Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels
Total Time
5 hrs 10 mins
Prep Time
40 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Rating
4.3 out of 5 stars
(10)
Ingredients
14-16 bagels
- Sponge:
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 4 cups (500 g) high-gluten or bread flour
- 2½ cups (625 ml) water, at room temperature
- Dough:
- ½ teaspoon instant yeast
- 3¾ cups (468.75 g) high-gluten or bread flour
- 2½ teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons malt powder or 1 Tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, honey or brown sugar
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 cups (298 g) minced jalapeño peppers, seeds and membranes removed (about 12 to 14 peppers, depending on size)
- To Finish:
- 1 Tablespoon baking soda
- Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
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Preparation
Step 1
1. To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a large 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.
Step 2
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 powder. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining ¾ cup flour to stiffen the dough.
Step 3
3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine). Add the Cheddar cheese and jalapeños during the last two minutes or so of kneading, and knead until evenly distributed. The dough should be firm, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour – all the ingredients should be hydrated.
Step 4
4. Immediately divide the dough into equal pieces (each piece should weigh approximately 4½ ounces). Form the pieces into rolls.
Step 5
5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for 20 minutes.
Step 6
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 2½ inches in diameter, making sure that the resulting ring has a fairly even thickness all the way around.
Step 7
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.
Step 8
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. The following day (or when you are ready to bake the bagels), preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with the two racks set in the middle of the oven.
Step 9
9. 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 Cheddar cheese as soon as they come out of the water.
Step 10
10. 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. After the rotation, lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees F and continue baking for about 8 minutes, or until the bagels turn golden brown.
Step 11
11. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving.
Step 12
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Chef's notes
Feel free to adjust the amount of peppers you use based on your personal preferences. We like things pretty spicy, so I used a full two cups of minced jalapenos, and for us, it was just right. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say that these register about a 7 on the spicy scale, so you can use that as a guide for modifying the spice level.
