The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Bulk ferment for Bagels?

adelie's picture
adelie

Bulk ferment for Bagels?

Hi bakers,

Recently, I've been looking at bagel recipes and I've noticed that some of them call for a bulk ferment after kneading, while others shape the dough directly after kneading. Does the bulk ferment have a significant purpose? How does it affect the end product?

Also, if anyone has any good bagel recipes they could recommend, they would be greatly appreciated :)

 Thanks!

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

Susan’s formula at Wild Yeast Blog. It is a very reliable and great tasting bagel. The only difference is I use real lye for boiling. It makes a huge difference in taste and crust appearance. No amount of baking soda or sugars in the water equals lye. I hope you will give her bagels a try. They are kneaded by machine briefly, you don’t want gluten development in bagels, then rise, then shape then refrigerate overnight then boil then bake. I haven’t made her bagels in several years! I’ll have to stir up a batch soon. I’ve never made any other formula so can’t answer your other questions.