Asiago Bagels (with Chipotle Pepper or Garlic & Chive Cream Cheese)

It’s National Bagel and Lox Day! Since I have been meaning to tackle this project for awhile now, I figured what a perfect day to do so! After preparing the dough last night (as you will see in the directions, this is a two day affair), I woke up 45 minutes early and finished these babies off and they were fantastic! The savory flavor of the Asiago was a wonderful change from my usual bagel choices. And the aroma in the kitchen was intoxicating! I served up these bagels with two different kinds of cream cheese: Chipotle Pepper, or Garlic & Chive (recipes at end of post).

As a note, my only issue was not being able to knead the dough with a stand mixer. I have the 5 quart, 325-watt motor (middle sized of the Kitchenaid stand mixers) and it sounded like it was struggling a bit. Didn’t want to ruin my fun kitchen gadget, so I used another tool – my boyfriend. He’s so handy (quite literally in this case)!

Ingredients:

SPONGE:

1 tsp instant yeast

4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour

2-1/2 cups water, at room temperature

DOUGH:

1/2 tsp instant yeast

3-3/4 cups  unbleached high-gluten or bread flour

2-1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp malt powder OR 1 Tbsp dark or light malt syrup, honey or brown sugar (I chose honey)

8 oz Asiago cheese, shredded

TO FINISH:

1 Tbsp baking soda

Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting

1 cup shredded Asiago cheese

Directions:

1. To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-quart mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop.
2. To make the dough, in the same mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour and all of the salt and malt. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup flour to stiffen the dough.
3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine*). Add the Asiago cheese during the last minute or so of kneading, and knead until evenly distributed. The dough should be firm, stiffer than French bread dough, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour – all the ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 81 degrees. If the dough seems dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems sticky or tacky, add more flour to achiever the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.
4. Immediately divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (I got 12 pieces that were just under 6 oz each). Form the pieces into rolls.
5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes.
6. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment and mist lightly with spray oil. Proceed with shaping the bagels: Push a hole through the center of the roll with your thumb and stretch out the hole to 2-1/2 inches in diameter, making sure that the resulting ring has a fairly even thickness all the way around.
7. Place each of the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the pan. Mist the bagels very lightly with the spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
8. Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test”. Fill a small bowl with cool or room temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float, return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.
9. The following day (or when you are ready to bake the bagels), preheat the oven to 500 degrees with the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the better), and add the baking soda. Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby.
10. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit (they should float within 10 seconds). After 1 minute flip them over and boil another minute. While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour. Sprinkle the bagels with the shredded Asiago as soon as they come out of the water.
11. When all the bagels have been boiled and topped, place the pans on the two middle shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately 8 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. (If you are only baking one pan at a time, keep it on the center shelf but still rotate 180 degrees.) After the rotation, lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees and continue baking for about 8 minutes, or until the bagels turn golden brown.
12. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving.

*I could not use my dough hook for this, my motor was starting to wheeze and I didn’t want to ruin my stand mixer (5 quart, 325-watt)! If you have the 6 quart, 575-watt stand mixer it’ll probably work just fine.

Source: Brown Eyed Baker

CHIPOTLE PEPPER CREAM CHEESE

Ingredients:

4 oz cream cheese (or Neufchatel)

1 tsp ground chipotle pepper

1 Tbsp onion, minced

Salt & pepper, to taste

GARLIC & CHIVE CREAM CHEESE

Ingredients:

4 oz cream cheese (or Neufchatel)

2 Tbsp chives, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

Salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients together. Refrigerate in airtight container.

Source (cream cheese): The Spiffy Cookie original