Bagel Making: A Labor of Love
What does it take to make 48 bagels or 12 bags for a Sunday Porch Pick UP?
People often ask why I choose making bagels, citing the process. To be honest, making one batch is pretty simple, but making multiple bagel batches is a different story. I am coming to appreciate my labor, and understanding the value of what people call artisan or hand rolled bagels. I would like to offer more bagels to more people, and I’m at the point now of recognizing what I can do and what I cannot do as well as what I want to do.
Here is an example of preparing for my last Sunday Porch Pick Up
Starting at 1:00 on Saturday I begin making the dough. I can make 8 bagels at a time, which means I repeat the process 6 times!
Measure out the water, flour, and other ingredients and knead for approximately 12 minutes.
Place kneaded dough in a bowl and let rise for 1 hour.
Degass the dough and divide the dough into 8 parts, weight each piece so they are at least 100 grams and not larger than 105 grams
Roll each piece into a cylinder and let the 8 pieces rest for about 10 minutes
During any down time while the dough is resting I start a new batch..
I return to tray 1 with the 8 cylinders and roll them out into the bagel shape and place them on a tray. They rest another 20 minutes before being refrigerated for at least 12 hours.
(My daughter raised the alarm when you saw my refrigerator . She wanted to know if I was eating. All my food is stashed in the vegetable drawers to leave room for the bagel trays. )
Bagels take over 3 shelves
I typically finish shaping and refrigerating the 48 bagels by 7:00p.m and move into clean-up. In bed by 11 pm.
Sunday Morning:
Bagel Bath
Waiting for the water and barley malt syrup to boil.
I wake up by 6:00 a.m.and preheat the oven. The kettle is filled with water and I prepare the bagel bath with my barley malt syrup and other things, bringing them to a boil. I am also removing the bagel trays from the refrigerator to get them closer to room temperature. In the next 2.5 hours I am boiling the bagels, putting on the toppings and placing them in the oven.
I am also marking the bags for each order.
Bagels are coming in and out of the oven for the next few hours, the house smells delightfully yeasty and I hear a knock on the door by 9:00a.m.
In addition to these 48 bagels I’ve met the request for an additional frozen bagels.
And the best part comes at 9:00 a.m. when I get the knock on the door!
Making bagels is laborious, but it is a labor of love.
