By Rob Nichols, Weaver Street Market Bread Bakery Manager
For almost two years, we’ve been making some great bagels. But we’ve learned that bagels designed for eating fresh out of the oven don’t work when they’re baked at 3 am, arrive in our stores three to four hours later, and become someone’s breakfast or lunch two to four hours after that. We heard the comments from our customers: most often a variation of “too chewy” or “hard to eat as a sandwich.” Our challenge was to make an authentic “New York style” bagel that would have a softer crumb without losing the flavor and characteristic chew of a real bagel. And we have succeeded!
We rolled out the new bagels this week, and they’re ON SALE from now through Tuesday, October 13 October 20 [sale extended!] at $0.99 each and $4.99 for a half-dozen (mixed varieties okay). We’re sending plenty of extra bagels for sampling, so ask for a taste when you’re in the store. And look for some bread bakers in the stores this weekend (October 9-11), sampling bagels and answering questions.
More Details, If You’re Interested
If you’re curious about exactly what changed to soften up the bagels, the answer is simple: the addition of very small amounts of canola oil, honey, and sourdough starter. In fact, it took us a lot of time to realize how little we had to. Both the honey and canola oil act as dough softeners—the canola oil by lubricating the gluten fibers and the honey by absorbing and holding extra moisture. The sourdough starter was added for a small flavor boost as well as to provide a slight acidity to the dough, which also increases shelf life. An unexpected benefit of the new formula is that the added oil makes the bagels run more smoothly through our bagel machine.
To put the magnitude of the changes into perspective, here’s a comparison of the new bagels with our challah and sourdough breads. The amount for each ingredient is expressed as a percent of the total amount of dough:
Honey: 1.8% in the bagels, 8.8% in challah
Canola oil: 1.2% in the bagels, 6.0% in challah
Sourdough starter: 3.5% in the bagels, 18% in sourdough bread
Bagel History and the Recent Death of Daniel Thompson
Like most foods worth exploring, bagels come with a rich backstory beginning as an ethnic or regional specialty. If the story of bagels interests you, check out Maria Balinski’s book, The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, or Joan Nathan’s abbreviated version of the story in an article for Slate: “A Short History of the Bagel.”
And for a fascinating recent history of bagel production check out The New York Times obituary for Daniel Thompson (here), the inventor of the bagel shaping machine. Here’s a short excerpt: “Mr. Thompson’s machine proved to be a mirror of midcentury American history. For bound up in the story of its introduction is the story of Jewish assimilation, gastronomic homogenization, the decline of trade unionism, the rise of franchise retailing, and the perennial tension between tradition and innovation.”
Watch our bakers in action in the video below.