Sourdough Za'atar Bagels

I love bread...I love bread. I love bread. I am totally having an Oprah moment because I love bread. Actually, I love any kind of carbs but my biggest weakness is a good piece of bread. So when my friend Aaron told me that he had a recipe for sourdough bagels I was totally in! So I have had Martha, my sourdough starter, for close to a year now. I remember taking the steps to get her started which was mix equal parts water and flour and just let it sit out. Then about a week later I had sourdough, yea it’s that easy. I kept her alive and fed for months, it was like taking care of a pet. I had to make sure she was getting enough flour and water, mixing, stirring, dumping some out, it was a struggle. So after about 7 months I got lazy and started neglecting poor Martha, I was forgetting to feed her so I did what was best for her, gave her a last meal and put her in the freezer.

Fast forward to present day, Aaron asks if he can have some of my starter so we can make these bagels. Now suddenly I remember Martha has been in deep freeze for months. I take her out and let her thaw and then feed her, well what do you know? to my surprise she sprang back to life like nothing happened. Aaron came by and picked up some Martha offspring and off he went to make the dough. Apparently his sister had made these bagels and were "surprisingly easy to make" since the only ingredients were basically water, flour, and sourdough starter. Sadly, I didn't get to see him make the dough but I am certain you have all seen dough being made before, it is nothing worth calling your mom about. Anyway, so the next day Aaron comes over and he brought this beautiful bowl of risen dough. I was so excited to start making these bagels! I have never made bagels from scratch so this was going to be a fun experience. We start reading over the recipe and it is pretty straight forward.

After your dough has risen you are going to cut it into 8 equal parts. Roll each piece into a ball and then let them rest for 10-15 minutes to help relax the gluten. Then working with one piece at a time you start shaping your bagels by poking a hole through the middle and start tunnel rolling them to resemble a bagel. We struggled a bit with this part because we were trying to be so delicate with the dough to not shape out all the air pockets. It would have been nice if his sister had told us to not be afraid to man handle them because we ended up with a couple of lumpy ones. Once shaped place it on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat. Continue shaping with the rest of the dough. Then we play the waiting game again. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest, at room temperature, or if you want to go all out use your pie warmer. I typically preheat my oven to whatever temperature I'm going to need, in this case 425F (20C), and this lets that drawer on the bottom of your stove get warm, you know the one people use to store stuff? It is called a pie warmer after all. So let your dough rest wherever you'd like for 15 to 20 minutes. They will only puff up slightly.

While they are rising bring a large pot of water to boil and add 1 tbsp of honey. Now you may be wondering why because typically bagels are given a baking soda bath. Well since these sourdough bagels have very little sugar content to them if we baked them straight away they would not brown. So by adding a little honey glaze it'll allow them to brown.

In a separate shallow bowl choose your toppings, you can do sesame seeds, sea salt, poppy seeds, or whatever else you'd like we wanted to jazz ours up so we used za'atar. If you're not familiar with za'atar you should get familiar with it, it is a delicious blend of spices that goes great on pretty much anything. Check out this recipe from Epicurious.

Now drop 2 bagels into the pot of boiling water and wait for them to float. Once they float fish them out and place them back on your baking sheet. Let them cool slightly and then cover one side with your topping and place on the baking tray seasoning side up. You do not want to cover both sides otherwise the seasoning on the bottom part of the bagel will burn and ruin the taste of your bagels.

So finally we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, pop those bad boys into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Once they look about done flip the over to cook the bottom side for 1-2 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack and voila! You're done!

I was feeling extra naughty that day so I also made some homemade pimento cheese to spread all over these warm bagels. I also set out all kind of fillings like cucumbers, tomatoes and even homemade eggplant bacon, maybe I'll post the recipe for that another day. Hope you guys enjoy!

Bon Appetit!

Za’atar Bagels

serves 8

Ingredients:

150g (3/4 cup) bubbly, active starter

250g (1 cup plus 2 tsp) warm water

24g (2 tbsp) sugar

500g (4 cups plus 2 tbsp) bread flour

9g (1 1/2 tsp) fine sea salt

20g (1 tbsp) honey

oil, for coating

3 tbsp za’atar

In a large bowl whisk the starter, water and sugar together. Add the flour and salt. Combine until a rough dough forms and finish kneading by hand until all the flour is incorporated. Knead for about 5-6 minutes. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest for 45 minutes to an hour.

After the dough has rested knead again to form a ball and cover in a bowl until it has doubled in size.

Remove the dough onto a non-floured work surface. Flatten the dough and cut into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Let the dough rest on a sheet pan with a silicone mat for 10-15 minutes.

Working each dough ball one at a time poke a hole through the center and roll until a bagel shape forms. Place back onto the sheet pan. Continue to work other dough.

Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest 15-20 minutes. The dough will only puff up slightly.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the honey, whisk until it dissolves. Preheat oven to 425.

Place za’atar seasoning on a large plate.

Add 2-3 bagels into the pot and remove when they begin to float, about 10-15 seconds. Allow to cool slightly then dip only one side of the bagel onto the za’atar mixture and place back on the baking sheet.

Bake bagels for 20-25 minutes. Flip over and cook the bottom side for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Slice and serve with your favorite toppings.