bagels with old fermented dough

A little while ago there was some conversation about how long fermented commercially yeasted dough can keep without losing it's strength.  I don't have the final word on it or anything but since then i have been pushing the limits with the age of my ferment in various recipes.  This basically entails giving myself permission to NOT stress out every time I open the fridge and see last week's bowl of dough!  This brings me to the reason that I waited to post about it now.  Basically until yesterday, with the exception of pizza dough, I had been using the old dough only in recipes that also used the addition of dry yeast in the final dough so there was no way to tell if some part of the rise came from from the ferment or not.  Yesterday I made a batch of bagels with my seven day old ferment with no added dry yeast in the final dough and they came out great.  During the proofing stage they nearly doubled in volume. They were delicious!

One is plain and one has black sesame seeds.

Summer