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#17. Bagle
A bagel is a bread product, shaped by hand into the form of a ring from wheat dough, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked.
The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and crisp exterior. Bagels are topped with poppy or sesame seeds. Some may have salt sprinkled on their surface. There are also a number of different dough types such as whole-grain or rye.
Bagels have become a popular bread product in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom in cities with large Jewish populations. Like other bakery products, bagels are available in many major supermarkets in those countries.
The basic roll-with-a-hole design is hundreds of years old. It has practical advantages besides providing for a more even cooking and baking of the dough. The hole could be used to thread string through groups of bagels, allowing for easier handling and transportation.
Traditional bagel dough contains wheat flour, salt, water, and yeast leavening. Bread flour or other high gluten flours are preferred to create the firm and dense but spongy bagel shape and chewy texture.
Most bagel recipes call for the addition of a sweetener to the dough, often barley malt, honey, sugar, with or without eggs, milk or butter. Leavening can be accomplished using either a sourdough technique or using commercially produced yeast.
Bagels are traditionally made by mixing and kneading the ingredients to form the dough. It is then shaped into a circle with a hole in the middle. This is followed by proofing the bagels for at least 12 hours at low temperature (40–50 °F). Each bagel in boiled in water and baked at 350–600 °F.
It is this unusual production method which is said to give bagels their distinctive taste, chewy texture, and shiny appearance. In recent years, a variant of this process has emerged, producing what is sometimes called the steam bagel.
To make a steam bagel, the process of boiling is skipped, and the bagels are instead baked in an oven equipped with a steam injection system. In commercial bagel production, the steam bagel process requires less labor, since bagels need only be directly handled once, at the shaping stage.
Thereafter, the bagels need never be removed from their pans as they are refrigerated and then steam-baked. The steam-bagel is not considered to be a genuine bagel by purists, as it results in a fluffier, softer, less chewy product.
Steam bagels are considered lower quality by purists as the dough used is more basic to increase its pH value to aid browning since the steam injection process uses neutral water steam instead of a basic solution bath.
Nontraditional versions which change the dough recipe include rye, sourdough, bran, whole wheat, and multi grain. Other variations change the flavor of the dough, often using blueberry, salt, onion, garlic, egg, cinnamon, raisin, chocolate chip, cheese, or some combination of the above. Green bagels are sometimes created for St. Patrick’s Day.
Breakfast bagels, a softer, sweeter variety are commonly sold by large supermarket chains. These are sold sliced to be prepared in a toaster. A flat bagel, known as a ‘Flagel’, can be found in a few locations in and around New York City and Toronto.
There is no legal standard of identity for bagels in the United States. Bakers are thus free to call any bread torus a bagel, even if they deviate wildly from the original formulation.
#17. Bagle
A bagel is a bread product, shaped by hand into the form of a ring from wheat dough, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked.
The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and crisp exterior. Bagels are topped with poppy or sesame seeds. Some may have salt sprinkled on their surface. There are also a number of different dough types such as whole-grain or rye.
Bagels have become a popular bread product in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom in cities with large Jewish populations. Like other bakery products, bagels are available in many major supermarkets in those countries.
The basic roll-with-a-hole design is hundreds of years old. It has practical advantages besides providing for a more even cooking and baking of the dough. The hole could be used to thread string through groups of bagels, allowing for easier handling and transportation.
Traditional bagel dough contains wheat flour, salt, water, and yeast leavening. Bread flour or other high gluten flours are preferred to create the firm and dense but spongy bagel shape and chewy texture.
Most bagel recipes call for the addition of a sweetener to the dough, often barley malt, honey, sugar, with or without eggs, milk or butter. Leavening can be accomplished using either a sourdough technique or using commercially produced yeast.
Bagels are traditionally made by mixing and kneading the ingredients to form the dough. It is then shaped into a circle with a hole in the middle. This is followed by proofing the bagels for at least 12 hours at low temperature (40–50 °F). Each bagel in boiled in water and baked at 350–600 °F.
It is this unusual production method which is said to give bagels their distinctive taste, chewy texture, and shiny appearance. In recent years, a variant of this process has emerged, producing what is sometimes called the steam bagel.
To make a steam bagel, the process of boiling is skipped, and the bagels are instead baked in an oven equipped with a steam injection system. In commercial bagel production, the steam bagel process requires less labor, since bagels need only be directly handled once, at the shaping stage.
Thereafter, the bagels need never be removed from their pans as they are refrigerated and then steam-baked. The steam-bagel is not considered to be a genuine bagel by purists, as it results in a fluffier, softer, less chewy product.
Steam bagels are considered lower quality by purists as the dough used is more basic to increase its pH value to aid browning since the steam injection process uses neutral water steam instead of a basic solution bath.
Nontraditional versions which change the dough recipe include rye, sourdough, bran, whole wheat, and multi grain. Other variations change the flavor of the dough, often using blueberry, salt, onion, garlic, egg, cinnamon, raisin, chocolate chip, cheese, or some combination of the above. Green bagels are sometimes created for St. Patrick’s Day.
Breakfast bagels, a softer, sweeter variety are commonly sold by large supermarket chains. These are sold sliced to be prepared in a toaster. A flat bagel, known as a ‘Flagel’, can be found in a few locations in and around New York City and Toronto.
There is no legal standard of identity for bagels in the United States. Bakers are thus free to call any bread torus a bagel, even if they deviate wildly from the original formulation.
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