[Mike Nolan]

My experience with barley malt syrup is that it gets really thick as water evaporates out. What I do is add some hot water to the jar and let it sit for a few days, that gets it back to a more liquid state.

Here's a shot of all 3 sets of bagels from today:

The 30 second one is on the left, the 3 minute one on the right. There's far less color difference in this photo compared to the two I posted yesterday.

I put them in a micro-perforated bag overnight, this morning they didn't seem either dried out or soggy, and the the chewiness seemed the same as yesterday. Bagels tend to go moldy in regular un-perforated bags after a few days, I'll see how these do, assuming they last that long; we've eaten 4 of 9 so far.

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[Mike Nolan]

I went with the sweet poaching liquid based in part on the discussion on the BBGA forum a few weeks back.

It'd be a pain to have two pots of boiling water going, but I think for my next batch of bagels I'm going to do some in sweetened water and some in my usual baking soda water. (I sometimes use both baking soda and barley malt syrup.)

I will say these bagels, especially the 3 minute ones, remind me a bit of Montreal Bagels. (Of course, I've only had them once or twice.)

[Mike Nolan]

I miss having toppings on them, I usually top mine with cheese and my wife's with poppy seeds. But they were good toasted and topped with cream cheese, corned beef and swiss cheese.

[Mike Nolan]

We shared one of the 3 minute bagels and one of the 30 second bagels for supper.

The first picture is the bagel that was boiled for 30 seconds:

The second picture is the bagel that was boiled for 3 minutes:

In my previous post, the bagels on the right were the 30 second ones, the ones in the middle were the 90 second ones and the ones on the left were the 180 second (3 minute) ones.

The 90 second ones and the 3 minute ones puffed up a lot more during boiling, but by the time they were baked the size differences were less obvious. The longer they boiled the softer they feel to the touch, and I think that may have impacted interior texture and color a bit though the distinct difference in color in the above photos could be caused by my camera. I should have taken a shot of them side by side. Maybe next meal. Because I used barley malt syrup, which is dark brown, my bagels always have some color in the interior. The 3 minute one was harder to cut because of the softness and the exterior is less smooth and shiny.

My wife thought the 30 second bagel had a bit more flavor from the poaching liquid but thought the 3 minute one 'tasted more like a bagel'. I thought the 30 second was was better than the 3 minute one in all respects, including chewiness.

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[Mike Nolan]

I did make a batch of bagels today, using the ABED recipe. 3 of them were boiled for 30 seconds on each side, 3 of them for 1 1/2 minutes on each side and 3 of them for 3 minutes on each side. The poaching liquid had honey in it but no baking soda or salt.

I'm posting pictures below and will discuss texture and flavor after we have some of the bagels for supper.

The first picture is the bagels after shaping but before being boiled.

The second picture is after the bagels have been boiled.

The third picture is after baking.

Can you guess which column of bagels was boiled for 30 seconds, for 90 seconds and for 180 seconds per side?

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[Mike Nolan]

I've been making a gluten free cornbread for years, we actually like it better than the one on the side of the cornmeal container that uses wheat flour. I will say it doesn't have quite as long a shelf life, but it seldom lasts that long anyway.

[Mike Nolan]

What's thr original recipc you started from?

[Mike Nolan]

I have used everything from very high protein (> 15%) flour to Gold Medal AP (under 11%) for bagels with no problems.

Personally, I feel boiling bagels longer than 30-40 seconds per side is a mistake. I may have to make a batch of plain bagels with different times in the water to see what happens.

I will disagree with Cass a bit on the science behind boiling bagels, though, I think it is to gelatinize the surface starch, which is part of what produces the shiny surface of a classic bagel. The inner part of the bagel doesn't get hot enough in the boiling water to kill the yeast there, though the yeast towards the surface will die.

There was an interesting discussion in the BBGA forum a couple months back on whether or not an alkali bath is needed for bagels. To say opinions varied would be an understatement! Those that don't use an alkali bath generally use a bath with sugar, honey or malt syrup in it.

[Mike Nolan]

The bagel recipes I use the most often are the ones in The Bread Baker's Apprentice and in Artisan Breads Every Day. The ABED one makes a smaller batch of dough, which is why I use it the most.

I've used a couple of others. I did find one that had too much salt in it, I wonder what the issue is with the one you used today?

[Mike Nolan]

We got our first tomato today, a San Marzano that went on our hot dogs, and while I see number of small tomatoes, it will be a week or so before we get another. It's cool today, in the 70's so we may get some more blossoms to set. But they're forecasting high 90's or worse by Friday.

[Mike Nolan]

Yeah, it kind of gets lost.

I may have to try Bakeraunt's soudough cheese cracker recipe with some of my rye sourdough discard, but I've only been making 150 grams of it at a time, so I'd probably have at most about a half cup of discard.

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like our old friend the missing page link is back.

[Mike Nolan]

I won't eat obviously moldy bread, some bread molds are not harmful but some may be, and the color isn't always an accurate guide. (Red and yellow molds are the ones I've heard have to be avoided.)

There was an interesting story on the web over the weekend on the race to commercialize penicillin in the early 40's. While Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin in bread mold in the 20's, the most powerful commercial strain of it back in the 40's came from a moldy melon.

[Mike Nolan]

I think you fell into the spam filter.

[Mike Nolan]

Summertime continues, melon and salami for us again tonight.

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