Bagels have a beautiful crust – with a touch of crunch and a little bit of a chew, whereas the insides are splendidly moist and delicate. For me, rising up in New Jersey, simply outdoors of New York Metropolis, bagels are a meals group all their very own, and discovering respectable ones outdoors of the NY metropolis metro space is a wrestle. Now that I dwell within the Midwest, it’s practically inconceivable to discover a respectable bagel, and making a bagel is a fancy course of. Because the begin of the pandemic, I’ve been making bread every week for the household, and am all the time looking out for bread so as to add to the combination to vary issues up a bit. This loaf did that for us. This no-knead every little thing bagel bread recipe is a good way to expertise the style and textures of a bagel with out all that onerous work.
What I discovered fascinating on this recipe was that there’s a particular water temperature to create the dough. I’ll admit that this was a temp that appeared excessive to me as most recipes name for the non-precise lukewarm or room temp water. It actually received the moment yeast that I used proofing shortly. I did spend a couple of minutes beneath the water faucet enjoying round a bit with varied ranges of cold and warm, utilizing my instantaneous thermometer to get the water to that good temp, however the outcomes converse for themselves. I’m going to do that temp for different bread recipes.
The folding course of is kind of easy to observe, and after the preliminary fold, all subsequent folds have been completed by pulling the dough right into a taut ball, tightening the skin earlier than putting it again into the bowl to relaxation. I let the dough cold-proof in a floured, oval banneton for about 14 hours within the fridge in a single day. The following morning, it was fairly puffy and handed the poke check.
I take advantage of a Romertopf clay oven for baking bread as I choose the batard form over a boule (you get extra uniform slices per loaf.) Earlier than baking, I disregarded any free flour, then used a water bottle to offer the dough a couple of good spritzes of water, added the ultimate 2 tablespoons of bagel seasoning to the highest and sides of the loaf, gave it a fast slash throughout the highest with the lame and popped it into the oven. In the course of the last bake, (prime eliminated) I checked the dough after quarter-hour, as oven temps range. The dough was at 185°F, and at 20 minutes, it was 203°F, so I took it out, eliminated it from the clay pot, and let relaxation on a rack. After 4 hours of resting, I couldn’t wait any longer and sliced into it. The loaf has a pleasant, tight crumb, moist inside, a very good crust, very harking back to a bagel. It made a beautiful car for my lunch, a left-over skirt steak sandwich. And the following morning, the ham, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich was superior. My higher half loved hers with brie and tomato and has insisted this bread now turn out to be a part of the bread I bake every week.
