It’s Bagel Monday again, and I’m ready for the Weekly Review. We didn’t do Bagel Monday Weekly Review last week (the first week back after a needed vacation), so we will skip our first step of reviewing last weeks notes. However, next week we will continue the process of starting with a review of the previous weeks notes.
Bagel Monday
Almost any bagels I’d make would be better than the completely underfermented, dense, bland bagels from last week, but this week’s bagels were some of the best yet. I did a batch of 28 bagels, which was the same from last week, but modified how much starter I used. I kept the hydration at 52%, using my high gluten flour, and used a 10X expansion factor (compared to the 27X from last time), meaning 345g Dulce for 3450g dough (125g per bagel, 75g extra dough). I mixed the dough heavily for about 10 minutes, then let it rest for 15; when I came back I didn’t fold it too much, but tried to continue to work the flour into wetter parts of the dough, and flipping it over a lot. Half an hour later, I stretched and folded it, then another after that. The dough was very strong, but because my starter was so active, the dough more than doubled overnight (on the counter, maybe 60F). In the morning, the dough was strong, but flexible enough to roll into a nice shape. It dried slightly, so I should have kept the cloth covering a bit wetter. The bagels colored nicely, and the only complaint from Drew, Sour Flour’s Head Taster, was that they were slightly on the sour side. They weren’t super sour, but considering how active the starter was, and how much they rose, it makes sense it would build up some acid. Next time I might try to decrease the hydration slightly, which will also slow fermentation. I thought the bagels were a bit too fluffy, and that the crust didn’t get as crisp as it should. But over all, they were delicious bagels.
I ate a bagel with butter, then Drew made a fried and a scrambled egg for my second bagel. Drew got 4 bagels, and then I went off to La Victoria., and saw Jeff, from PizzaHacker, Roger, from Soul Cocina, and Ricky making tons of pizza in the huge oven. I had my new Sour Flour bag, which Robin sewed and then screen printed at the Levi’s Workshop, full of bagels, and gave them each one. I also gave one to Noemi, who was pretty upset when onetime I didn’t bring her a bagel on one of the Bagel Monday’s. I also gave some bagels to people working for HapaSF, and Luke’s Local, who recently started working there. Jaime also got a bagel, but he ran off before I could talk to him much.
Robin came over, with her mom, to the Sour Flour Lab to pick up 4 bagels. I talked with her mom a bunch about the differences between flour, and the different companies such as Central Milling, Giusto’s, and Gold Medal. Heather came over and got a bagel as well. After that, I ate lunch with my mom at Mr. Pollo, which was a delicious recommendation I got from Roger. She got 3 bagels to save for a lunch tomorrow with Nina and Jack, who might help connect me with La Boulange or Acme.
—– Break For Dinner ——
I managed to freeze 4 extra bagels for myself, which is good because I was almost out. Overall, its been a good Bagel Monday, but I never seem to be able to finish everything I want to. I’ve got 6 other Departments for Sour Flour, but it is already almost time for bed, and I’d be rushing to try to write them out as complete as I’d like. One idea I’ve had is to devote each Department to a day, so that would mean that tomorrow I focus on Bread Education, and the Communal Oven for Wednesday. Bagel Monday still needs an overall Weekly Review, but for this week, I will be cutting things short.