Bagels!!!

I've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Diastatic Malt Powder from Barry Farms so that I can make water bagels. It finally came over the weekend and I got the dough together after work last night to make the bagels first thing this morning. I'm using the formula from Susan at Wild Yeast Blog. One thing I would mention about the dough if anyone wants to make it is that it is the stiffest dough I've ever made and unless you have a more heavy duty mixer than my KitchenAid I would recommend bringing the dough together in the mixer and then kneading by hand. My mixer sounded very unhappy trying to bat that dough around and I stopped it after about 30 seconds and continued by hand. The only change that I made to Susan's formula is that I used Diastatic Malt Powder instead of Non-Diastatic which means that the enzymes in mine were still active and able to work on the flour to break out more sugars during the overnight fermentation. After doing some reading about bagel-making, I also chose to add some of the DMP to the water while boiling the bagels. This seems to be one of the secrets to getting the "authentic New York" water bagel flavor and look.

Right now the bagels are in the oven, almost at the end of their baking time and should be ready to eat by the time Amy gets down here ready for breakfast. Having just turned them one more time, I think next time I'll try egg-washing them to get the toppings to adhere better. So, is it an obsession if I dream about making them for the 2 nights before I make them and then get up at 4:43 to do it? They're out of the oven now, and look great, smell great and are nearly ready to be eaten. I took pictures, but they don't really do them justice. Oh well. I bet they'll still taste good.