Whole Wheat Sourdough Bagels !

Whole wheat sourdough bagels  4/29/2020

Ingredients:

½ cup bubbly sourdough starter

1 medium potato

1 Tablespoon honey

2 eggs (save back one of the yolks)

3 Tablespoons oil (I used avocado)

2 teaspoons salt

4 cups whole wheat flour

For the glaze:

The reserved egg yolk

1 teaspoon cold water

Poppy or sesame seeds (optional)

Directions:

1.      Slice the potato thickly and boil it in 2 ½ cups water until tender.  Drain, reserving the water and you can eat the potato.  It doesn’t go in the bagels. Let the water cool until warm.

2.      Combine the starter, honey, eggs (reserving one yolk), oil, salt and flour.  Stir, and add enough of the potato water to make a nice kneadable dough.

3.      Knead, on a surface dusted with all-purpose flour for 8 – 10 minutes.

4.      Wash and oil bowl. Put in the dough and turn it over so the top is oiled.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

5.      Let the bowl sit on the counter overnight (or all day).

6.      In the morning, on a floured surface, dump out the dough.  Knead a little bit, and then break off equal pieces.  I ended up with 12.  Form them into balls and let them rest for 10 minutes on floured surface.

7.      Form into bagels by flattening a bit and then poke a hole in the middle and stretch out.

8.      Place them on a greased or Silpat covered cookie pan and allow to rise until they are nice and puffy… maybe half an hour? 

9.      In the meantime, bring a large pan of water, maybe 3 quarts to a boil and add ½ teaspoon baking soda. 

10.  A few at a time (don’t crowd them) gently place the bagels in the boiling water and boil for 2 minutes, flip over and boil for 2 more minutes. Remove with slotted spoon.

11.  Make the glaze and brush their tops and sprinkle with the seeds, if you wish.

12.  You can put 6 of the 12 per baking sheet.  Bake in a preheated 425 F oven on two racks for 13 minutes.  Switch the pans to the other rack and bake for 13 more minutes. Should be lightly brown

13.  Cool them on wire racks. 

14.  Eat.  We love them toasted with cream cheese or butter.

What to do with extra sourdough....

I don't wash out the jar I keep my sourdough starter in very often, but eventually, it becomes somewhat crunchy looking.  Here is what I like to do when I have extra sourdough starter.  I poured off the "hootch" that was in the jar (the dark liquid that accumulates after I neglect it for several days) and then dumped the remainder into a bowl.  After carefully washing the jar and lid, I added some water to it, because it was now too thick, and stirred that in and then took 1/3 cup of that and returned it to the clean jar.  Next, I added 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and about 1/3 cup water and stirred that altogether in the jar, put on the lid and returned it to the refrigerator.

What was left in the bowl was about 1.5 cups of leftover sourdough starter.  To that, I added:

1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
about 2 teaspoons of honey
2 Tablespoons melted butter

Then I stirred it all well.  In the meantime, I had my Belgian waffle-maker heating up.  When it was up to temperature, I baked the waffles by adding 1/2 cup of the batter each time.  On my iron, the device is heated enough when the light on the top goes out.  After adding the batter, the light will come back on and then turn off again when the waffle is done and I remove it and start another one.

Of course, this could also be made into pancakes!

These waffles are delicious and it is a good way NOT to waste that extra sourdough starter.

I serve them with butter and real maple syrup.