Bagels 
(sourdough or yeast)

                                  makes 12 medium sized bagels (or 10 larger ones)

start by adding a little bit of sugar (or honey) to some lukewarm water, sprinkle on top some of your active dry yeast, if it foams after 10 minutes, your yeast is active and you’re good to go, if not go to the store and get some new yeast. 
take a quart sized tupperware container (or a bowl that can hold at least 4-cups.) and measure in 130 grams of water (1/2 cup +1 tablespoon) and 10 grams of honey (1 heaping teaspoon) and mix until the honey is dissolved. measure in .9 grams (scant 1/4 teaspoon) of active dry yeast and give it a little stir, then measure in 210 grams (1 3/4 cups) of all purpose flour (high protein flour for anyone else not in North America.)
stir the dough with a spoon for a bit and then dump the shaggy dough onto your counter top and knead a few times to make homogenous and there are no major wet or dry clumps (no need to go too crazy here.) cover the tupperware/bowl and place in a warm place (I use my oven with a light on, it heats to about 90 degrees.) let rise until the dough is tripled in size (if you used a quart container this means to the lid,) at high 80’s-90 degrees this will take approximately 5 hours, if you’re going with regular room temp, will probably be closer to 6. this is called your “biga” or “pre-ferment.”

For sourdough...

Take a quart sized tupperware container (or a bowl that can hold at least 4-cups.) and measure in 105 grams of water (1/2 cup - 1 tablespoon) and 10 grams of honey (1 heaping teaspoon). mix until the honey is dissolved. measure in 60 grams of your stiff sweet starter, also known as a lievito madre, and mush with your hands to break up and dissolve into your water (you can google levity madre for more information, and saved in my instagram highlights is a how to on converting a 100% hydration starter to a stiff starter. if you don’t have a stiff starter and don’t want to make one follow the recipe as directed but add in .2 grams of yeast here - your rising times will be subject to how strong your starter is when paired with the yeast, but will be faster than without it or omit the dairy in the recipe and lessen the honey a little bit to help the dough rise faster.) then measure in 175 grams (1 1/2 cups, scant) of all purpose flour (high protein flour for anyone else not in North America.)
stir the dough with a spoon for a bit and then dump the shaggy dough onto your counter top and knead a few times to make homogenous and there are no major wet or dry clumps (no need to go too crazy here.) cover the tupperware/bowl and place in a warm place (I use my oven with a light on, it heats to about 90 degrees.) let rise until the dough is tripled in size (if you used a quart container this means to the lid,) at high 80’s-90 degrees this will take approximately 5 hours, if you’re going with regular room temp, will probably be closer to 6. 

Grab your kitchenaid mixing bowl and a dough hook attachment..

(you can make this by hand but will take a decent amount of stamina and arm strength and endurance.) measure in 400 grams (1 1/3 cups + 1 teaspoon) of water, 50 grams (2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon) of honey, 30 grams (1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) barley malt syrup, 11 grams (1 tablespoon +1 teaspoon) diamond crystal kosher salt, 20 grams (3 tablespoons) nonfat milk powder (I know this is not traditional, but it makes the bagels eat a little less tough but doesn’t compromise the chew,) 5 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) diastatic malt powder (if you do not have it and don’t want to buy you can omit it but it is not recommended, for a shortcut you could buy malted milk powder and substitute both the diastatic malt and nonfat milk powder for this -- do the same volume/weight of the two items together -- it won’t be the exact same, but would be better than using the nonfat milk powder alone), add in your fully leavened pre-fermented dough, and if you are doing the yeasted version add in another .9  grams (1/4 teaspoon) active dry yeast. break up the dough a bit with your hands to dissolve into the liquid ingredients - no need to be perfect but it just ensures it is more evenly divided when the dough is forming. add in 45 grams (6 1/2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, 100 grams (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) whole wheat flour, and 600 grams (5 cups) of bread flour.

