Mixing bagels in new mixer with thanks to all who helped me decide (read on!)
To all of you who helped me decide on a new mixer, thank you! I did purchase the Bosch Universal from PHG, and I feel it was a good decision for my purposes (large amounts of bread/bagel dough). I added the stainless bowl, a personal preference. I "broke it in" by mixing a double batch of the ITJB bagel dough, that is for 24 bagels, and the Bosch came through with flying colors. To be fair, I did increase the hydration to 55% from the 52% in the original recipe (which I used when I was testing the DLX, to be honest and fair). I used 80% All Trumps, 20% Gold Medal bread flour, with a couple tsp. of VWG. After shaping, I bagged them with white plastic garbage bags (blowing air into them so they don't stick to the dough) over the baking sheets, which have no sides and are used as peels, then put them in the fridge for an overnight fermentation. Now for the camera shots (all but the crumb shot--sorry, but I was too busy chewing):
So you can see the new "big mixer" sitting there proudly, next to "little mixer" K/A Pro 6 (still going strong and doing much better with the spiral hook!) Next is a shot of the prep, in order, R to L: baking sheet lined with reused parchment, sprinkled with semolina (or rice) flour, boiling bath with barley malt syrup in the filtered water, 2 TBSP to about 3-4 quarts(?), then the ice water bath, which isn't difficult and cools them down quickly; replenished with ice as needed. I was able to boil and chill 6 bagels at a time (handy when baking 24). I placed a smooth cotton kitchen towel on a small cooling rack to hold the wet bagels. Seeds are placed on salad size plates. Baked on a stone preheated to 460, per ITJB recipe. Although the pictures are not all in sequence, you can see the shaped bagels on the parchment lined baking sheet (new parchment on that one) and finally the finished bagels. I usually mix 'em up, some plain, some with sesame, some with poppy and some with my own seed mix (B & W sesame, poppy, fennel, sunflower and flax, plus a little sea salt). New trick I learned to keep the seeds from falling off: brushing the tops of the unbaked, just boiled and cooled bagels with an egg-white/1 tsp water wash. Also, I have learned there's no problem reusing parchment, even several times. I'm gearing up to baking about 3 dozen bagels for a birthday brunch (mine) later this month! Next will be the bialys . . . Once again, thank you, TFL friends!
Joy