November 2, 2019 - 5:39am
Must bagels be round?
Crazy question, I know. But recently I've been using the heretical "St. Louis cut" on my bagels, and I actually like it a lot.
But of course the shapes of the cuts differ a lot because of the shape. I'm about to bake a new batch of my rye sourdough (using a chocolate starter that gives them great depth of flavor) and I'm wondering if it's possible to make them square or rectangular - with a hole in the middle. I would start with a tight roll for surface tension, then flatten and shape.
Any experienced bagel makers here want to hazard a guess the likely result? I suppose I could make 7 regular and one square as a test, bjt if it's likely to work I'd love to do all 8 that way.
Thanks in advance for any advice!