Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/10/pandemic-baking-i-made-bagels.html
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Good to see that someone understands that poaching them before baking is how it’s done. Most o the ones I see in stores are steamed or some other half-assed way of giving them a crust without the inherent chewiness that comes with poaching. My recipe is simple than yours but I like the poaching solution: I have used molasses and baking soda with good effect but might try this.
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You cooked leavened bread for a holiday that specifically forbids it?
And dehydrated your baking soda before you poured it in water??
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That does seem contradictory, but it’s not like JLW didn’t explain his reasoning, whether you agree with it or not:
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ETA: looks like @Skeptic and I had the same thoughts. You don’t need two of us jumping down your throat about the same thing.
Personally, I’d rather read about baking bagels than crackers regardless of the holiday 
. He could easily have said that he was baking them for Good Friday instead and it wouldn’t have been an issue (or as amusing).
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Anyone want to offer me some starter assistance?
I use unbleached all purpose flour. Filtered water warmed to 80 degrees. 1:1
First starter followed recipe by adding the feed daily. Got the initial action but then on days 4 and 5 I got a few bubbles but really nothing exciting. Day 6 began daily feeds using 70g “starter” and 200g of 1:1. Less and less bubbles over the next few days when it ended up getting fuzzy mold.
Second starter I’m using a new bag of unbleached flour. Day 7 and I’m getting the same results, very few bubbles, anticipating black mold soon.
I keep my house at 68-70. Kitchen probably dips to 66 overnight. I think Amazon just dropped a thermostat at my door as I’m typing this and will set it up with a bulb in a cooler promptly.
Any thoughts?
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Are you covering your starter vessel at all? I have a starter crock (basically a cylinder-shaped stoneware vessel with a lid) that I keep mine in. The only times I’ve personally had a problem with starter going deadly was when it was totally uncovered and things were getting into it that shouldn’t have been. A lot of starter recipes suggest a tea towel or cheese cloth over the top to permit the little yeasties to get in initially, but after you’ve started your colony you should be covering it.
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If it’s not boiled, it’s not a bagel. I usually use barley malt in the water, and diastatic malt in the dough. commercial bagel shops would use lye in the water, but I’m not that orthodox.
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Unboiled “bagels” are just bagel shaped objects… It’s a bit draconian of me, but I feel like any store selling bagels should have to put a big sign outside saying whether they are boiled or not. That is way more important to me than if they are using frozen dough or other shortcuts.
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Yes, covered with a loose lid.
I’m very clean with the starter, I have clean and sterile field experience. Obviously a baddie did get in there as it is everywhere, but I think it proliferated simply because of the lack of yeast production… abundance of food and no alcohol defenses.
These LOOK wonderful. I hope they are good enough to rate lox.
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This post is highly offensive and out of place on a site like BoingBoing. To call the core belief of a religion “shit that happened a long time ago”, and then to post a recipe that openly flouts the main observance of a major holiday is just disgusting. This would be like someone posting about having noon picnics for Ramadan. The poster and the editors at BB should be ashamed of themselves.
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I’m going to guess that Jason L Weisberger might, just might, be Jewish and entitled to celebrate Passover however he feels like. 
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I once made unleavened flour tortillas for passover seder once. No one would touch them despite explaining it literally took 10 minutes to make by hand and cook - considerably less than a cracker.
At least people understood their objections were more about recent tradition than actual law. A bagel… that’s just a way to never to get invited again.
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Those look absolutely delicious.
Folks have added oranges into the Seder mix so, why the hell not bagels?
Bravo Jason. Trend setter.
Next year it’s bagels for us!
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They did. I broke my low-carbing it diet for them too. Absolutely worth it. Fresh bagels are a treat.
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I was forcibly indoctrinated into that cult. Now I am free to bake as I wish.
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We used pretzels to represent matzoh at the seder I led.
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I would like to register a complaint!
For almost a decade now, my wife has been baking all the bread that we eat in the house. It is delicious and I love it. Now, because everyone is living out some kind of baking-at-home fantasy life, we can’t get flour anywhere. We were doing this before all you johnny-come-latelies, and you are all ruining the pandemic for me.
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