Sourdough Bagels ~ Massive!

Due to long class hours, my lunch of rice and a viand cannot sustain me until dinner or until I get home. Halfway through the class after lunch, I am already starting to feel drained and lethargic and starting lose focus. Since bagels are a recent favorite and I know how satisfying and filling they are, I baked some to serve as an afternoon snack to fuel me and give some badly needed energy. :)

I used the same bagel dough as my New Year's Eve bagels (bread flour, water, starter, salt, sugar, honey) with only one change: I increased the sugar to more than double because I like the taste better and for more fuel.



Bulk rise took 4 hours at 27°C. I shortened it to 4 hours as opposed 6 hours because the dough became too extensible and very sticky to handle the last time. I know now that my starter is not a real fan of raising high-sugar doughs. The rise was slow and the dough barely doubled, it only grew to about 1.5x its size.



I cut the dough into 3 ropes instead of 6 for bigger more satisfying bagels and for the convenience of only having to bake a single batch of delicious bagels. I prefer to shape them by looping the ropes around my hand and rolling hard on the work surface rather than poking a hole into a ball of dough then widening it; I like the rustic look it gives the bagels and is also faster to execute. They underwent a 1 hour proof then into the fridge overnight.



I boiled them the next day for 1 minute on each side but they took an extra minute to come to the surface so a total of 3 minutes of boiling time. They are almost the same size as the pot in which I'm boiling them.



Onto a kitchen towel they went to remove excess moisture and here is how they look.







They were baked in my clay pot over heated pebbles for 15 minutes, then flipped and baked for another 15 minutes. Because of their size, 30 minutes total baking time with live fire all the time. I love the pebbles, they provide even high heat to minimize burning. A single burnt spot is almost inevitable but it's a humongous leap of improvement from my previous bakes if you have seen them before. In case you wanna see, here is how they look before flipping.



I cooled them for an hour before slicing and freezing. I take one before I go to my class and toast it and slather it with anything for my snack.



Ready for school. I put some cheese in it this time. You can see my lunch of rice and siu mai that day too. Honestly I still felt a little hungry that day but not as hungry as I used to be, thanks to the bagel!





The crust was very crispy and crumb was very chewy but soft. The aroma was very sweet and fragrant and very appetizing. Sweet and wheaty with almost no tang. Delicious on its own or with spreads.





They were really big, this was the smallest of the three. Look how massive it is!