Peter Reinhart's bagels with stretch and folds
Hey all. Newbie here looking for help with bagels. I moved to a location that doesn't have access to bagels, so I'm trying to make my own at home with some success.
I'm following Peter Reinhart's bagel recipe (link below). I scaled it down to a 1/3. The end result is tasty and seemingly edible, but I think I'm doing something wrong. I don't have access to a mixer so I'm doing this by hand. It takes me 30 minutes just to knead the dough, and I find I'm adding additional flour into the recipe just to get the dough not to be tacky. I'm also substituting the malt syrup with molasses (only thing available here besides honey).
I recently read about stretch and fold and I'm wondering how would I incorporate it into this recipe? How long do I wait between each SF? At what point to I autolyze? When do I add the additional salt and yeast?
https://smittenkitchen.com/2007/09/bronx-worthy-bagels/
Thanks in advance.
What's your time period for completing bagels, start to finish? If you're going to take several days then intensive kneading won't be necessary nor will additional flour which could negatively affect the texture of your bagels. If you're going to take several days then stretching and folding the dough several times over the course of the process will develop the gluten just as well (if not better) then intensive kneading. Mix your dough initially. It will look rough, shaggy and not at all like the final dough you want. Put it in a container and let it rest and autolyze. When it doubles, put your "dough" on a floured surface and stretch and fold it several times. You will find that the dough becomes significantly smoother and "dough" like. Put it back in the container. I prefer to refrigerate my dough overnight at this point. It's easier to work with dough when it's cold and it doesn't hinder the baking of bagels the next day. Portion out your bagel pieces after it has rested and risen. Stretch and fold each piece and then go ahead with the shaping, boiling and baking steps. Best of luck! Homemade bagels are way better than store-bought...unless your homemade bagels are being sold in a store.