Bagels

Ahhh, bread. Bread is the best. Today I made bagels. I was inspired by the bagel recipe from smitten kitchen. I made a small sponge (6 tsp water, 6 tsp flour, 1/2 tsp yeast) last night and let it sit at room temperature, and did everything else this morning. After kneading, I let the dough rise for over an hour (to compensate for being in the fridge overnight) and then proceeded to bagelize. I let the shaped dough rest for about 5 minutes, then boiled them for 2 minutes per side, baked for 6 minutes, rotated, then another 4 minutes or so.

Ingredient-wise, instead of barley malt, I used honey. I didn't have bread flour or high-gluten flour, so I used all-purpose. And I substituted one cup of it for whole wheat flour.

So... now that I look at the changes I made, I realize that it's not really the same recipe at all. Hmmm. I'm notorious for not following recipes.

However, the texture of these is just great. Mmmmm. After having both NY and Montreal-style bagels, I've decided I like something in between. Somewhat chewy on the outside - Montreal-style, but soft and moist inside - NY-style. It may be sacriligious to say this, being Canadian, but I find the truly authentic Montreal bagels overbaked for my taste. They always seem to veer towards being dry. (This includes the ones I ate in Montreal.)

My only issue with these is that they're faintly yeasty. I wonder if I put in just a little too much yeast... In total, I put in about half a package, which was somewhere between 1.5-2 tsp.

Next time, I want to experiment with adding some buckwheat flour. Does anyone have experience baking with this ingredient?