The Fresh Loaf

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Bagels using sourdough

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Bagels using sourdough

I recently made Reinhart’s yeasted bagels. I am planning today to make bagels using sourdough. Hopefully they will taste even better and they won’t go stale as quickly.

Reinharts uses 51% for his preferment. He states in the BBA that SD can be used in place of the yeasted poolish, and then goes on to increase the yeast in the final dough.

With such a high percentage of preferment why does he use any, let alone more yeast in the final dough.

Any help or suggestions appreciated with the SD Bagel adventure. 

What are your thoughts on SD Levain making the bagels stay fresher longer?

Dan

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

to make the best bagels around using sprouted grain for half the flour

YW SD Sprouted Multi-grain Bagels – 50 Percent Whole Grain

Stan Ginsberg has a great SD bagel recipe that I use all the time.  He listed it as a comment where I stole it and modified it for a YW ?SD combo levain sprouted recipe

But these are my favorite from 2013

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32655/sd-yw-multigrain-bagels

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I posted a reply yesterday, but for some reason it looks like it didn’t show up. Maybe I messed up.

Boy, what an elaborate bake! I have yet to try sprouted grains, but have plans to do so.

Dan

DavidEF's picture
DavidEF

I've never understood the 'need' to add yeast when using a pre-ferment either. Is there anybody that knows? Even some 'sourdough' breads have added commercial yeast in the recipe!

gary.turner's picture
gary.turner

Wild yeasts tend to grow and multiply slower than do wild (SD) yeasts. I prefer to start my breads with a SD poolish (usually about 30% of the flour in the poolish) for its flavor enhancement. Overnight on the bench gives me a strong, bubbly preferment with a characteristic sour flavor profile. I am not in favor of the multi-hour proof times that SD gives me, so I will add a measure of IDY at the mix/knead to shorten the time needed for bulk and final proofs. It does slightly reduce the sour taste, but not enough to matter to me.

If I make my poolish with IDY, I only need a scant pinch of yeast and no additional yeast at mixing for bulk and final proofs. The flavor is still enhanced by a long preferment; just not with the same profile as with SD.

To sum, SD grows more slowly than commercial bread yeast, so adding yeast gives your dough a growth booost

gary

DavidEF's picture
DavidEF

BTW, DB, those are some beautiful bagels. I've yet to make bagels, but I want to some day. The part stopping me is the boiling in lye water. (that's right isn't it? I get confused between pretzels and bagels)

gary.turner's picture
gary.turner

Where pretzels are treated in a cold 3% lye water bath, that high a percentage in a hot water bath would make your bagels taste like pretzels instead of bagels.

I use lye because plain water doesn't give the beautiful color and malt in the bath, being hydrophilic, always seems a little sticky to me. Lye gives a wonderful color and a thin crispy crust. Keep the lye strength at ~0.5%, or 5g per liter or quart of water in your bath. The taste is great without being too pretzel like.

gary

The Roadside Pie King's picture
The Roadside Pi...

I have used baking soda for both pretzels and bagels with very nice results.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I baked some SD Bagels using Reinhart’s method. Used a SD Levain and also his recommended percentage of yeast in the final dough. They came out as expected and the taste was good. Now I’m wondering if the SD will cause the bagels to last longer before staling.

NOTE; first bake I used KA Sir Lancelot (14.2%) flour. They where too chewy for me. This bake I went with bread flour. They where chewy, but not overly so, IMO.

I went too heavy on the seeds. I mixed salt, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Next time I’ll leave the salt out because I like bagels with cream cheese and blue berries. The salt didn’t pare well with the cream cheese and blue berries.

Actually, I think plain bagels will work for me...

Dan