May 11, 2020 - 12:06pm
Can I make bagels using bread dough
I have a standard whole wheat bread dough that I make in the bread machine and then bake in the oven.
Am considering using th esame dough for bagels - shaping it, refrigerating it, boiling and then baking it. Anyone tried this? Any thing I should be aware of or modify?
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What comes to my mind is that bagel dough has less water in it, i.e. it is pretty firm. You might find bread dough is too soft for shaping into bagels, comes apart when boiling, and/or doesn't feel like a bagel when baked. When making your bread dough, try holding back 10% of the water. The dough will probably feel more like a rubber ball than bread dough, but it will be nice and chewy when boiled and baked! I regret that I have no experience with a bread machine, though, so I'm not sure how it would handle a stiff dough.
I'm sure there are some great recipes for bagels here on TFL; you may find some inspiration and at least one recipe that is very close to the bread dough you already make :)
thanks! will grind some wheat tomorrow morning and give it a try!
So I used my regular dough and averaged out the procedure notes from several recipes. The result was yummy but only slightly bagel-like in texture.
I think the overnight refrigeration was not of much use. Will try without this next time and see.
Your question inspired me to try my own bagel experiment! And I had the same experience: tasty but not quite what I was looking for in the texture. I only refrigerated mine for about two hours before I boiled them; I think you just want a skin. My hunch is that if the crumb is too bread-like, I could go with an even stiffer dough and cut back on yeast as well as water, maybe even try a long cold fermentation to get a slow and reduced leavening.