I'm looking at highly rated bagel recipes. I'm surprised that many (if not most) of the recipes call for sugar in the water the bagels are boiled in instead of baking soda. That has me a bit puzzled. I always thought that the water is supposed to be alkaline, like lye in the water in old-fashioned pretzel recipes, that it is the alkalinity of the water that give bagels (and soft pretzels) their distinctive chewy texture. What am I missing? Will sugar really create that texture?
Bagels – Baking Soda or Sugar in the Water
alkalinitybagels
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Yes, a very dense dough will not be able to rise. The gases will not have the strength to push the hard dough apart. There are types of bagels which are supposed to be quite dense, but American bagels are seldom made this way. This recipe is quite low hydrated at 52%, so even small errors can push it into problematic territory.
Individually packaged instant yeast keeps for a very long time. Big packs keep well if refrigerated after opening. Your yeast is not likely to be the problem. There are three possible problems you may have encountered:
- You measured your dry ingredients by volume, not weight
- You used the wrong type of flour
- The recipe gives an insufficient amount of time
Measuring Ingredients
I suspect that you probably measured by volume. This is the most common mistake which leads to a wrong dough consistency. You should measure by weight because measuring by volume is not precise enough: depending on your technique and on the humidity in your pantry, you can have up to 50% measuring error. The recipe gives you a weight; use it. If you find a recipe which doesn't give you a weight, consider changing the recipe - the best sources always use weight. If you insist on using a recipe specified in volume units, use a converter and measure everything in weight. This ensures that you use the ratio given in the recipe and eliminates technique errors on your part. If the recipe author didn't make technique errors while creating the recipe, you will get the right output. (For example, Corriher calculates her recipes by weight ratio, but she lists them in volume because her readers prefer it that way. If you convert back by the factor she gives, you will never be wrong). If you absolutely must measure by volume, then pour your flour into the measuring cup and level it by shaking. Never scoop flour. Still, prepare for botched doughs from time to time, even with pouring.
Flour Type
The second likely reason is the wrong type of flour. Or maybe not "wrong" per se, but different from what the author had in mind. In different regions, flour labeled as "bread flour" has different amounts of gluten. If in doubt, look at your nutrition label; it should be around 12% for bread flour. If it's not, adjust the amount of water slightly (you have to go by feel here).
Timing
The time given in the recipe is also shady. At 4.5 g dry yeast and 453g flour, it is equivalent to 3% fresh yeast (even less if you overmeasured the flour). This is a good percentage for a slow, long rise. But saying to ferment it in the fridge "for at least one hour" is nonsense. This amount of yeast needs more than an hour at room temperature, or something like 6 hours in the fridge, even for a rich wet dough - probably more for the lean dense one. If you only kept it for an hour before shaping, you didn't have any primary rise. Next time, just go by volume. Primary fermentation should double the dough volume. The change in volume in secondary fermentation depends on the process, and I don't remember the correct one for bagels.
Bottom line: your diagnosis sounds very likely - not enough fermentation for the amount of flour. Measure correctly, and allow enough time for fermentation, to get your bread right.
I've never seen the kind of garlic bagels spiceyokooko is talking about, but I am familiar with garlic bagels of the variety you're referring to. I don't usually make garlic bagels at home because I'm happier with simpler ones, but I have made some ages ago.
I've usually found most things stick just fine to recently boiled bagels, but for fresh garlic, you may find it more reliable to brush an egg wash (roughly equal amounts beaten egg/water) on the top of the bagels before sprinkling on the chopped garlic. That'll work almost like cement to keep most of the garlic in place after baking.
There's some possibility that the level of moisture in fresh garlic may make it harder to just press the egg-washed bagels into a bowl of chopped garlic, as you would likely do with seeds.
Also, I wouldn't expect that all of the garlic will stay stuck. But with the egg wash, most of it will.
As for the texture of the garlic, there's a pretty wide range of common results at the variety of bagel shops I've tried in my life; some are golden brown and some are near burnt. That's a matter of cooking time, mostly, but also the starting moisture content of the garlic.
I would expect that most bagel shops use bulk, pre-minced garlic so that they can save on a little labor. This is typically a bit drier than if you fresh chopped the garlic at home. Consider buying the prefab stuff and see if that gets you closer to what you want. If it does, and you prefer to do the heavy lifting on your own, mince the garlic and let it sit on the counter to dry a bit.
Another strategy altogether is to mince garlic and mix it with some oil, and smear it atop the boiled bagels with your hands. I think this should stick reasonably well, and will affect the texture of your result.
Since I'm not 100% sure what your platonic ideal is for the garlic texture, I can't say whether the oil-mixture or egg wash route is going to be a better choice, or some hybrid, but those are some options to explore that I think will get you closer to your target.
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Best Answer
The main purpose of adding things to the boil are to promote browning and flavor. The texture of the crust is more a product of gelatinizing the starches by boiling, using a high oven temp, and using a good amount of steam during baking.
You can increase browning two main ways, by promoting the Maillard reaction and/or promoting caramelization. Baking soda, lye, or sodium carbonate baths increase the Maillard reaction, and increase surface gelatinization by breaking down some starch, but also give the bagels a "pretzely" taste. You can also promote the Maillard reaction by adding protein to the surface by using an egg or milk wash. Sugar (white or dark), honey, and malt added either to the boil and/or the dough increase surface caramelization and also lend a subtle glaze.
Personally, I always use malt incorporated both into the dough and into the boil. It adds a subtle sweetness and cereal flavor that complements the bagels. I find the pretzel taste from an alkaline bath off-putting. When I don't have malt I use honey, molasses, or brown sugar. I don't use an egg wash either, if you want to add toppings just place the bagel into the topping right out of the boil... they'll stick without anything else.