I made bagels following the recipe from the BBA and they came out pretty good but I have a question. I dont know if anybody here has used this recipe before but the bagels it produces have a very very light crumb. Althought they are tastey, I feel like bagels should be more dense. These were very chewy but light.

Check out the photos of the crumb and you will see that the inside is almost completely hollow. Do you think I might have done something wrong or has anybody else here experienced this? The only thing I changed from original recipe is the yield; I made a half recipe but I used a scale so im pretty sure my measurements were accurate. what do you guys think?

Why do you have to retard the bagels overnight?  I don't have room in my fridge to store a tray of bagels.

Steph