YES CHEF IS OUR SERIES WHERE WE SIT DOWN WITH A MEMBER OF OUR TEAM FOR A 5 MINUTE CHAT ABOUT THEIR FAVOURITE RECIPE OF THE MOMENT.
Sophie started at Sessions nine months ago as a Business Development Manger, selling our brands into operators across the UK. When not working Sophie spends her time exploring neighbourhoods in an around London, mainly looking for inspiration for her next dish.
The perfect bagels
When to eat:
Brunch, or lunch, or a quick dinner
Serves:
Recipe makes 8 bagels
Where does this recipe come from:
During Uni holidays I started working at an artisan bakery in my home town in Derbyshire run by the most fabulous American expat, Lisa. We specialised in sourdough with over 10 flavours, all made from a 17 year old starter brought over from the States.
Lisa had grown up eating homemade Everything Bagels and soft pretzels in California’s wine country and wanted to bring some of this joy to our small East Midlands town and they were a hit! In the end I was handmaking 3 dozen a day to keep up with demand.
What you will need:
Baking sheet
Large mixing bowl
Small mixing bowl
Measuring spoons
Bench Scraper or knife
Kitchen Scales
Stand mixer (optional)
Ingredients
1 ½ Tsp quick dry yeast
337g warm water
623g Strong Bread flour
2t sp salt
22g honey
3 tbsp cornmeal for dusting
Toppings (poppy seeds, sesame seeds, smoked salt, onion seeds)
Cream Cheese
Smoked Salmon
Cucumber
Pickled Onion
Up to you!
Method
Set your oven to 180°. If, like me, your oven is broken, use an air fryer.
Weigh out the warm water in the small bowl, add the honey and stir to dissolve it in the water.
Add the yeast and give it a quick stir, set aside to bloom.
In the large mixing bowl (or stand mixer), combine the flour and salt. Once the yeast mixture has a foamy layer on top, add this to the flour. If you have a stand mixer, beat on low speed for about 4 minutes and then increase speed to medium for another 7-10 minutes. If, like me, you don’t, you will need to combine it and knead by hand which is a bit of a work out...The dough needs to be cohesive, smooth and stiff, with some stretch, this will take about 12 mins by hand. Effort.
Pop the dough back in the bowl and cover with cling film or a damp tea towel and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Cut dough into 8 equal pieces (you can weigh it if you want but I am not bothered about that) and then roll into a smooth ball, pinching the bottom and smoothing it on your surface.
Let rest again, covered for about 5 minutes.
Form each dough ball into a rope about 15-20 cm long. Then form a circle with the rope, overlapping the ends by about 2 cm, pinching them together and smoothing out the seam on your surface. The circle should have an even thickness all the way around. If not, then you can roll out the circle in the places it is too thick.
Dust the baking sheet with cornmeal and place the bagels on the sheet, giving each bagel space to rise and not touch each other. Cover well and let rest in the fridge overnight or in a warm spot for 30 minutes or so until they puffed up and you can see some large air bubbles beginning to form.
Fill a wide pot with water, bring to a boil. Drop in 3-4 bagels and boil on each side for 60 seconds, flipping gently with a metal skimmer and boil for another 60 seconds.
Transfer to a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal, bottom side down. Sprinkle on toppings, in my case, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and smoked Maldon salt. then bake at 180° for 12-15 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool (this requires a lot of patience but will save your fingers from being scolded).
Once cool enough to handle and slice, add your favourite fillings. I love smoked salmon, cream cheese and pickled red onions but I also love making a filthy McMuffin style one when suffering from a hangover!
Enjoy!!
