Time to Experiment

Time, or the lack there of, is a major issue for home bread bakers.  There is no doubt that more loaves of homemade bread would be produced if the process wasn’t so time consuming.  The scheduling involved with some bread recipes can be very challenging.

My goal as a home baker, is to have my finished dough ready to pop into the oven first thing in the morning, while getting a proper night’s sleep.  With bagels, I think this time table works really well.  I make the sponge, mix the dough, scale, and shape the night before, and the morning of, take the soon-to-be-bagels right from the fridge to the boiling water and bake.

Tonight, I will try the same process with traditional baguettes.  I’ll also be experimenting with an European style bread flour order from King Arthur Flour.

Results and photos to follow!

Shaping a baguette

Rosen’s Bagels

With a bit more time to focus on bread, I have been refining weekend over weekend my bagel recipe.  Here is a photo from my most recent bagel bake:

Freshly baked homemade bagels

I’ve rolled these bagels with my new favorite rolling technique.  This involves rolling each 4.5 ounce piece of dough into an 8-inch log.  Then wrapping that log around the hand, and rolling to seal.  This works really well, and shapes the bagels beautifully I think.

The primary criticism I get when people taste these bagels is that the crust is a bit “tough.”  I am still trying to figure out what exactly that means, and how can I make a more pleasing crusty texture.