Spelt and honey semi-sourdough bagels

I thought that I would have another go at a spelt and honey bread, but this time I decided to turn them into my first ever bagels. The bagels were very easy to make, they just take a bit of time and therefore planning ahead to get them ready for breakfast. I did this by making the dough the night before and doing the initial bulk rise in the fridge overnight.

It was slightly odd working with a stiff dough, as all my sourdough breads are much wetter. What you have to realise is that the boiling of the bagel adds the extra water does the initial steaming that I try to achieve using the dutch oven with my sourdough.

Instead of water in the dough, I actually made these with camomile tea. This is due to the recipe requiring warm water and I had some tea left in the pot.

The honey spelt flavour worked brilliantly. You can change the honey to any sweet syrup such as maple, agave or golden syrup.

I served these with ricotta and honey.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp warm water (or tea)
• 1 tsp active dried yeast
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp rye sourdough starter (if you do not have, then add another 1/2 tsp yeast)
• 1 cup warm water (or tea)
• 200g wholemeal spelt flour
• 200g strong white flour
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Boiling water

• 3L water
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp salt

Topping

• 1 Tbsp cornflour
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds

Method

1. In the bottom of a mixing bowl put 1 Tablespoon of warm water with the yeast and sugar and let stand for 10 minutes until it starts to bubble.
2. Add the starter (if using), 1 cup of warm water, flour, honey, salt and oil and mix to combine. Using a stand mixer, mix on a low to medium speed for 5 minutes (or 10 minutes by hand) until the dough is well formed and glossy.
3. Transfer to a greased bowl, loosely cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight (or rise for 1.5 hours)
4. In the morning, knock the bread back and leave to rise in a warm spot for one hour until doubled in size again.
5. Get the boiling liquid going by filling a large pot with water with honey and salt – the honey and salt reduce the boiling temperature and help flavour the bagel skin
6. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400F) and place a pizza stone in the middle
7. Lightly flour a bench top with 1 tablespoon of flour, just enough to make sure the dough does not stick too badly, and also grab a sheet of baking paper and a tea towel
8. Pull the dough out and divide into six equal parts, take one part at a time and roll out into a rope 2 cm in diameter, the press the two ends together to form the bagel shape. Allow a space in the centre for three fingers to fit in, this will make sure that the bagel keeps a hole when it puffs up. Place each bagel on the baking sheet to await boiling.
9. Combine the cornflour with the water and set to the side
10. Once the water is boiling and all your bagels are formed place two or three bagels in the water, allowing space in between. Flip each bagel after 30 seconds, then pull out and place on the tea towel after a further 30 seconds.
11. Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the boiled bagels with the cornflour mix, then sprinkle over the sesame seeds.
12. Once all the bagels have been boiled and topped, pull the pizza stone out of the oven, place the baking sheet ontop then the bagels. Make sure to leave space around each bagel as they will rise further in the oven. Place the bagels in the oven and cook for 17 minutes until a dark golden brown.
13. Wait for the bagels to cool, slice open and serve with ricotta and honey.