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Whole Grain Sourdough Bagels
People often think of bagels as “carby” and indulgent, and maybe they are awesome for precisely those characteristics: a thick chewy interior and shiny gelatinized-starch crust. When I began making Eric’s awesome yeast-leavened bagel recipe a few years ago, I was thrilled it produced the texture I expect from NY bagels plus the flavors of fresh flours.
Since then, I’d been wanting to make a sourdough whole grain version of his recipe but I was hesitant because my favorite aspect of bagels is how chewy they are inside and out. Essentially, I love their gluten, and the bran and germ of whole grain flours disrupt gluten formation. So when I saw the feathery-soft whole grain Hokkaido milk breads of @benito in the Breadtopia forum where he uses vital wheat gluten, I realized that might be the key to my dream of truly chewy bagels with all the flavor and fiber of whole grain wheat. (Vital wheat gluten is a powder comprised of the gluten-forming proteins in wheat. You can find it online and in the baking aisle of many grocery stores.)
This whole grain sourdough bagel recipe hits all the important aspects I hoped for: natural leavening (see this FAQ if you want to convert the recipe back to yeast), chewy all around, and full of the fiber, flavor, and nutrients of whole grain heritage wheat flours.
[Jump to recipe]
Here is a fresh-milled whole wheat sourdough bagel made using the heritage wheats Rouge de Bordeaux and Turkey Red.
For my first test bake, I added vital wheat gluten at 1.6% of the total flour weight and no diastatic barley malt powder. I calculated the vital wheat gluten based on the recommendation to go with 2% or less of the total flour weight. I skipped the diastatic malt in Eric’s original recipe because I figured my whole grain flours wouldn’t need help converting starch into sugar, because whole grain flours tend to have more of this enzymatic activity to begin with. More on this below.
This bagel is wonderfully chewy, and not gummy, crumbly, or dense. The heritage wheats are flavorful with natural sweetness, no bitterness, and mild sourness from the natural leavening.
For my second test bake, I used Red Fife with Rouge de Bordeaux (instead of Turkey Red with Rouge de Bordeaux) and the results were similar. Again I used vital wheat gluten at 1.6% of the total flour weight, but I added diastatic malt back into the formula because I’d learned from this guest blog post on baking with low gluten wheat that diastatic malt can make a loftier whole grain dough. I used 0.6% of the total flour weight for the diastatic malt, similar to Eric’s bagel formula.
Rouge de Bordeaux wheat on the left; Red Fife on the right.
I didn’t find the results with diastatic malt particularly different from the first batch without it, but since I’d also changed one of the wheat varieties in the dough, this wasn’t a useful experiment to test using diastatic malt versus not using it. I do think the vital wheat gluten adds to the bagel’s chewiness, but it is optional too. If you skip either of the dough additives, you should use less water in the mix. Also, for any wheat flour substitutions, you should be prepared to adjust the amount of water in the dough, aiming for a stiff but kneadable dough. For example, Yecora Rojo and Hard Red Spring Wheat will need more water, while Spelt will need less. (Yecora Rojo and Hard Red Spring Wheat have stronger gluten than the heritage wheats I used, so if you use them, you might use less or no vital wheat gluten.)
Bagel dough is stiffer than pizza dough but wetter than pasta dough
Bagel dough is quite dry so I wouldn’t recommend doing an autolyse of the flour and water. Even though the bran in the whole grain flour might benefit from this softening step, I feel like it’s too much work, whether by hand or by machine, to try to knead the salt and starter in later.
The two most daunting aspects of making bagels at home are shaping and boiling. Here is a video that I hope shows how efficient the shaping process can be. The video has been trimmed but I did mark the time the entire process took: 13 minutes from dumping the bucket of fermented bagel dough onto my countertop to having a baking sheet of 12 shaped bagels ready to proof.
To see the boiling and baking of bagels, here is Eric’s second video from Breadopia’s original bagel recipe. Around minute three is when he begins boiling. My modification is that if I’m making 12 bagels, I prep only two boards and six bagels at a time, rather than 3 boards of nine bagels.
Check out the photo gallery after the recipe for pics of dough fermentation, bagel spacing for proofing, and more.
Whole Grain Sourdough Bagels
These whole grain sourdough bagels hit what I think is the most important characteristic of bagels. They're chewy. The inside has just the right density and texture, and the "skin" is thick and malty. On top of that, the bagels are full of the fiber, flavor, and nutrients of whole grain heritage wheat flours, and the leavening is sourdough without a very long process. Give them a try and you'll be hooked.
Ingredients
Instructions
Early Morning Day 1: Starter Prep
Midday Day 1: Mixing and Fermenting
Evening Day 1: Shaping (see the video above)
Day 1 into Day 2 Overnight: Final Proof
Day 2: Stove and Oven Prep
Day 2: Boiling and Baking
Cooling and Storage
Photo Gallery
Shopping List
Heirloom Rouge de Bordeaux Wheat Berries
Rouge de Bordeaux Whole Grain Flour
Heirloom Turkey Red Wheat Berries
Turkey Red Whole Grain Flour
Red Fife Whole Grain Flour
Heirloom Red Fife Wheat Berries
Sourdough Starter (Live)
Diastatic Barley Malt Powder
Mockmill 100 Grain Mill
Dough Rising and Storage Bucket w/Lid – 6 qt. Round
Bench Knife by Lamson — Walnut Handle
USA Pan Half Sheet Pan
$23.00Bagel Boards
FibraMent Oven Baking Stones
Bagel Scoop
$7.00Bagel Essentials Kit
$88.85$79.95Whole Grain Sourdough Bagels