on low (around speed 2) to mix the dough. it will be very tough and sticky and dense. let the mixer run for about 7 minutes.  occasionally turn off the mixer, and turn the dough over in the bowl to make sure all sides are getting kneaded well. eventually the dough will kinda just start spinning on the dough hook and won’t be getting kneaded as well, at this point you could add 1.5 more tablespoons of water, but this isn’t necessary. Also, not necessary but if your mixer is on the smaller side like mine, it may help to knead by hand for a bit to make sure the dough is getting well kneaded (see the video of me kneading as this dough is a bit stickier so requires a different method than what you may be used to.)
after the 7 minutes of mixer-mixing has elapsed. cover the bowl with a plastic bag and let the dough rest for 10 minutes (optional, but it does help build strength.) then turn the mixer back on and mix for 2-3 more minutes on medium speed (around 6.) the dough at this point should be pretty strong (if it is not repeat the turning the mixer off for 10 minutes, letting the dough rest, and then mixing again.) put the dough in a 9-cup tupperware (or a large bowl) and cover. let the dough rise at room temperature, every hour or so give the dough a stretch and fold. 



let the dough rise until it is about to fill out the tupperware container, for the yeasted version this will take about 3 1/2 hours, for the sourdough about 5 1/2.
when done rising place the dough, covered, in the fridge overnight.

Shaping

Remove your chileld dough from the fridge...

and portion it into 10-12 equally sized pieces (guess if you don’t have a kitchen scale, if you do this should be about 150-130 grams of dough per bagel, depending on how many you portion.)

take a handful of flour and place on your countertop. place a piece of dough you pre-shaped on top. press the dough down with your finger tips to flatten, and gently stretch it out to a rectangular-esque shape about 3/4” thick. then remove the dough from your flour pile and place the widest edge furthest from you, take the widest edge and begin rolling it towards you, pressing in with each roll to tighten it (this makes for a well shaped bagel with no large air bubbles.) once it is all the way rolled press with the palm of your hand at the seam to seal. 



then begin rolling the rope out to lengthen. you’re looking for somewhere between 12”-16” long. I then twist the rope for appearances, but this is not necessary, feel free to skip. then wrap it around the palm of your hand overlapping the ends underneath your palm, and roll your palm back and forth to seal.



this method of shaping is great baguette shaping practice, I find it prettier, and it gives a bit more even distribution of air bubbles. but, if you don’t want to spend the time look online for other videos that show you how to make a circle and poke your fingers through it to shape. 

line the baking sheet with parchment and dust with flour, then place your prepared bagel on top. repeat with each bagel loading 6 bagels per baking sheet. then cover each sheet with saran wrap (to keep the wrap from sticking place a drinking glass in the middle, to help tent the saran. set the bagels aside and let the sourdough ones rise for about 90 minutes to two hours, and the yeasted ones rise between an hour and 90 minutes. 

while it is proofing prepare your seeds for dipping — I like a wide and flat bowl, but a plate with a small lip will work fine too.

Pre-heat your oven to 365..

and if you have one, place your baking steel or stone in the upper 1/3 of your oven, with your second rack in the middle.

and measure in your water, for every kilo of water (4 1/4 cups) add in 1 tablespoon of barley malt syrup, and 8 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) of lye (as a note, this is less then a 1/4 of the amount of lye used to make pretzels, but if you don’t want to use lye — I get it, just substitute in baking soda.) place over medium high heat and once lightly simmering (you do not want a full boil) unwrap your bagels and individually place them in your hot brown alkaline water (if using lye, wear gloves, please.) after 20-30 seconds (no more!) flip the bagel with a slotted spoon, and cook for another 20-30 seconds. place on a wire rack over a sheet tray and let the excess liquid drip off for 30 seconds, and then dip it into your seeds.
pull it out of the seeds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
repeat with 5 more bagels, then move the tray into the oven on top of your baking steel (in the upper 1/3 of the oven), bake here for 12 minutes. then rotate the sheet 180 degrees and move to the middle rack for another 14-16 minutes (if they feel a little soft still turn off the oven and let the bagels finish cooking for another 3-5 minutes.)

repeat with the second batch of bagels (I move the second batch into the oven as soon as the first batch is done with being on the top rack.)

let cool just for a few minutes and then eat with your favorite schmear and toppings