48 Comments

Quick question: I noticed that the quantities/weight in the PDF version is different than the ones in this post. Which one should we be using?

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Can you explain the differences between diastatic malt powder, non-diastatic malt powder, barley malt syrup, dry light malt powder, and malted milk powder? How are they used and what to they do? I was going to try your NY bagel recipe on ATK, which uses malt syrup (or molasses as a sub). I don’t have malt syrup, so I commented on that recipe asking if I could use either diastatic or non-diastatic malt powder in its place. I got a response that the recipe uses non-diastatic malt syrup so I should be able to use malt powder in its place. Now reading your post, I don’t know if they meant non-diastatic malt powder or dry light malt powder. Not like I know the difference between the two anyway, but I’d like to understand what they each are and what they do to food. I have both diastatic and non-diastatic malt powder, which I tasted, and they taste the same, don’t know why, but I expected them to taste different 🤷‍♀️ The array of ingredients with similar names is very confusing.

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Andrew, thank you for this! Can maltose be substituted for the barley malt syrup?

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Have you tried another fridge rest after shaping to facilitate timing? This recipe is tough for same-day breakfast bagels; it looks like 3-4.5 hrs. from pulling from fridge to completion. I often shape the day before, fridge rest overnight, and boil/bake the next morning as in Nancy Silverton's sourdough bagel recipe (she does add instant yeast, though). Looking forward to trying these!

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a general chemistry question: what does initially leaving the salt out of the dough do? (here, and in other recipes)

i learned a simple no-knead sourdough loaf recipe from a friend, and it makes marvelous breads. salt is mixed into levain with water, and flour after. i have made many "the Loaf" loaves, and find, in my inexperienced eye, them to be extremely similar. what's going on with the salt?

thanks!

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Mar 17, 2021Liked by Andrew Janjigian

these are delightful! i trade breads for cured manure compost for my garden and plan to make a few more batches straight away! -- any reason not to reuse the "bath water"? (if kept refrigerated btwn uses)

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On my second run through this recipe already this week and I am loving it! First time making bagels and it's been a total success. Thank you!

What part of the recipe would you focus on to reduce the sourness further? I live in a tropical climate (30c / 85f) so I was thinking either reducing the bulk time or reducing some of the rising times after shaping?

Or something with the levain? Less levain? Add the levain earlier before it doubles?

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When refreshing the stiff starter, can we keep refreshing the 2:1:1 refreshed version, or do we have to go back to refresh the converted stiff starter?

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Hi Andrew, do you think kansui (aka lye water) would be an effective replacement for sodium carbonate in the bath? It's a potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate solution typically used to make ramen noodles, so I'm curious to see how it'd affect the coloring in bagels.

Thanks for this recipe! Baking soda has worked great in my previous bakes — I just saw the bottle of kansui in my cupboard and got the itch to experiment.

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My Food Processor leaked fairly substantially when I first mixed the dough. Is there a sequence of steps to avoid leaking - like pouring half the water in gradually as it blends?

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Andrew Janjigian

Love this recipe! One of the easiest bagel recipes I know of (especially when it comes to mixing/kneading) and has great results. I forgot that it required a stiff starter when I went to make it again this morning so I just did some math and used my liquid starter. Worked great! I might experiment with shaping the night before next time because I prefer morning bagels to lunchtime bagels. Thanks Andrew!

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I'm making my first batch today, in hopeful anticipation of having them for New Years! Wonder if anybody other than @MarkCohen has made them slightly smaller, thereby yielding a greater quantity, and if so, did that turn out OK?

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Hi, I’ve made 2 batches of your bagel recipe- love it!

The bagels have been cracking in the oven- specifically in the center ring area. Maybe 1/2-1” crack per bagel, some don't have any cracks. The cracks aren’t big, but it seems like there is expansion that is happening that the crust can’t contain.

A couple of specifics- I’vei been following the timing/temp in the recipe. The bagels float immediately in the bath, so I don’t think that it is an underproofing issue. I’ve been hand mixing/kneading as I don’t have access to a good stand mixer or large enough food processor. I’ve been mixing/kneading for 10-15 minutes.

I’m not using a particularly high protein bread flour, but it is bread flour (mix of hard red turkey with Sonoran white).

Thinking that mixing and flour selection are the main issues. Not developing the gluten enough? Do you have other thoughts as to why the cracking is happening?

Thanks!

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