Homemade Bread Day 2016 – Sprouted 8 Grain Bagels

Lucy wanted to make fruit cake so bad she could taste it and then Danni ruined her party.  Poor thing! She feels so sorry for herself.  What did she do to deserve this pain and misery?  After crying for a whole day and not being able to face the world, she finally came out of her pantry to say that it would be bagels instead.

It has been a while since we made bagels so she had to think long and a-hard about what kind to make.  Sourdough and sprouts – yes.  Bran levain and a low hydration dough.  Bread flour – no high gluten flour. No barley malt syrup either, since we worry about diabetes, but she did add in some red rye malt to spike the color and the taste.  No NMNF starter either, but Lucy did use a new, 1 week retarded wheat one instead.

The 8 sprouted grains were red and white wheat, barley, spelt, rye, oat, Kamut and buckwheat.  These sprouted grains made up 34% of the flour.  The bran was sifted off the sprouted grain, home milled flour and used for the 1st of the 2 stage, 100% hydration, levain build and the 2nd stage was some fo the the high extraction sprouted flour that remained.

Deflation nation.

This levain was very active.  The first stage was 3 hours and the 2nd one 4 where it easily doubled.   The levain utilized 12% prefermented flour.  There was no autolyse of the dough flour for the first time in about forever.  We just mixed the 2% salt, 3% red rye malt, levain, dough flour and dough water to bring the whole mix up to 60% hydration-  Higher hydration than usual for bagels but not bad for a 34% whole grain bagel that need a bit more water.

We kneaded the old way by hand for about 6 minutes until the dough was mixed and fairly smooth. We let the dough rest for 30 minutes and then did about 15 seconds more kneading followed by 2 hours of rest.  The dough had nearly risen 50% when we knocked it back divided it into (6) 115 g balls.  These were then made into ropes and left to rest 10 minutes.

We then made the roped a bit bigger so that they were long enough to form bagels over the knuckles.   Once they were formed they were placed on parchment paper on a baking tray, bagged in a trach can liner and placed into the fridge for a 10 hour retard.  We usually retard our SD bagels for 18 hours but the levain was so active we cut it short.

I's nio all bagels - how about a lunch of herb SFSD, dipping sauce cheeses and a smoked rib?

To compensate for less retard time, we let the bagels warm up in the counter for 30 minutes before starting the preheat of the oven to 500 F.  Once the oven was at temperature we started he boiling process where the water had Barley Mat syrup and baking soda in it.  We boiled for 30 seconds a side, then a quick dry on a kitchen towel and then into the mix of sesame and white poppy seeds which are beige and darker in color than the sesame seeds.

The first salad of the winter using home grown arugula, red / green lettuce and spinach.  Cherry tomatoes aren't ready yet but we will have them by Thanksgiving

I'm always amazed at how deflating the boiling process is and how well they recover in the heat of the oven.  We placed the seeded bagels back onto the parchment on the baking sheet and then slid the whole shebang onto the bottom of the two stones.  Before closing the oven door, we tossed 2 cups of water into the large, preheated lava rock pan for 8 minutes of steam as we turned the oven down to 450 F.

After 8 minutes, we took the steam out, the bagels had recovered their height by that time and we turned the oven down to 425 Convection to finish baking.  Once deemed done, they were removed to the cooling rack.  They looked fairly brown but no blisters like normal for some reason.

Safeway has pork ribs in sale till next Wednesday - buy 1 and get 3 free - which works ou to $1.99 a pound.  Time to stock up!

We will have to wait for the crumb shot but I would guess they are our usual open but still a bit dense bagel crumb we shoot for.  Yes, the crumb is soft, moist and open for a bagel.  Have to wait on the taste till tomorrow.  Happy Homemade Bread Baking Day.

Formula

12% pre-fermented flour, 100% hydration bran levain using 27 g of wheat SD starter.   First stage is 8 grain sprouted bran and 2nd stage is high extraction sprouted 8 grain – 7 hours total for the levain build.

34% sprouted 8 grain

66% Albertson's bread flour

3% red rye malt

60% overall hydration

The prfect chaser for any election - a prickly pear margarita!