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At the end of the busy week, I had an
extensive roll in my mind of to
do list. I truly wanted to bake something out of the ordinary for the weekend.
My mind was inundated with ideas I thought, I would have been able to get
through it even if I had a whole year off just to bake, but that’s okay,
I will get to it all sooner or later! These dazzling cinnamon and
raisin bagels were right at the pinnacle of my roll. I initially made bagels last summer, and
after making them fruitfully quite a few times since, I have been in the making
to endeavor some variations. Cinnamon raisin was reasonably the foremost
picking, and trust me these bagels were oh heavens. I used the recipe
from Peter Reinhart's Break Baker's Apprentice. I had no idea that it will get so enhanced than just the
ordinary home-made bagels, but now we’ve gone to a whole other
altitude of these awe-inspiring beauties. I am now absolutely motivated
to try loads more flavoured adaptations, some customary and perhaps
some not so traditional. Oh everyone will find these homemade bagels so
irresistible!
Sponge
1 teaspoon instant
yeast
4 cups (18 oz) bread
flour
2 1/2 cups (20 oz)
water, at room temperature
Dough
1/2 teaspoon instant
yeast
3 3/4 cups (17 oz)
bread flour
1 tablespoon ground
cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon honey
or brown sugar
2 cups loosely
packed raisins, rinsed
To Finish
1 tablespoon baking
soda
cornmeal for dusting
To make the sponge:
Whisk the yeast and flour together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the water
and whisk until incorporated - the mixture will be fairly thick and sticky.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for about 2
hours, or until the mixture becomes very bubbly and swells to almost double its
original size.
To make the dough:
Add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir to incorporate. Add 3 cups of
the flour, the cinnamon, sugar, salt and brown sugar (or honey) and attach the
bowl to your stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Mix on low speed until
the ingredients come together in a ball, gradually adding the remaining 3/4 cup
flour to stiffen the dough. In the last few minutes of mixing, add the raisins
and allow the mixer to incorporate them into the dough.
Kneading the dough:
You can continue to knead in your mixer, but fair warning, the dough is very
heavy. I didn't want to risk damaging my mixer so I did it by hand. By hand
you'll have to knead the dough for at least 10 minutes - you want a pliable,
smooth dough that's satiny and not tacky to the touch. You can add additional
water or flour as necessary to achieve the right consistency.
Divide the dough
into 4 1/2 oz pieces for the bagels (that will make a fairly large bagel so
feel free to use smaller portions if you prefer). Shape each piece into a roll
and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with a damp towel and allow
to rest for about 20 minutes.
Line two baking
sheets with parchment and spray them lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
To shape the bagels:
Flatten the ball of dough slightly then poke a hole through the center. Stretch
and rotate the dough until the hole is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter (or
slightly smaller if you've made your portions less than 4 1/2 oz each). Transfer
to the prepared baking sheet and repeat with all of the dough balls (dividing
them evenly between the two baking sheets). Spray the tops of the bagels
lightly with nonstick cooking spray and cover each baking sheet loosely with
plastic wrap. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
To determine whether
the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator use the "float
test." Fill a small bowl with room temperature water and place one of the
bagels in the water. If the bagel floats within 10 seconds of being placed in
the water, they are ready to move to the fridge. If so, remove the bagel from
the water, pat dry and place back on the baking sheet. (Note: you only need to
test one bagel - not all of them.) If the bagel doesn't float, continue to
proof at room temperature and perform the float test again every 10-20 minutes,
or until it floats. When the bagels are ready to be retarded, place the loosely
covered baking sheets in the refrigerator overnight (or up to 2 days).
When you're ready to
bake the bagels, preheat oven to 500 F, with racks in the upper and lower
thirds of the oven. Bring a large pot (the wider the pot, the better) of water
to a boil, then add the baking soda.
Remove the bagels
from the refrigerator. A few at a time (as many as can comfortably fit in your
pot), drop them into the boiling water. They should float to the top fairly
quickly. Boil for 1 minute per side, flipping them with a spider strainer.
While the bagels are boiling, dust the baking sheets they were on with
cornmeal. Remove the bagels to the dusted baking sheets and repeat until
they've all been boiled.
Bake both pans of
bagels in the oven for about 5 minutes, then rotate the pans (switch the racks
they're on and give them a 180-degree flip). Reduce the oven temperature to 450
F and continue baking for another 5 minutes, or until the bagels are light
golden brown. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let the bagels cool for at
least 15 minutes before serving.
