October 13, 2011 - 12:24pm
Whole Wheat Bagel - Thanks, Lumos!
Sending this to Yeastspotting.
This recipe was by Lumos, and was featured on TFL front page a while ago. I stuck pretty close to the original, with the following notes:
1) I used Sir Lancelot High Gluten Flour. I am a firm believer that you can't make good bagels without high gluten flour.
2) I used lye to boil the bagels. I like the unique flavor and texture of crust on lye pretzels, to boil bagels in lye bring the best of two breads together IMO. See here and here for more details about my lye bagels.
Nice tight crumb, and I love the extra flavor ww flour brings in.
This time I kept it simple, but I certainly will try other flavor variations.
Thanks Lumos for a great recipe!
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Comments
Wow, thank you for trying out my recipe, txfarmer. Glad you liked it. :)
Your bagels look really beautiful with dark tan. Must've come from boiling with lye.
Totally agree about the need for high gluten flour on bagels. The one I usually use is 15% protein which is one of the highest you can get in UK market, but with the inclusion of wholemeal in this recipe I feel I could do with even higher protein level to get more chewy texture. How was the texture with your bagels? Chewy enough?
Look forward to seeing what you'll come up with 'other flavour variations.' ;)
lumos
The bagels are chewy enough for me since the ww flour I used has fairly high gluten (for a ww flour) and I kept the dough pretty dry. For a while there, I was making bagels a lot, with whatever fillings on hand, now I am getting back to the basics.
WW I use for breadmaking is 13.6% protein, which is, I think, one of the highest protein content for ww strong flour in UK.
I used to make bagels with fillings when I started making bagels, but walnuts is the only filling I use these days. And I'm doing 'back to basic' bagels recently, too. In my case reducing ww to minimal to increase chewiness.
txfarmer, I really think you should do a book... Your presentations and the photo compositions are, in and of themselves, almost good enough to eat ! And this one is no exception.
Ron
Thanks Ron! My shots are still inconsistent, sometimes good, sometimes...not so much :)
i second that Ross. Hey, maybe there should be a collective TFL bread book - there is certainly no lack of baking, photography and humour here. Some of you take photos that would not look out of place in a cookbook.
I think that's a brilliant idea, ww, a TFL bread book! If we manage to sell it as an e-book as Floyd did with TFL Pocket Book of Bread, the proceeds can go to Floyd to help him with the maintenance cost of running this site. It may be a small contribution, but that would be a nice way to pay him back for what we've been all benefiting from this site.
You guys are right, it would be a fun project!
OK txfarmer, I'm wondering how you get the crumb structure so fine. Most of my bagels have a more bread like structure, more open. I really like the 20-25% mix of WW. I was thinking I should back off on the riser but if you followed Lumos, she uses yeast and SD together.
Can you expound on your lye process a little? Is it something you get locally? What strength do you mix it and is it OK in SS pans only? I boil 1 minute max per side followed by a short rest in iced water per Hamelman. Then on to the seeds and bagel board or lately I've been trying to bake on a sheet pan.
You almost can't see a hint of a very thin crust on yours. So unique!
Eric
Hey Eric,
I got my food grade lye from here: http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-2/2-lbs-Food-Grade/Detail Do make sure you buy the "food grade" kind.
For the bagels, I used 2tsp of lye in 2 quarts of water, boiling about 30-60sec each side. I don't rest it in ice water, just put on lined baking sheet and bake.
I think for a fine crumb like this, you have to knead the dough fairly well. It's hard to do for such a dry dough, that's probably why those old time bagel makers have super heavy duty mixers just for bagel dough. Other than that, what Lumos outlined for fermentation schedule should work fine, of course if you are making a big batch, you need to be sure the bagels are not left on the counter for too long between boiling and baking. I don't own a bagel board, just use a baking sheet.
Just to add to what txfarmer told you, I hand-knead for 20 minutes or so to get full gluten development. But next time, I'll try your no-knead method. ;)
The color of these bagels is very beautiful. In fact I don't think I've ever seen bagels that color before. Is it a function of the lye? I see you have linked to instructions about using lye. Does it affect the taste? -Varda
Yeah, lye gives the crust a special dark red color, also a unique nice taste. That's the appeal of German lye pretzels, which marries well with bagel.
Beautiful pictures and gorgeous bagels.
bemonkey
Thanks!
i didnt know there's an TFL pocket book of bread!