Name: Whole Grain Sourdough Bagels
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Cook time: 18 min
Total time: 1 h 48 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 450g whole grain rouge de bordeaux flour (3 1/2 cups); 390g whole grain turkey red wheat flour (3 cups); 520-550g water (2 1/5 - 2 1/3 cups); 200g ripe sourdough starter (~1 cup); 17g salt (3 tsp); 15g vital wheat gluten (1 1/2 Tbsp); Optional 5.6g diastatic barley malt powder (2 tsp); For the boiling water, 2-3 heaping tablespoons barley malt syrup (non-diastatic) or baked baking soda as in this pretzel recipe; For topping the bagels, as desired: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, everything bagel seasoning, minced garlic, minced onion...etc.

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.

Servings

Serving Size

1 bagel

Prep Time

1 hour, 30 minutes

Baking Time

18 minutes

Total Time

1 hour, 48 minutes

Ingredients

450g whole grain rouge de bordeaux flour (3 1/2 cups)
390g whole grain turkey red wheat flour (3 cups)
520-550g water (2 1/5 - 2 1/3 cups)
200g ripe sourdough starter (~1 cup)
17g salt (3 tsp)
15g vital wheat gluten (1 1/2 Tbsp)
Optional 5.6g diastatic barley malt powder (2 tsp)
For the boiling water, 2-3 heaping tablespoons barley malt syrup (non-diastatic) or baked baking soda as in this pretzel recipe
For topping the bagels, as desired: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, everything bagel seasoning, minced garlic, minced onion...etc.

Instructions

Early Morning Day 1: Starter Prep

Feed 40g sourdough starter with 80g whole grain flour and 80g water. Let it ripen in a warm spot until at least doubled. This should take 4-6 hours. If you don't have a warm spot, do a 70:70:70 feed; and if you prefer to prep the starter the night before, use cool water and a higher feeding ratio, for example 20:90:90.

Midday Day 1: Mixing and Fermenting

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix for about 5 minutes at low speed. The dough should be stiffer than pizza dough but not as dry as pasta dough. If you don't have a stand mixer, after combining the ingredients, knead the dough by hand for about 5 minutes.
Lightly oil your bowl or bucket, place the dough inside, cover and let it rise until it has expanded by 75-100% (see the photo below). My dough took 5 hours in a warm lit-oven, but at cooler kitchen temps, your dough may need 8-10 hours. In the case of a cold environment, prepping the starter the night before and mixing in the morning may work best.

Evening Day 1: Shaping (see the video above)

Prep a large baking sheet with parchment paper and a dusting of flour.
Scrape your dough out of its bowl or bucket onto a lightly oiled work surface. Fold the dough into a thick tube and roll it to about 24 inches in length.
Cut the dough tube into 12 pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball, and then roll all the balls into tubes, de-gassing the dough as much as possible.
Wrap each tube around your palm and roll the seams on your work surface to seal and even out the bagel diameter.
Lay the bagels on your baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.

Day 1 into Day 2 Overnight: Final Proof

Unlike yeast-leavened dough, some room temperature proofing is needed before refrigerating the this sourdough bagel dough. Let the shaped bagels rise at room temperature for about 1 hour and then refrigerate the baking sheet overnight. In a warm kitchen, 40 minutes at room temperature before retarding might be sufficient. If you prefer to boil and bake the bagels on Day 1, plan for a room temperature final proof of 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Day 2: Stove and Oven Prep

Preheat your oven to 500F with a baking stone or steel on the middle shelf for at least 30 minutes.
Set 3 to 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot.
Soak your bagel boards for at least 10 minutes by laying them inside a rimmed baking sheet and filling it with water.
Prepare dishes with seeds or any other bagel toppings you'd like to use.
When the water is boiling and the preheat is complete, add the barley malt syrup to the water and stir.
Remove the bagel dough from the refrigerator and remove the bagel boards from the water. Place the boards near your topping dishes, burlap-side up.
Place a bowl of ice water near your toppings to quickly dunk the bagels in between the boiling and the topping. You can skip this step if your hands are relatively impervious to high temperatures and you adequately drain water off each bagel.

Day 2: Boiling and Baking

Transfer three bagels to the boiling water and boil for 1 minute on each side, using your bagel scoop to flip them.
Remove the bagels from the boiling water and place them in the ice water.
Lay a drained bagel on the topping of your choice, and then carefully transfer it to a bagel board, topping side down.
Repeat this until you have six prepped bagels divided between two bagel boards.
Load the bagel boards into your oven and bake for 4 minutes.
Carefully turn the bagels over by lifting and flipping the boards so the bagels are now topping side up and baking directly onto the hot stone.
Continue baking for 14 minutes more.
Re-soak the boards and begin boiling and topping the next six bagels during this time so that when you remove the first batch from the oven, the next batch is ready to load.

Cooling and Storage

Let the bagels cool on a rack about 30 minutes before serving.
The bagels can be stored in beeswax, paper, or plastic bags.
After a couple of days, it's best to freeze the bagels. I like to pre-cut them in half and defrost directly in the toaster.

Photo Gallery

: Start of the bulk fermentation

: End of the bulk fermention

: Start of the final proof

: After 1 hour at room temperature, heading into the refriigerator

: Prepping the boards and toppings

: Ready to boil

: Floating and boiling

: Topped and ready for the oven

: Initial 4 minutes baking on the boards

Shopping List

Heirloom Rouge de Bordeaux Wheat Berries
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Rouge de Bordeaux Whole Grain Flour
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Heirloom Turkey Red Wheat Berries
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Turkey Red Whole Grain Flour
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Red Fife Whole Grain Flour
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Heirloom Red Fife Wheat Berries
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Sourdough Starter (Live)
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Diastatic Barley Malt Powder
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Whole Grain Sourdough Bagels