I'd say this looks more like bagels. The previous ones were a little too small. 4 oz are the right size. I also used a homemade malt powder, tried to sprout my own with wheat berries. Soaked for 3-4 days. There was a little white sprout, but somehow didn't like the ones in Dan Lepard's book on The Homemade Loaf. But I went ahead to dry and grind it then. I added in this ingredient, but still without malt syrup, I substituted with brown sugar. The colouring looks fine I guess.
The puff was much better, the taste was chewy and there's a tinge of sweetness - could it be the malt powder? I wonder. Perhaps.
But my 2nd batch that went in didn't puff as much, see bottom left picture, the comparison, the one on the right is the 2nd batch, I suspect its the ice cold water, most melted after the 1st batch.
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