Blackstrap Molasses Bagels!
Apr. 13th, 2003 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsFor this week's bread experiment I made bagels. But I played with the recipie a bit. Instead of just plain sugar to feed the yeast, I put in really, really black molasses instead, and I boiled them with some baking soda, a trick I learned when making home-made soft pretzels.
They are fookin' amazing. The molasses touch is wonderful, they're a deep brown color, and the baking soda really helped make the outer crust soft and tender.
3 1/2 cups of flour (after sifting), plus some for kneading
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (or bread machine yeast, it's what I'm using)
2 tablespoons molasses, the darker the better
1 1/4 cups water @ 100-110 degrees Farenheit
Oil for greasing things up
Put the yeast, the molasses, and the water in a large bowl. Let rest for five minutes-- a good time to sift your flour into another bowl. Add salt to the flour, mix well. When bubbles start to form in the yeast mixture, add about half the flour/salt mix to it, stir until smooth. Add flour mix a little more at a time until it's all in there. Dump onto lightly floured surface and knead, about ten minutes (see notes).
When dough in fully kneaded, put into a large, lightly greased bowl. Grease top of doughball, cover with a layer of plastic wrap and a towel, let rise until doubled, about an hour and a half, possibly longer (see notes).
Punch down and let rest for ten minutes, then divide into eight equal-sized portions, rolling each into a ball, and leave on a lightly floured surface. One at a time, roll each ball out into a rope about eight inches long, then shape into a bagel, overlaying the ends and pinching them together. Leave bagels on the lightly floured surface. Always keep finished bagels and unfinished doughballs under a lightly greased sheet of plastic wrap while you're working.
Cover again with the towel and let rise for half an hour.
When fully risen, bring a large pot of water to boil, about a gallon's worth, and add 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Preheat oven, with baking stone, to 400 degrees. One at a time, dump bagels into the water for two minutes, turning over at one minute. Use a slotted spoon to pull them out, and leave them on a rack brushed with oil to drip dry while you finish the rest. When all of the bagels have been boiled, put them on the baking stone.and bake, unmolested, for 20 minutes, until a gentle tap suggests a hollow sound.
Notes: Kneading is not "about ten minutes," although that's what all the recipies say. Kneading is about making the dough elastic and homogenous, and that takes, well, as long as it takes. Although I started a timer, I stopped around nine minutes-- any more kneading and I knew the dough would have just toughened up and dried out more. It really is a matter of practice, and after baking a dozen different things I think I've got some sense of what properly kneaded dough looks like. I've also gotten used to working with sticky doughs and have learned not to be paranoid about having it stuck to my hands. It all works out in the end.
I've also learned that the "until doubled" is a much better gauge than "for an hour and a half." Bread should be trusted: after a set period of time, say an hour with these modern "instant" yeasts, start checking every fifteen minutes. If it looks big enough, it probably is. Go head and go on to the next step.
On the other tentacle, never trust "instant" yeast. Always activate it in a bowl with hot water beforehand, adding the sweetener (but no other dry ingredients) if the recipe calls for sweetener.
Much of the instructions in modern cookbooks and baking manuals is aimed at people who have never made bread even once in their lives. Once you figure it out, though, many of the steps they advise can be modified or ignored (and trusting the yeast, as many of them do, is just plain wrong).
They are fookin' amazing. The molasses touch is wonderful, they're a deep brown color, and the baking soda really helped make the outer crust soft and tender.
3 1/2 cups of flour (after sifting), plus some for kneading
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (or bread machine yeast, it's what I'm using)
2 tablespoons molasses, the darker the better
1 1/4 cups water @ 100-110 degrees Farenheit
Oil for greasing things up
Put the yeast, the molasses, and the water in a large bowl. Let rest for five minutes-- a good time to sift your flour into another bowl. Add salt to the flour, mix well. When bubbles start to form in the yeast mixture, add about half the flour/salt mix to it, stir until smooth. Add flour mix a little more at a time until it's all in there. Dump onto lightly floured surface and knead, about ten minutes (see notes).
When dough in fully kneaded, put into a large, lightly greased bowl. Grease top of doughball, cover with a layer of plastic wrap and a towel, let rise until doubled, about an hour and a half, possibly longer (see notes).
Punch down and let rest for ten minutes, then divide into eight equal-sized portions, rolling each into a ball, and leave on a lightly floured surface. One at a time, roll each ball out into a rope about eight inches long, then shape into a bagel, overlaying the ends and pinching them together. Leave bagels on the lightly floured surface. Always keep finished bagels and unfinished doughballs under a lightly greased sheet of plastic wrap while you're working.
Cover again with the towel and let rise for half an hour.
When fully risen, bring a large pot of water to boil, about a gallon's worth, and add 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Preheat oven, with baking stone, to 400 degrees. One at a time, dump bagels into the water for two minutes, turning over at one minute. Use a slotted spoon to pull them out, and leave them on a rack brushed with oil to drip dry while you finish the rest. When all of the bagels have been boiled, put them on the baking stone.and bake, unmolested, for 20 minutes, until a gentle tap suggests a hollow sound.
Notes: Kneading is not "about ten minutes," although that's what all the recipies say. Kneading is about making the dough elastic and homogenous, and that takes, well, as long as it takes. Although I started a timer, I stopped around nine minutes-- any more kneading and I knew the dough would have just toughened up and dried out more. It really is a matter of practice, and after baking a dozen different things I think I've got some sense of what properly kneaded dough looks like. I've also gotten used to working with sticky doughs and have learned not to be paranoid about having it stuck to my hands. It all works out in the end.
I've also learned that the "until doubled" is a much better gauge than "for an hour and a half." Bread should be trusted: after a set period of time, say an hour with these modern "instant" yeasts, start checking every fifteen minutes. If it looks big enough, it probably is. Go head and go on to the next step.
On the other tentacle, never trust "instant" yeast. Always activate it in a bowl with hot water beforehand, adding the sweetener (but no other dry ingredients) if the recipe calls for sweetener.
Much of the instructions in modern cookbooks and baking manuals is aimed at people who have never made bread even once in their lives. Once you figure it out, though, many of the steps they advise can be modified or ignored (and trusting the yeast, as many of them do, is just plain wrong).
