You can get liquid malt extract, but in my experience most homebrew shops won't be able to sell that in small amounts and it's just more difficult to store and not make a mess with.