Bagels

500g bread flour

300g water

7g instant yeast

10g kosher salt

optional ingredients

1g vital wheat gluten

5g diastatic malt powder or syrup

Mix the flour, instant yeast and salt (and the vital wheat gluten + malt powder if you're using them) in a bowl. Add the water on top of that. Mix to a shaggy dough and let it rest for 1 hour to hydrate.

After an hour, do a stretch and fold on it. Fold it in thirds, stretch it out again and fold it in thirds again. Do this 2 more times in the next hour. You'll see the texture improve with each stretch.

Once the dough is mixed, cut the dough into 100g pieces. You should get 8. There may be a little bit left over. Round these pieces and leave them covered for 5 minutes to rest on the bench.

Roll the rounds into cylinders about 6 inches long. Let those rest for a couple of minutes. Then continue to stretch the cylinders to about 10 inches long. Cover the cylinders. Prepare a 1/2 sheet pan with a silpat or parchment. Give it some pan spray. This is so the bagels don't stick when you take them off the pan the next day.

Take one of the cylinders and make a ring with it, overlapping the dough. by about 2 inches. With the palm of your hand, press the dough together to join the two ends. You may need some water on your hands to do this. Continue with the remaining bagels. Place the bagels on the 1/2 sheet pan. Cover with sprayed plastic and place in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, bring about a gallon of water to a boil with either 25-30g malt powder or honey. The pan should be a wide tall sided pan. Release the bagels from the pan and return them to the refrigerator. Do not keep them on the bench while the water comes to a boil. Preheat the oven to 450°F.

When the water comes to a boil, gently add 4 of the bagels into the water up side down. Poach the bagels for 30 seconds on a side and return them to the pan. You may want to use two pans for the baking of the bagels so they don't touch. Once the bagels have been poached, you can top them however you want. I used sesame and everything for my toppings.

Bake the bagels for 20 minutes or until desired color is reached. Cool the bagels on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Happy baking!