Homemade Bagels - BBA Challenge

As you know I have been participating in the BBA Challenge. Those of us who have accepted the challenge are baking our way through Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I'm on the third recipe, which is bagels. (you can see my other BBA challenge posts here) I have had numerous recipes for bagels bookmarked for a long time and making homemade bagels has been on my to do list for what seems like forever. So this challenge has given me that little boot in the butt that I needed to get these off my list!

First of all, I have to say that these are not only amazingly delicious, but they are actually really easy to make. I found the dough to be very easy to work with, the only hard part is waiting overnight while the dough retards in the refrigerator. It's all worth it the next morning when the smell of fresh bagels wafts through the house. I also wasn't worried about making these as I have already used the soda bath method with homemade pretzels as well as Bretzel Rolls. Mmmmm!

First off, I had a minor panic attack set it while making this dough. You see I did what I always preach NOT to do, and that is I didn't look closely enough at the ingredients. So, after doing the first step, which requires 2 hours of rest time, I was halfway through that and looking at the next step in the book. That's when panic set in. I saw in the instructions that malt was needed. This isn't malted milk powder, it's a different kind of malt powder, used in a similar fashion as sugar to feed the yeast. Ok, so where the heck am I going to get malt powder in the lovely little rural town that I live in?? 

I started calling around:

1) called restaurant supply store 5 minutes away and asked "Do you have malt powder, NOT malted milk, but malt powder".... holding.... "Why yes we have that". 

2) Phew! uh oh, the cable guy is coming though and if I miss him he won't come in because my 17 year old son isn't 18. Ok, call neighbor and ask her to be on "stand by" in case cable man shows up while I'm gone, she can run over. CHECK.

3) Hop in car and rush out to restaurant supply store only to find that they don't have malt powder, they only have malted milk powder. UGH. Jeez! Ok so the lady there suggests a health food store 20 minutes away. That's too far with cable guy coming.

4) send a text to Google (46645) information to get phone number for Dairy Queen in town that is 20 minutes away. Why you ask??? Well, the lady at the restaurant supply store said that the health food store is in the same parking lot as the DQ. So I call the DQ and get the name of the health food store. CHECK.

5) Call health food store while on my way home and find out they don't have malt powder either. WAAAH! 

6) Get home, look in the book again and realize that is says "malt powder OR dark or light malt syrup, honey or brown sugar". Holy canoli. 

7) Panic attack ends, timer goes off ending 2 hour dough rest and Amanda adds honey instead of malt powder. Geez.

Ok so in all that excitement I completely forgot to take step by step photos encouraged by the BBA group. :-p Sooo, I started taking pics after the panic attack had subsided. Here's the bagels after being shaped, after resting 20 minutes under loose plastic wrap.

Here they are in the refrigerator for their overnight stay. Sniff. :( I don't wanna wait!

Ok the next morning and I am happy! I get to bake bagels today yum yum yum! First I set out my toppings and put a great big pot of water on to boil. I chose rehydrated onion and garlic, sesame seeds (not pictured), kosher salt & ground pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Fresh cheese would have been better, but that's what I had. :-/

Here they are waiting to be plunged into boiling water, just out of the refrigerator. Oven is all preheated to 500 F.

Ok water is boiling, time to add one tablespoon of baking soda. Woosh!

Drop bagels into boiling water, boil for 1 minute on each side. 

Remove to same cookie sheet, just had to sprinkle on some cornmeal first. Then add your toppings.

Bake 5 minutes then rotate pan and bake another 5. The instructions said to lower the oven to 450 after first rotation, but mine worked better leaving it at 500 since the heat escapes when you open the door.

And then you have yummy homemade bagels!

And they are so darned photogenic!

Don'tcha think??

Mmmmmmm