Sourdough Bagel Buns

Start with some of the best ingredients and your end product will be MUCH better!

Let me begin by saying that I’m not a parent. No children to tend to or feed, no one that constantly needs my attention other than my loving husband, M. When I attended CIA, as a GROUP we kept a sourdough starter alive for a weekend. While baking in Colorado, one of my graveyard shift duties was to feed Mother. Mother was a 50 pound beast, who needed TONS of food to keep her happy. She stayed alive during my time there as well. Fast forward to last month, when I receive my sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour, with great instructions on how to keep it alive.

Some of the Virtual Potluck bloggers received flax products from King Arthur Flour while others got Classic Fresh Sourdough Starter. The sourdough page at King Arthur flour has links to tips, recipes, and more. And there’s plenty of information about flour, as well.

I named her Stella. I stirred her up, feed her some delicious flour and tap water and honestly? She seemed happy. For about a week. I was feeding her once a day, until that week. She started acting up, literally. Her bubbles were getting a little crazy and M was on the verge of throwing her out because the smell started to bother him. I soothed her with kind words, I frantically tweeted with @KingArthurFlour asking for help, I TRIED my hardest to be a good parent.

But she was a rebel (of course my kid would be a rebel…), and I had to punish her a little. I threw her in the fridge for a week. I would deal with her later (this is why my parenting methods might not be the best!) A week later? I took her out, let her get to room temperature, fed her twice a day for 4 days, and she was fine. Seriously…kids?! No thanks.

Red Star Yeast also has recipes for you (including gluten-free), a yeast conversion chart, a baking steps guide, and how-to-bake videos including videos for bread machine, stand mixer and hand-kneading.

But I digress…I baked bagel buns. Again, as you can see on my Instagram picture, what I wanted to make, just didn’t happen. I had thoughts of Strawberry & Poppy Bagels…but freeze dried fruit BURNS quickly. So that didn’t happen. So I made classic bagels. As classic as a bagel bun with a mix of mustard, poppy, and sesame seeds can be.

Sourdough Bagel Buns

Recipe Adapted from King Arthur Flour's "A Dozen Simple Bagels"

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 12 ounces Unbleached Bread Flour
• 5 ounces High Gluten Flour
• 4 ounces live sourdough starter
• 10 ounces cool water
• 1 ¾ teaspoons fine sea salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons Red Star Instant Yeast
• 1 tablespoon each: black sesame seeds yellow mustard seeds, dutch blue poppy seeds

Instructions

• This recipe uses a sourdough starter. Read this before you embark on it. You could easily just do the overnight starter that KAF suggests in the original recipe, but I decided to give it a go with Stella.
• In your mixer bowl, mix both flours, sourdough starter, water, salt, and yeast. If kneading by stand mixer, knead on low for 3 minutes and then mix for 5-10 more minutes until a firm but not dry dough is formed. If mixing by hand (like I did), go at it! Knead until your heart desires until dough is smooth. This takes about 10-20 minutes (or about 7 songs with a minute break in between!)
• Let the dough rest in a warm environment, inside an oiled bowl, for an hour. Deflate the dough, and let rise for another 30 minutes.
• Transfer dough to countertop and divide into 3 ounce buns. Roll each piece into a smooth and round ball. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
• While the dough rests, prepare the bagel bath and preheat your oven to 425F! In a large pot, simmer water and 1 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder or brown sugar.
• Transfer the buns into the simmering water. Cook for 2 minutes on one side, and one more minute on the other. Strain and place in oiled sheet tray. Sprinkle with mixture of seeds.
• Bake for about 25 minutes and enjoy with a slathering of your favorite cream cheese, butter, or as a bagel breakfast sandwich!

One lucky winner will receive from King Arthur Flour one (1) dough whisk, one (1) coupon for a bag of flour in the supermarket, one (1) sourdough starter, and one (1) bag of High Gluten Flour. But that’s not all! Red Star Yeast is adding three (3) strips of yeast, one (1) bread loaf pan, one (1) apron, and one (1) bread knife!  Entry Methods:

• Follow @KingArthurFlour on Twitter
• Follow @RedStarYeast on Twitter
• Follow @VirtualPotluck on Twitter
• Tweet the following message:  Enter to win a Baker’s Dream Giveaway thanks to @RedStarYeast and @KingArthurFlour on @nella22’s blog: http://ow.ly/blajH