This basic New York style plain bagel is adapted from a recipe in Cathy Barrow’s Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish.  It is very similar to Bagels which I learned to make at King Arthur Flour’s baking school, although this version does not have any malt or sugar in the water bath.

Bagels are made from a very stiff (low hydration) dough, which can be surprising at first.

What I particularly liked about this version is that it is easy to fit into my schedule – about an hour of preparation before dinner on the night before and less than an hour of execution on the next morning and fresh bagels are ready for breakfast.  This recipe makes a batch of 6 bagels.

3 Tbs. cornmeal

420 g. high gluten flour (I used King Arthur)

21 g. (1 Tbs.) barley malt syrup, maple syrup, or honey (I used barley malt syrup)

1 tsp. yeast

225 g. water

1-1/2 tsp. (4.2 g) Diamond Crysal Kosher Salt (or equivalent weight in Morton’s Kosher Salt)

Line a quarter sheet pan with baking parchment and sprinkle it with the cornmeal.

Put in the bowl of a strong stand mixer (like the 6 quarter Kitchen Aid), the ingredients in the following order: flour, barley malt syrup and yeast.  (They can be weighed as they are put in, with the scale tared between ingredient.) Add the water so that it wets the yeast.  (This is helpful if using active dry instead of instant yeast.)  Last add the salt. 

Using the dough hook, mix the ingredients on low speed for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are mostly mixed.  Lower the bowl and use a spatula to scrape the sides to incorporate all the flour.  Resume mixing at low speed for 2-3 minutes until the sides of the bowl are nearly clean.  Lower the bowl and remove the dough hook.  Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and rest (autolyze) for 20 minutes.

Uncover the bowl, and with the dough hook mix the dough on medium speed for 7 minutes, monitoring the mixer to make sure it does not work itself off the countertop.  The mixer may make a lot of noise as it beats the dough into submission, and into a smooth and stiff dough.

On a clean unfloored work surface, divide the dough into 6 equal pieces about 110-115 g. each.  Shape each piece into a ring, using one of two methods.  The first method is forming each piece into a rope, forming the rope into a ring, and pressing the two ends of the rope together.  The second method (which I used) is forming each piece into a ball, flattening it into a disk, pressing the center with thumbs to form a hole, and then working with the dough to expand the hole and even out the ring of dough.  The hole in an unbaked bagel dough needs to be large since it will tend to fill in as it rises, is boiled, and is baked.

Put the bagel rings on the quarter sheet and cover with a piece of plastic wrap which has been greased with cooking spray so that the bagel doughs cannot stick to the plastic.  Put in the refrigerator to rise for 8-14 hours.  I put them into the refrigerator about 5:30 p.m.

When ready to bake either later in the day or the next morning, preheat the oven with a baking steel or stone to 475 degrees for at least 30 minutes.  Put a wide pot of water on the stove to boil.  Remove the bagel doughs from the refrigerator to warm up.  Put a peel on the counter and cover it with a sheet of baking parchment.

When the pot of water is boiling, carefully pick up the bagel doughs and boil them in batches (as necessary) for about 60 seconds, flipping them from time to time.  Remove them with a spider and put them on the baking parchment so that they do not touch.  Bake for 12-16 minutes until golden.  Allow to cool before cutting.