Sourdough Bagels made with Hard Wheat

Sharing is caring!

Learn how to make light and chewy sourdough bagels made with hard wheat berries freshly milled. I love eating bagels for a quick breakfast or making bagel sandwiches for lunch. All ingredients are simple and commonly found in kitchen pantries. Plus when using freshly milled flour with sourdough, the health benefits are amazing.

I have been milling my own wheat for awhile now. When I found out about the chemicals and toxins in the store bought flour, I knew I had to make a big change. Thankfully the processes of milling flour is easy. Only one more step was added to my baking steps. Freshly milled flour has more nutrients and minerals than the flour from the store. This is because, when milling flour, the flour looses its nutrients from oxidization. Oxidization is a normal process food goes through. Think about a banana turning brown or an apple turning brown after being cut, the same thing happens for grain when being cut or milled. After about 3 days the flour has lost nearly all of its nutrients and can even become rancid.

A long time ago, people wanted to make flour available to everyone easily at a store. These people knew the flour would spoil after three days. So they invented a steal rolling mill to separate out the bran and germ, which contains natural oil that spoils the flour, from the endosperm. This was a miracle at the time as the flour was now able to store for a long time. Many years go by and we now know that the endosperm contains mostly starch and lacks almost all of nutrients wheat was to contain. By digesting the store flour, people now have gluten intolerance, cancers and diseases that were never around 130 years ago. Thankfully when you freshly mill flour and bake it, most nutrients will stay intact.

For more information, go to the deception of flour page.

How to Make Sourdough Bagels

Before you can make sourdough bagels, you will need to have some active sourdough starter. You may make your own with this recipe or get some from a friend. It takes a few days to make starter but once it's ready it can last a lifetime. I have already had my starter for 6+ years. 

Why is sourdough better than store bought yeast type bagels? Sourdough contains wild yeast and is fermented so that it can contain more good bacteria and nutrients for better gut health. 

When I make sourdough bagels, I start the day before. I will get up in the morning or early after noon, take the sourdough starter out of the fridge, add some flour and water, and mix well with a rubber spatula to make it active and bubbly. After a few hours it will be ready to use. On hot summer days it may only take an hour or two to be ready. 

Now that the starter is active and ready, its time to mix the ingredients. I use a large glass bowl with a kitchen scale most of the time. The only ingredients I use for the dough is sourdough starter, freshly milled hard wheat flour, filtered water, sea salt and raw honey. 

Making the Sourdough Bagel Dough

First add to the bowl 100g of sourdough starter. I use the same rubber spatula I mixed the starter with unless I'm planning on making other breads that day. 

Add 220g of filtered water to the starter. If the starter floats, it's a good sign its active. 

Add 21g of raw honey and 8g of sea salt to the starter/ water solution and stir until dissolved.

Last I add 400g of freshly milled hard wheat flour. Start with half the flour and mix well.
To see what grain mill I use and how to mill wheat berries, visit Milling Wheat Berries.

Then add other half of flour and mix until mostly combined.

It will be lumpy looking.

Then I cover with lid, wet towel or plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes so the flour hydrates before starting the stretch and fold method.

When I do the stretch and fold method, I start by pulling up one side of the dough and shake it until its about 12 inches long and then fold it over and press into the ball of dough. I go around the ball 4 times until its been stretched and folded all the way around. I cover and let sit until the next round of stretch and folds.

Stretch and fold 3 times about 15 minutes apart. Then again 3 times about 30 minutes apart. I am not very good about keeping time so there is some give to this. As long as I stretch and fold about 6-7 times within 2 hours, the bread will come out alright.

The last fold I will roll into a ball and keep it smooth side up in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for a few hours until it has doubled in size.

Once doubled, I place the bowl in a plastic bag and into the fridge to let it ferment until I'm ready to use the dough, usually over night. I can just use it right away but the longer it's fermented in the fridge the more sour/ tangy flavor and less gluten the dough will become.

In the morning, I pull the bowl out of the fridge and place in a warm area to get he dough close to room temp. Next I pull the dough out onto a well floured surface.
Cut the dough into 6 wedges with a sharp knife or bench scraper.

Fold each dough piece into a ball shape while keeping the surface tension as tight as possible.

Poke a hole into the middle of the ball with your finger and roll it round your fingers or stretch the hole until it resembles a bagel.

Cover the bagels and allow to rise again until puffy.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Add 4 quarts of water to stock pot and bring to boil.
Add 1/2 Tb of brown sugar and 1/2 Tb of baking soda to boiling water.

Pick up and place a bagel into the boiling water mixture.
It should float, if not, the bagel might not be ready to boil.

I usually have room for 3 bagels at a time and after 30 seconds I flip to the other side.

Take bagels out and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat until all bagels are done. Add toppings if desired.

Bake for 20-23 minutes until golden.
Store in an airtight container or freeze once completely cooled.

Yield: 6

Sourdough Bagels made with Hard Wheat

5.0 Stars (1 Review)

Print

Soft and chewy sourdough bagels made with freshly milled hard white wheat berries.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 23 minutes

Additional Time 1 day

Total Time 1 day 33 minutes

Ingredients

• 100g sourdough starter
• 220g filtered water
• 8g sea salt
• 21g honey
• 400g hard wheat berries
• 1/2T brown sugar
• 1/2T baking soda

Instructions

1. Add sourdough starter, water, honey and salt to large bowl and mix well.
2. Mix in flour until combined.
3. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. Start first round of stretch and folds, then cover bowl with lid, wet towel or plastic wrap to keep moist.
5. Stretch and fold 3 times 15 minutes apart, then 3 folds 30 minutes apart.
6. Cover bowl and let rise until dough has doubled in size.
7. Place in refrigerator over night to ferment or go to next step.
8. Cut dough into 6 pieces with sharp knife or bench scraper on well floured surface.
9. Roll dough pieces into ball shape, poke with finger and shape into bagel rings.
10. Place bagels on parchment lined baking dish.
11. Cover bagels with wet towel, lid, or plastic wrap and let rise until puffy.
12. Add 4 quarts of water to large pot and bring to boil.
13. Add brown sugar and baking soda to boiling water.
14. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
15. Boil bagels in water solutions for 30 seconds on each side.
16. Place boiled bagels onto parchment lined baking sheet. Add topping if desired.
17. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.

Wondering what I use at the homestead? I have created a storefront to show some of the items I buy from Amazon and use. I earn a small commission if you buy from my storefront. CLICK THIS LINK.