Ashkenazi Bagels (source)

Make delicious traditional bagels the way Polish Ashkenazi Jews do.

While I have broken it down into a more standard recipe style, do yourself a favor and read Seamus Blackley's original Twitter thread -- it's not just a recipe, it's a history lesson and it's a fantastic read.

Poolish Ingredients

  • 275g all-purpose flour
  • 275g warm water
  • 5g active dry yeast

Dough Ingredients

  • 275g warm water
  • 10g Diastatic Malt Powder
  • 7g active dry yeast
  • 650g all-purpose flour
  • 15g salt

Bagel Prep

  • Pale Malt Extract
  • Toppings for dipping, like sesame seeds or "everything" mix (optional)

Directions

Poolish

Start by putting the Poolish ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well. Cover, put in a cool place, and let stand for 8 hours.

Dough

  1. Add 275g warm water, diastatic malt powder, and yeast to the poolish.
  2. Add flour, plus any saved dough from last time (if any).
  3. Mix until loosely combined, cover, and let sit for 25 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle 15g salt on top of the dough.
  5. Mix and fold for 2-3 minutes.
  6. Knead for 5 minutes.
  7. Form up and oil the dough, cover it, and leave it in a cool place for 2 hours.
  8. Leave covered and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or overnight. (See notes below.)

Making the Bagels

  1. Spread some semolina on parchment paper.
  2. Cut off a strip of dough, and roll it up.
  3. If there's a little left that doesn't make a whole bagel, save it in a ziploc bag for next time.
  4. Cover the rolled bagels with plastic wrap, let them rise for 40 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
  6. Fill a bowl with ice water. (I clean and reuse the bowl I made the dough in)
  7. Fill a pot with water and a dollop (~1tbsp or so) of malt syrup and bring to a boil.
  8. A few at a time, boil the bagels, 30 seconds on each side, flipping carefully.
  9. When finished boiling, transfer them to ice water.
  10. Set up the next bagels to boil, and then transfer the old ones from the water to the parchment. If you are using toppings, dip the boiled bagel in the toppings and then place toppings-down.
  11. Bake for 4 minutes, and then flip. You should use a bagel board to flip them if you've got them.
  12. Bake for another 18 minutes.

Notes

These are actually pretty easy to make, but the timing can be tricky depending on when you want your bagels to be ready. :)

I've worked out a number of possible timelines below, but I've ended up doing the "Full Overnight Rise" method and it works out great. Between the final rise, boiling, and baking, I find it takes me an hour and a half to two hours to go from fridge to serving.

Single Day Timeline

  • 10am: start poolish, let sit for 8 hours
  • 6pm: mix loose dough, let sit for 25 minutes
  • 6:30pm: knead dough, clean and oil, cover and let rise for 2 hours
  • 8:30pm: put in fridge for 2 hours
  • 10:30pm: make bagels

Overnight Poolish Timeline

  • 11pm: start poolish, let sit for 8 hours
  • 7am: mix loose dough, let sit for 25 minutes
  • 7:30am: knead dough, clean and oil, cover and let rise for 2 hours
  • 9:30am: put in fridge for 2 hours
  • 11:30am: make bagels

Full Overnight Rise Timeline

  • 1pm: start poolish, let sit for 8 hours
  • 9pm: mix loose dough, let sit for 25 minutes
  • 9:30pm: knead dough, clean and oil, cover and let rise for 2 hours
  • 11:30pm: put in fridge for 8?? hours
  • 7am: make bagels