Hi bakers,
Recently, I've been looking at bagel recipes and I've noticed that some of them call for a bulk ferment after kneading, while others shape the dough directly after kneading. Does the bulk ferment have a significant purpose? How does it affect the end product?
Also, if anyone has any good bagel recipes they could recommend, they would be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks!
Susan’s formula at Wild Yeast Blog. It is a very reliable and great tasting bagel. The only difference is I use real lye for boiling. It makes a huge difference in taste and crust appearance. No amount of baking soda or sugars in the water equals lye. I hope you will give her bagels a try. They are kneaded by machine briefly, you don’t want gluten development in bagels, then rise, then shape then refrigerate overnight then boil then bake. I haven’t made her bagels in several years! I’ll have to stir up a batch soon. I’ve never made any other formula so can’t answer your other questions.