Hi Breadtopia!
I posted this once a month or so ago, but can’t find the original post, so I am trying again.
I have tried every single thing I have read about achieving bagel shine, except food grade lye. I have used in the boil: Baking Soda, Sugar, Malt Powder, Malt Syrup, Salt all combinations of.
I do not achieve shine! This tortures me, as I am selling them and they are so much prettier with shine! Could it be that I am “Only” baking them at 500? Do I need a deck/pizza oven with boards and stones? Can I help by trying to raise my temp to 525? I fear that will leave them raw on the inside though?
Yours is an interesting query. I do not make bagels, but I do make an ancient recipe for biscotti that is small, ring shaped olive oil flavored cookies that are boiled then baked. A quick search turns up a short 3-min NPR.org video from 2015 about NYC bagels. Apparently, it is the boil that makes the bread shine when baked. There can be issues with calcium and magnesium in the water, but that will manifest in the breads texture. Here is the vid:
Hello Otis! Thank you so much for sending that! I love a good bagel video, I have watched many and they have helped me a ton as far as my shaping techniques and speed.
I do boil however and I have even tried the bagel board/ stone flip technique you see in the video. Which is honestly the only thing I can see that will give me the shine I am striving for.
The trouble is, I am baking them to sell and without a huge! kettle (also possible part of the problem in shine) and a big deck oven with a stone- using bagel boards is too labor intensive and will invariably crack the stone, at least I have cracked 3 so far, the flipping of the wet bagel onto the stone is just too much for most “home” quality stones, even when using the boards properly.
I will keep looking to solve my shine problem, but until I have access to a deck oven, I may never know!
Thanks again!
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Hello again!
I do use baking soda, I have used from 1/2 cup per 4 gallons of water to a few tablespoons and I think it helps? BUT they are most definitely not shiny all the time. Which is even more baffling, sometimes shiny sometimes not!
I am fairly convinced at this point thst yes the baking soda does affect it (you can use food grade lye for a guaranteed shine, but that is a whole other process) but what effect it the most, is temperature and time of bake.
That being said I have yet to perfect that, even in a commercial oven, not a de k oven, but a high temp Vulcan. I will post the solution here, if I ever find it,
That is odd- what are you boiling them with and are you using anything in your dough that could surface in the boil? For example I put malt powder and syrup in my dough and it makes my bagels get sort of golden as I boil- can’t think what ingredient would make them pink though?
I did some googling and found this info. You could buy some gallons of water from the store and see if the pink thing doesn’t happen if you boil the bagels in that water instead.