Name: Sourdough Bagels
Yield: 18

Never buy a bagel again! You actually won’t need or want to after perfecting these, I promise.

Bagel (and pretzel) dough is significantly drier than bread or pizza dough. Just like with every sourdough endeavor, we use our high gluten Sir Lancelot bread flour throughout the feeding and dough-making process. You can read more about that in my sourdough starter post. It will feel too dry when you’re doing the first few feedings and even the final feeding will be much tighter. Don’t despair, with those few stretches during bulk proofing, the gluten will develop and it will feel familiar soon.

We hope these become a staple in your home kitchen as they have ours since my husband developed this recipe last fall. I’ve included both written (photos with captions) and a video format for this recipe. I recommend reviewing both before endeavoring as the video has more details on shaping, boiling, and baking than the still images.

This recipe makes 18 bagels.

We always start with the initial 11am refresh up feeding like we follow for our bread, so here we go:

Yield: 18 bagels

Sourdough Bagels

Never buy a bagel again! You actually won’t need or want to after perfecting these, I promise. This recipe makes 18 bagels.

We always start with the initial 11am refresh up feeding like we follow for our bread, so here we go:

Ingredients

Instructions

Refresh Sourdough, 11am, Day 1:

3/8 ounces starter
1 ounce high gluten flour (we use Sir Lancelot flour for ALL sourdough recipes)
3/4 ounce filtered water

Ingredients listed in ounces (grams)

3/4 ounces starter (21 g)
1/75 ounces flour (50 g)
1.5 ounces water (43 g)

Day 2, SECOND FEEDING (7am):

4 ounces starter (all from above)
10 ounces flour (283 g)
6.25 ounces filtered water (177 g)
Mix together by hand again and return to warm proofing station for 4 hours or so.

Day 2, FINAL FEEDING (11am-12pm):

All of previous feeding
30.75 ounces flour (872 g)
17 ounces warm filtered water (482 g)
7/8 ounce sea salt or kosher salt (25 g)
2 1/8 ounces malt syrup (60 g)
3/8 ounce diastatic malt (11 g)
Microwave the liquids (water and malt syrup for 45 seconds, then add to starter with rest of ingredients.
The viscous malt syrup works into the dough much better when warmed. Warm water hastens the proofing. It’s a win-win.
Mix the ingredients with the paddle attachment for 30-45 seconds.
Switch to dough hook and mix for another 30-45 seconds or so. Don’t overmix but it should look incorporated and look like this.
Stretch with wet hands and place in proofing area. This photo was a third stretch, so the gluten was well-developed. Your first stretch will be jagged and may rip a little. Be gentle with it.
Repeat stretching 2 more times, stretching once an hour around 1pm and 2pm, and then at 3pm it’s time to shape the bagels!
Measure your bulk dough. We do this by removing it from our proofing bowl, taring the bowl on our scale and then adding the dough to it. I measure bagels in grams, and ours usually turn out between 113-114.5 grams.
Weigh each bagel out individually. This will require some removing and adding of dough.
Fold the dough under on itself from the outside. Then roll the dough between the palms of your hand in a forward motion, with one hand moving forward and the other backward. You are helping to create a smooth outer layer. If need be, pinch the underside of the bagel to close it up.
Next, with your thumb and forefinger, make a hole in the center of the dough. Slowly tease the center apart. Be gentle and try not to rip the dough.
With your index and middle fingers, roll the hole out as wide as the dough will give, making quick circles with your hands to stretch and shape the bagel hole. Place all bagels onto a linen or cotton towel for proofing. Stretch one more time before covering with plastic wrap for proofing.
Proof for 1 hour. We use our proof setting in our oven which is set to 100F. Remove and refrigerate for several hours before baking, or overnight. We have tried waiting as long as 3-4 days after proofing to bake and it works too, though they definitely come out best when baked that evening or the following morning.

Baking the Bagels

This recipe bakes 9 bagels at a time, and yields 18 bagels total.
Preheat oven to 550 with your pizza stones and small cast iron skillet inside.
When the oven is at 450, start to boil the water for the bagels.
Add 1-2 T of malt syrup to the water for the boil.
Boil for 45 seconds on each side and then place on a wire rack to drain. I boil 5 the first time and 4 the second. Turn water off (you’ll need it in about an hour when the oven is ready to bake the other half).
Boil a few ounces of water for 60 seconds in microwave while the second set of bagels are boiling in the malt syrup water. As soon as you add the bagels, pour the water into the hot skillet and promptly close. We bake on convection, I recommend using it if you have it.
Bake for 3 minutes at 550F (convection, if you can).
Lower to 350 and bake for 18 minutes.

Sourdough Bagels