WHOLE GRAIN SOURDOUGH BAGELS

Steps:

• Early Morning Day 1: Starter Prep
• Feed 40g sourdough starter with 80g whole grain flour and 80g water. Let it ripen in a warm spot until at least doubled. This should take 4-6 hours. If you don't have a warm spot, do a 70:70:70 feed; and if you prefer to prep the starter the night before, use cool water and a higher feeding ratio, for example 20:90:90.
• Midday Day 1: Mixing and Fermenting
• Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix for about 5 minutes at low speed. The dough should be stiffer than pizza dough but not as dry as pasta dough. If you don't have a stand mixer, after combining the ingredients, knead the dough by hand for about 5 minutes.
• Lightly oil your bowl or bucket, place the dough inside, cover and let it rise until it has expanded by 75-100% (see the photo below). My dough took 5 hours in a warm lit-oven, but at cooler kitchen temps, your dough may need 8-10 hours. In the case of a cold environment, prepping the starter the night before and mixing in the morning may work best.
• Evening Day 1: Shaping (see the video above)
• Prep a large baking sheet with parchment paper and a dusting of flour.
• Scrape your dough out of its bowl or bucket onto a lightly oiled work surface. Fold the dough into a thick tube and roll it to about 24 inches in length.
• Cut the dough tube into 12 pieces.
• Roll each piece into a ball, and then roll all the balls into tubes, de-gassing the dough as much as possible.
• Wrap each tube around your palm and roll the seams on your work surface to seal and even out the bagel diameter.
• Lay the bagels on your baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.
• Day 1 into Day 2 Overnight: Final Proof
• Unlike yeast-leavened dough, some room temperature proofing is needed before refrigerating the this sourdough bagel dough. Let the shaped bagels rise at room temperature for about 1 hour and then refrigerate the baking sheet overnight. In a warm kitchen, 40 minutes at room temperature before retarding might be sufficient. If you prefer to boil and bake the bagels on Day 1, plan for a room temperature final proof of 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Day 2: Stove and Oven Prep
• Preheat your oven to 500F with a baking stone or steel on the middle shelf for at least 30 minutes.
• Set 3 to 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot.
• Soak your bagel boards for at least 10 minutes by laying them inside a rimmed baking sheet and filling it with water.
• Prepare dishes with seeds or any other bagel toppings you'd like to use.
• When the water is boiling and the preheat is complete, add the barley malt syrup to the water and stir.
• Remove the bagel dough from the refrigerator and remove the bagel boards from the water. Place the boards near your topping dishes, burlap-side up.
• Place a bowl of ice water near your toppings to quickly dunk the bagels in between the boiling and the topping. You can skip this step if your hands are relatively impervious to high temperatures and you adequately drain water off each bagel.
• Day 2: Boiling and Baking
• Transfer three bagels to the boiling water and boil for 1 minute on each side, using your bagel scoop to flip them.
• Remove the bagels from the boiling water and place them in the ice water.
• Lay a drained bagel on the topping of your choice, and then carefully transfer it to a bagel board, topping side down.
• Repeat this until you have six prepped bagels divided between two bagel boards.
• Load the bagel boards into your oven and bake for 4 minutes.
• Carefully turn the bagels over by lifting and flipping the boards so the bagels are now topping side up and baking directly onto the hot stone.
• Continue baking for 14 minutes more.
• Re-soak the boards and begin boiling and topping the next six bagels during this time so that when you remove the first batch from the oven, the next batch is ready to load.
• Cooling and Storage
• Let the bagels cool on a rack about 30 minutes before serving.
• The bagels can be stored in beeswax, paper, or plastic bags.
• After a couple of days, it's best to freeze the bagels. I like to pre-cut them in half and defrost directly in the toaster.