BBA Bagel questions
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