Homemade Bagels Are a Breeze!

By Addie

Here is a bagel recipe worthy of the best New York or Jersey deli from a baker in Boone, North Carolina. Bruce Ezzell commented on this blog ages ago and elicited a discussion about bagels, which led to his inspiring journey from being laid off to opening his own bakery. professional baker. I’ll let Bruce tell the story..
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"I’ve been baking for 20 years now. Five years professionally from 1989-1994, then what I called ‘sanity baking’ after that. Newly married, kids on the way, I had to find work that gave me a steady paycheck so I left baking for new careers. The ‘economic downturn’ changed things for me. I lost my job as the office manager of a high-end construction company in January 2009. Boone, NC, where I live, is a small university town and in the winter of 2009 there were no jobs. Family friends who knew I baked and had eaten my bread before suggested I pick up some extra work baking. I thought, what the heck, I’ve got nothing else to do. That February I was asked if I made bagels. I hadn’t, but I’ll learn anything. Approximately 20,000 hand-formed and hand-boiled bagels later, Owl Creek Breadworks (on Facebook) takes all my time and I’m having more fun working than I’ve had in years.

And I’ve learned a little bit about bagels. Best compliment I’ve had was from a retired guy who was given one of my bagels by a friend. The message he left on my friend’s phone was this “I grew up in Jersey, in a neighborhood with a green grocer, a meat market, and a Jewish bakery. I haven’t had a bagel like this since I was a kid, chewy and dense, not bready like these things you find in the store. Where can I get more?” I figured if I could make a retired businessman remember his childhood with a simple thing like a bagel, I was on the right track."

Bruce Ezzell’s Bagels:

Ingredients

• TO MAKE THE SPONGE:
• 3 1/2 cups flour (18 ounces)
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
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• Combine the ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix with a spoon till the ingredients are combined. Set aside at room temperature for at least 4 hours. Do this before going to bed if you want fresh bagels in the morning.

Preparation

Step 1

TO MAKE THE BAGELS:

1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 scant tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon malt syrup (you can substitute molasses if you wish)
3 cups flour (16 ounces)
1/2 tablespoon Baking Soda for every 1/2 gallon water)
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Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt or other garnish (optional but recommended



Add salt, honey, malt syrup, and flour to the sponge, the flour last. Attach dough hooks to your mixer and mix at low speed for 8-10 minutes. This is a stiff, bucky dough so don’t walk away from the mixer if it has a tendency to walk across your counter top. I’ve had more than one mixer hit the floor and it is distressing. (This can also be mixed by hand.)

Once the dough is mixed remove it to your counter and cover with a cloth to let it rest for 5-10 minutes. While the dough is resting place a wide, fairly deep pot filled with water on the stove to heat (measure the water so you know how much baking soda to use). When I boil I typically use a pan like a wok filled with water. Once the water comes to a simmer add the baking soda. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Divide the dough into 12-13 (4 oz) pieces. Round each piece and set aside to rest for a few more minutes, covered.

To shape take each ball of dough and flatten out slightly using the palm of the hand, making a disc approximately 3.5 inches wide. Make a hole in each using your thumb and place back on the counter, covered, to rise.

After 10 minutes flip each bagel over so the bottom is now facing up. When this side begins to get slightly puffy and rounded it is time to boil. This may take as little as 5 minutes, but depending on the temperature of your kitchen, how cold your countertop is, etc., it might take longer. When the bagel looks and feels a bit puffy, it’s ready to boil.

While your bagels are in their final rise bring your water to a simmer, then add the baking soda.

Drop the bagels 3-4 at a time into the simmering water (depending on how large your pot is). They should float immediately or within a few seconds. Let them simmer for one minute, then flip them over using a chopstick or spoon and let the other side simmer for one minute. Remove from the water using a skimmer or large spoon. I like to bake them on a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper. They can also be baked on a pizza stone.

Sprinkle them with sesame, poppy seeds, salt or whatever you prefer immediately after removing them from the water, or alternately, brush with an egg wash and sprinkle after that.

Bake at 450 degrees F for 12-13 minutes or until golden brown.
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Really pretty simple. There’s a guy in Florida I recently read about who spent thousands on a water system in his shop to convert his water into the chemical/mineral equivalent of Brooklyn tap water, because he swears the water is the key to the perfect tasting bagel. I don’t know but it seems like North Carolina, Appalachian Mountain well water does a pretty good job. Like Joe Ortiz says in The Village Baker, “baking great bread requires an attitude of faith and a willingness to let nature take its course. It has to do with knowing that the process, once set in motion, has a way of determining its own destiny. All the baker does is to become a guide, leading the fermentation of the bread through its natural cycles.”

Although appropriate ingredients are certainly paramount, I think that process is key.

Yield: 13 bagels at 114 grams (4 ounces) each
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Note from M.R.:
These really are easy. If you don’t have a strong mixer, knead the dough by hand for the same time you’d have done so in the mixer.


Note the darker color of one of the bagels in the photo. This was cooked in water with food grade lye replacing the baking soda. It resulted in the expected darker color and pretzel-like flavor.