Small Batch Sourdough Bagels #BreadBakers

Made with active starter, these small batch sourdough bagels are boiled then baked for the chewy bite we all look for and love in a good bagel. 

It’s been a while since I’ve made bagels since we spend some much time during the year in Houston, where my hometown favorite New York Bagels, the best bagels of my childhood, are available a mere drive away. 

But since this month’s Bread Bakers host chose bagels as our theme, I decided I couldn’t miss the chance to try my hand at sourdough bagels. I am very pleased with how these turned out and, at least while we are in the Channel Islands, I’m sure I’ll make them again. 

Small Batch Sourdough Bagels

This recipe makes six bagels. I sprinkled mine with poppy seeds but you can choose whatever toppings you fancy. Or leave them plain. I adapted this recipe from one on Kimmy’s Joyful Kitchen.

Ingredients

For the bagel dough:

½ cup or 125g active sourdough starter

2 1/3 cups or 291g all-purpose flour

½ cup or 60g whole wheat flour

¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

2 teaspoons unsulfured molasses or treacle 

2/3 cup or 156ml cold water – you may not use all of it

1 teaspoon olive oil for greasing the mixing bowl before proofing

For boiling the bagels:

1 tablespoon molasses

2 teaspoons baking soda

Method 

Make sure you use an active starter, one that has been fed within the last 12 hours and stored at a temperature between 70-80°F or 21-26°C.

Add the sourdough starter to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with the flours, molasses, salt and just a ½ cup or 120ml of the water. 

Use the dough hook to mix the ingredients to form a ball of dough. It takes a few minutes to come together and you might need to add just a little bit more water, if the dough is too stiff or dry. I ended up adding two tablespoons and the dough was perfect. 

Knead for about five minutes, then take the dough out of the bowl and continue to knead the dough by hand for a couple more minutes, then form the dough into a tight ball. Oil the mixing bowl with and place the dough ball in it. Roll it around to coat.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a plastic shower cap. Leave to sit at room temperature, ideally 70-80°F or 21-26°C for 6 hours. 

After 6 hours, put the covered bowl with the dough in the refrigerator for a slow overnight rise. 

In the morning, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and leave it to rest at room temperature for about an hour. 

Divide the dough into six pieces. Roll each piece into a tight ball with your cupped hand.

I like to weigh the whole ball of dough then weigh the individual pieces to get them more even but if you want to eyeball it, go ahead. My dough weighed 620g so each piece was either 103 or 104g. 

Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 10 minutes. 

To shape the bagels, lightly flatted each ball. Make holes in the center by sticking your thumb through and gently easing the hole open with thumb and fingers. Twirl the dough around on your finger to enlarge the hole.

Place the bagels on a parchment or silicone liner covered baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature for 3-5 hours or until doubled in size.

It was a warm day so mine took about three hours to double. 

When you are ready to boil and bake, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Bring a large pot of water (about 2 quarts or just shy of 2 liters) with 1 tablespoon molasses and 2 teaspoons baking soda to a slow boil. 

Place one bagel in the pot and boil on each side for just 45 seconds or so. 

Return the bagel to the baking sheet and top with your favorite bagel topping right away, or leave them plain. 

Repeat this for each bagel. Once all the bagels have been boiled and decorated, put the baking pan in your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Mine were in for 27 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before cutting. 

We love ours with cream cheese. 

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means it’s time for my Bread Bakers friends to share recipes. This month, as I mentioned above, we are baking bagels. Many thanks to our host, Renu of Cook with Renu. Check out the links below. 

• Sourdough Bagel Bites from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cinnamon Crunch Bagels from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Everything Bagel Sandwich with Halloumi and Pickles (Homemade Bagels) from Cook with Renu
• Keto Cottage Cheese Bagels from Sneha's Recipe
• Gluten Free Onion Bagels from Passion Kneaded
• Small Batch Sourdough Bagels from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Blueberry Bagels from A Messy Kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Small Batch Sourdough Bagels!

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Sprouted Spelt Sourdough Boule #BreadBakers

Crunchy on the outside but tender on the inside, this sprouted spelt sourdough boule is a toothsome loaf full of flavor from both the spelt and sourdough starter.

A fortuitous measuring mistake led to the baking of this lovely loaf! I was in the kitchen making sprouted spelt everything crackers and right off the bat, I added FULLY DOUBLE the amount of water to the spelt flour than I was supposed to. Why? I cannot tell you except that I was a bit distracted, never a good thing when baking. 

So I set that bowl aside and started afresh on the cracker recipe which turned out very tasty, by the way.

I do hate to waste ingredients though so when the enormous cracker was in the oven, I decided to adapt my sprouted spelt boule recipe to make a sourdough loaf. I gotta tell you, it was an excellent decision. We loved this bread! 

Since the flour and water had already had about 35 minutes mixed together, I went with the flow and said to myself, okay, we are starting with an autolyze. An autolyze is when you hydrate the flour ahead of adding the rising agent which allows gluten to begin forming, and creates a smoother, more extensible dough, often reducing the need for extensive kneading.

