May 3, 2010 - 9:47pm
Bagels (without key ingredients) - Jeffrey Hamelman's Challenge
Inspired by Lindy, here's my try on the bagels. But obviously mine didn't turn out as nice as hers.
As I can't find high gluten flour - I used Japanese stong bread flour - 12% protein level. Without diastatic malt powder, i left that out. Without malt syrup, I used honey and brown sugar instead. Here's a description of how I did it. see post here.
Without these key ingredients, I guess I can't say I've made Jeffrey Hamelman's bagels. The bagels did turn out very chewy and my son gave me a verdict of 6/10.
I'm still trying to sprout my wheat berries......to get malt powder. The next time I'm in US, I'll make sure I get some....
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Have you tried looking in the local markets for those missing ingredients? I was experimenting with barley flour and roasted flours while there.
Mini
Honestly, I don't even know how malt powder looks like and smell like and don't know what it's called in Chinese. I found wheat berries though, so I 'm trying to sprout my own. I was even tempted to use some single malt scotch whiskey to try....(have a few bottles of them)...my husband of course said don't even think about it.....:)
If I find some here, I send you some. I've been looking also. I have one more shop to check.
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/06/14/sprouted-wheat/
Although I plan to get some malt extract for bagel making (as opposed to the malt extract we use for beer brewing), I actually made the exact same bagels as you this weekend. Hamelmans recipe, omitting malt from the dough, and using brown sugar in the boil. I think they came out great. I've tried several bagel recipes, and so far this is a family favorite.
Yours seems to have puffed up very nicely. Did it puff up during boiling? I didn't see mine puff up much as indicated in JH's book. Mine did more a little oven spring though.
They puffed only slightly during the boil. This is typical for me, but I get nervous every time. The rise came mostly from oven spring in the first 10 minutes of baking. They were nicely crusty and dense with a good chew.
They look pretty good, Jenny, in spite of your being handicapped by not having access to all the ingredients.
Nicely done!