Last week’s BBA Challenge was the Peter Reinhart recipe for bagels. Since I had already made his plain bagel recipe many times, with excellent results, I decided to try the cinnamon raisin version with half of the dough this time. I have to say that they were too sweet for my taste! And you know I love my sweets, so that’s saying a lot. When I make this version again, I will dial down the sugar quite a bit, and possibly add extra cinnamon. (I did not add the optional cinnamon sugar topping, either. This is not a doughnut, for heaven’s sake! Not that I have strong opinions or anything.)
I also did not like the shape of the bagels. Picky, huh? Peter suggests two shaping methods. One is the poke-the-hole in the middle-of-the-dough-ball method, and that works fine; I used it for my plain mini bagels, as I’ve done before. But the other method he uses is to roll the dough into a rope and then wrap the rope around your hand, rolling the doubled ends on the counter to seal the ring.
Less complicated than the way I learned from Kimberly, sure, but it resulted in very unevenly shaped bagels for me. I’m certain with practice I’d improve, but her slightly more complicated method gave me perfectly shaped bagels on my first try. I’ll probably stubbornly stick with that way, since it works for me.
Other than the shape and the flavor (um, what else is there, really? okay, texture, which was great), the bagel-making went off without a hitch. I tried a locally-milled flour this time (found it in bulk at Whole Foods): Giusto’s Ultimate Performance Flour. It had a lot more moisture (go figure, Bay Area, known for fog and the ocean, and that great big blue basin of water called THE BAY) than the flour I normally use for bagels (King Arthur High Gluten Flour), so I ended up adding extra flour while kneading the dough, in order to get to the stiff consistency that makes for great bagels. It has a slightly lower protein content than the King Arthur flour (13 – 13.5%, as opposed to 14.2%) but the shipping costs for King Arthur flour are getting a little expensive as my bread habit grows!
So, yes, my life has come to this: comparing the protein content of different flour types. (Don’t even get me started on whole wheat pastry flour, cake flour, flour for pasta, etc., and all the various purposes for each. And the whys and hows. You just don’t need to know, unless you’re crazy, and then feel free to ask away!) I may just write a book someday, and call it My Year with Peter and 200 Other Gluten Junkies. Which will upset my wheat-intolerant friends. And there are quite a few. But I digress. Even when they’re too sweet, these bagels are the best I can find outside of NYC. So just make ‘em already. (A link to the recipe is here.)
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
They look sooo good!
Great post! My cinnamon sugar bagels did taste eerily similar to doughnuts, yet weren’t doughnuts. Won’t be making those again… And next time I’ll give the KA a whirl.
Thanks, Jenn! As you already know from my comments at your bagel post, I’m in awe that you did these in an outdoor kitchen! – Janice
Yes, Catherine, do at least try the KA. Especially since you have that adorable baby to tend to – make your life as easy as possible wherever you can! – Janice
Your bagels look great. I did the poke the hole kind and cinnamon raisin.
They tasted good but pretty chewy.
Great baking along with you,
Susie
yours look great and i think i’m going to double the cinnamon too. since you’re really into comparing flour and gluten, do you think standard unbleached AP flour would work? it’s not king arthur, it’s gold medal (iirc the gluten is between 10-11%). thanks!
That’s a great question! AP flour can be used, however, it will not produce the same kind of chewy crust. And you may have to lower the amount of liquid in the recipe, since bread flour absorbs more liquid than AP flour. Bagel dough needs to be pretty stiff in order to survive the shaping and boiling process. It’s just a matter of how much you want your bagels to resemble NY bagels. If you like softer bagels, then AP is probably the way to go. (If you are having a hard time finding bread flour or high-gluten flour, and you have any kind of health food store near you, you can buy a box of vital wheat gluten and add one teaspoon per cup of flour. But you may have already read this on the group site!) – Janice
Hi Janice,
Thanks so much for replying! Curiosity got the best of me and I went ahead with AP flour. The shape held perfectly but I did have to add more flour (1/4c or so) to get the dough to be pliable and not sticky during the kneading stage. In the end they are a bit soft (a touch like Lender’s w/o a firm crust) and they don’t look at plump as yours but they are wonderful! I’d love to do them again with bread flour.. .and then I’d have a good excuse to make the NYT famous cookies w/the same!
Thanks again!
And here’s a link to mine: http://superfinespot.blogspot.com/2009/06/cinnamon-raisin-bagels-peter-reinhardt.html