Then I added in the sourdough starter and left the mixture an additional half hour or so (a step sometimes called fermentolyse, differing from autolyze by the addition of the rising agent, either sourdough starter or yeast) before continuing to mix in the rest of the ingredients. Worry not, full instructions follow below.

Good save, right? Waste not, want not.

Sprouted Spelt Sourdough Boule

If you can’t find sprouted spelt flour, Google offered the following suggestion: “The best substitute for sprouted spelt flour is sprouted whole wheat flour, as it offers a similar nutritional profile, nutty flavor, and baking consistency.” If you can find it, I have at least six other recipes here to use it, from sourdough blini to sweet muffins to artisan yeast bread.

 

Ingredients

1 cup or 240ml warm water

1 1/2 cups or 180g sprouted spelt flour

1 cup or 250g sourdough starter

1 1/2 cups or 188g bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Before baking:

Sprinkle of rice flour - optional

 

Essential equipment:

5.5 qt or 5.3L Dutch oven with ovenproof lid or a bread cloche

Lame, razor or very sharp knife for scoring

 

Method

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the water and spelt flour. Mix well. Cover with cling film or a shower cap and set aside for about 45 minutes. 

Add in the sourdough starter and mix again to combine. Cover with cling film or a shower cap and set aside for another 45 minutes. 

Add in the bread flour and salt. Mix well. 

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl, making sure all the flour has been incorporated.

Knead until the dough is springy and formed a good ball. I use my stand mixer for this because I am a wimp. 

Cover the bowl with cling film or a damp teacloth. Let sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours. 

The longer the better, in my opinion. You can also pop the covered bowl in the refrigerator overnight, after the rise at room temperature.

If you have refrigerated your dough, remove it from the refrigerator and leave to come to room temperature before continuing. 

Once the dough is room temperature and ready to bake, prepare a greased square of baking parchment on a plate. Make the dough into a tight ball and transfer it to the parchment. The parchment isn’t strictly necessary but it will make transferring the risen dough to the Dutch oven easier later.

Cover with a loose towel or oiled cling film and let rise for 1 hour. 

 

When your dough has almost doubled in size, preheat oven to 450°F or 232°C WITH THE COVERED DUTCH OVEN or BREAD CLOCHE INSIDE. 

I have a new toy which is a LeCreuset bread cloche. I had only used it before this from a cold start so I was crossing my fingers it would work for this as well! (Reader, as you can see, it did!) 

 

Once the Dutch oven or cloche is fully heated and the dough is done rising, hold the edges of the parchment paper and carefully place the loaf inside. 

Cut a few slashes in the dough to allow it to rise further as it bakes and to give it a decorative finish. I like to sprinkle the top with rice flour first to give it definition but that’s not necessary. It just looks prettier once baked.

Depending on your oven, let the bread bake with the lid ON for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. If you are a thermometer-using baker, fully baked, the boule should have an internal temperature of about 190°F or 88°C.

Remove the boule from the oven.

Let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Waiting is the most challenging part of the recipe! It smells sooooooo good. 

Slice to serve. This boule is great as is OR toasted. A smear of butter never goes amiss.

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my fellow Bread Bakers and I to share our bakes. Our theme is sourdough. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha’s Recipe. Check out the links below. 

• Overnight Sourdough Sandwich Bread from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Small Sourdough Bread from Sneha’s Recipe
• Sourdough Oat Waffles from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sprouted Spelt Sourdough Boule from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet Potato Sourdough from A Messy Kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Sprouted Spelt Sourdough Boule!

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Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Oh, so tender and sweet, these jumbo sourdough peanut butter banana muffins are made with very ripe bananas, sourdough discard and smooth peanut butter. 

My poor neglected sourdough starter has been sitting in the refrigerator for almost six months, just hanging out and hanging on. It had very little hooch on top so I took that as a good sign.

I fed it up without discarding a couple of times and it responded well until finally, I took some out to make these muffins. While the discard doesn’t help with the rise, it surely adds moisture, giving the muffins a lovely texture. 

Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

You can use fed or unfed sourdough starter for these muffins though unfed will give them more sourdough flavor. This recipe makes nine jumbo muffins.

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

½ cup, firmly packed, or 100g brown sugar 

½ cup or 100g sugar 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

⅔ cup or 150g very ripe banana (peels were brown and speckled)

2 large eggs

½ cup or 113g melted, cooled butter

½ cup or 125g sourdough discard 

¼ cup or 60ml milk

¼ cup, rounded, or 80g smooth peanut butter (with sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and line a large muffin pan with jumbo paper liners. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. 

In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork and add the eggs and mix.

Add in the butter, sourdough discard, milk, peanut butter and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. 

Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold together until just combined.

Divide the batter between your muffin cups. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven or until a toothpick comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack. Transfer the muffins to the wire rack. 

These can be eaten warm or cold. Either way, they go great with a cup of coffee in the morning or a cup of tea in the afternoon. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s time for Muffin Monday. Check out the lovely muffins my baker friends are sharing below.

