this was my first attempt at making bagels. i modified nancy silverton's recipe a little to make my own sourdough bagels. half of them i boiled in a lye-water solution and the others i boiled in a bakingsoda-water solution. I also boiled some for just 20 seconds and the others for upwards of 2 minutes. I did all of this because i have read many different recipes and theories about what make the best bagel. They all turned out great. however, i like best the ones that i boiled for only 20 seconds before baking. i think they have a better skin. The lye-water solution also gave the bagels a nice dark skin which i think looks better.

Sourdough Bagels

bagels

bagels

After more months than I want to admit, I finally made the bagel I have been aiming for - the ones I remember from long ago. This was a long learning curve as I never baked bread before. I tried an untold number of recipes but there always seemed to be something missing. I switched to no-knead bread, english muffins and experimenting with sourdough which ultimately lead to a bagel I am happy with. Especially as I made these in a cabin with no running water, with temps of -36 outside to haul water!