Hello,

I made a batch of bagels following the recipe in BBA, using weights as measurements, (except the yeast).  I ended up with mixed results, which leads to some questions...

Why use a sponge for a dough that it retarded overnight?  Doesn't this seem redundant?

I split the batch into two, I made 1/2 plain, topped with onion, poppyseed and salt, the other 1/2 cinn & raisin.  After rising for 1 hour, I refridgerated them overnight and proceeded to boil & bake.  The plain (topped) bagels fell flat somewhere between putting them into the water to boil and putting them into the oven.  They looked fine when I put them into the water, more than 1" thick but would make better bagel chips than bagels, really, maybe 1/2" thick.  I think they were overproofed, they have nearly baguette like crumb, any other thoughts?

The cin & raisin were better, I added extra yeast pr the recipe.  I tried to add the cin & sugar late in the kneading (by hand) to leave streaks in the dough.  I took forever to get rid of the pocket this created, plus a decent amount of extra flour to get rid of the stickyness.  But, they held their shape and had a more bagel-like crumb, and streaks!

Though I was happy with the results for the first time, both the bagels had a wicked chewy crust that was thin.  Like, a balloon coating, that thin, not quite that chewy.  I would rather have a thicker crust that was about the same overall chewyness.  Any ideas on how to get that?  (boil longer, more or less baking soda in the water???)  I did boil them for 1.5 min each side.

Thanks in advance!

Rick