• Cinnamon Stuffed Streusel Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Lemon Pomegranate Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins with Dried Cranberries from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Peanut Ripple Banana Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Simple Banana Muffins (2 Bananas = 6 Muffins) from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

Pin these Sourdough Peanut Butter Banana Muffins! 

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Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia #BreadBakers

A little bit sweet and a whole lot savory, this Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia makes a great brunch, lunch or snack with drinks. 

A while back we had a friend visiting for a few days and I knew we’d be out and about showing her the sights of this beautiful island. I wanted to prepare something that could be made ahead then baked when we got home. 

This sourdough focaccia is perfect for that. It can have its last rise in the refrigerator and is very forgiving if you leave it a little longer before baking. 

Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia

Start at least one day ahead of when you want to bake this to allow for overnight proofing. This recipe was inspired by one on the Good Food website. I’ve since made this three times and it never fails to please!

Ingredients

For the base: 

1 cup or 240ml water

1 oz or 28g bubbly active starter

2 2/3 cups or 332g strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

For the topping:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4-5 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 purple onion

2 garlic cloves

4-5 fresh figs,

3 1/2 oz or 100g serrano ham slices

2 1/2 oz or 70g feta

flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

freshly ground black pepper

Method

In your mixing bowl, mix the starter with the water. Stir the starter and water loosely together just to lift the starter off the bottom of the bowl.

Next, add the 332g of strong white bread flour to the bowl, and the 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

Mix it all together loosely, so that it’s pretty ragged but all the flour and water is mixed; I use a Danish whisk for this first rough mix but you can use your hands, if you prefer. I follow this up using a bowl scraper to clean round the bowl and make sure it is all nicely roughly mixed together.

Cover the bowl with a shower cap or cling film, and leave it for an hour or so on the kitchen counter. 

After an hour, remove the cover, and start to lift and fold the dough to build up the structure in the dough, wake up the gluten, and bring it into a smooth ball of dough. Literally pick up a small handful of dough from one side of the bowl, lift it and fold it over the rest of the dough to the other side of the bowl. Then turn the bowl and repeat the process, do it about 20-25 times maximum, until it is a smooth ball.

Please note: you will only need to perform this many pulls and folds on this first occasion; after this, far fewer pulls and folds will be required to pull the dough into a ball before covering and leaving it again. You do NOT need to perform 20-25 each time. At this point the dough will be at its stickiest, from this point it will become less sticky with each handling.

Cover the bowl again with your same cover, and leave it out on the kitchen counter.

Over the next few hours, perform sets of the pulls and folds/lifting and folding actions 2 to 4 more times; these do not need to be done at fixed time periods apart, as long as you fit in sufficient sets during that time, that’s the key. Aim for 4 sets in total. The dough will not be starting to grow at this stage.

Each time you perform these pulls and folds, stop when the dough comes into a ball, that is the dough telling you it has had enough handling at that stage.

Complete the final set, pulling the dough into a nice firm ball, then re-cover the bowl, and leave it on the counter overnight. This is often called the “bulk fermentation” period.

The ideal temperature for this is between 64°F- 68°F or 18°C – 20°C for 8-10 hours. If it is a lot colder than this, it will take longer, just give it a few more hours. 

The next morning, the dough should have really grown within the bowl, to at least double, with a smoothish, slightly domed surface. There should be a nice structure to the dough, it does not need to be bubbly, just grown. 

Prepare a large baking tray by lining it with parchment. 

Using a bowl scraper or your hands, gently ease the bubbly risen dough from the bowl and let it fall onto the parchment. Gently stretch it out. 

Pour over about half of the olive oil. Cover loosely and leave it on the counter to prove again for 1 1/2 – 2 hours. If you won’t be home to bake then, you can pop the dough in the refrigerator for a longer rise time. 

When you are ready to bake, take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. 

Slice the onion as thinly as possible. Remove the stems and quarter the figs. Crumble the feta and mince the garlic. Pick the thyme leaves off the stems. 

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Tear the ham into bits. 

Use your finger tips to firmly press dimples all over the dough. Toss the thyme leaves, onion, garlic, figs, ham and feta with one tablespoon olive oil, then scatter these over the top. 

Use your fingers to press the toppings into the bread a little, and spread the bread to fill any gaps. 

Cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to rise for 20 minutes more until it has puffed up.

Drizzle over the remaining oil, sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper, and bake for 30 mins until risen, golden and crisp on top. 

Leave to cool in the pan for 15 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut into rectangles to serve. Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means it’s the day my fellow Bread Bakers and I share our recipes, this time for sourdough bread. Many thanks to our host Radha of Magical Ingredientst.

• Food Lust People Love: Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia
• Sneha's Recipe: Quick Sourdough Discard Burger Buns
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Sourdough Seeded Bread with Tangzhong
• A Messy Kitchen : Hot Honey Sourdough 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Sourdough Multi-Grain Bread
• Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Sourdough Jewish Rye Bread

 

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Fig Feta Serrano Ham Sourdough Focaccia!

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