Posting this epic bagel failure is killing me. I am literally ashamed to show you these. Part of me is afraid that someone’s going to come knocking on my apartment door and demand I leave Manhattan immediately. That, or march me straight down to H&H (which is only 20 blocks away from our place) and show me what a bagel’s supposed to look like.
Read on for the whole sad story. Or, if you can’t bear the carnage, just take away the lesson from this story:
Measure, measure, MEASURE! By weight!
It still pisses me off to think about it, but I screwed this recipe up in the very first step. See how runny my sponge is? I didn’t know this at the time, obviously, but my sponge was absolutely the wrong consistency. With the benefit of hindsight, I’m now pretty sure that I measured the initial amount of flour wrong. I have no explanation for this, much less for why I chose to measure by volume instead of using my shiny new scale to measure this first step. I used the scale for the rest of the recipe, why the heck didn’t I use it at the beginning? I have no answer.
It follows that my sponge was very active since the ratio of flour to yeast was all shot to hell . . . but at this point I still didn’t know I’d done anything wrong, so I thought this is what the sponge was supposed to look like. So I went ahead and added most of the flour:
And started thinking to myself “Hum, this doesn’t seem all that stiff. The book says it’s supposed to be really stiff . . . maybe that last 3/4 cup will do it?”
Hum, not really.
So then I thought, “maybe kneading will do it?”
Nope, still not at all what I would call “stiff.”
Maybe I didn’t knead it enough? Let’s do a windowpane test:
Well, that looks good. Maybe I’m worrying for nothing?
I’ll go ahead and shape the balls:
Hum, these look sort of droopy, and I certainly couldn’t use the push-into-the-counter technique to shape them because they weren’t stiff at all. I also ended up with one less bagel than the recipe says when I divided by the amount of ounces (and yes, I did use the scale for this part!).
At this point I was almost certain something had gone wrong. While the balls rested for 20 minutes I went online and checked the BBA group for any progress shots from others . . . and my heart sank. I knew there was no way these were going to turn out alright at that point. The texture of the balls was a dead giveaway, mine were spreading horizontally and everyone else’s didn’t look like that at all. I seriously considered throwing the whole batch out and starting over, but then I realized I didn’t have enough high gluten flour to make another batch, so I decided to just finish up and document for posterity (oh joy!).
It was fairly easy to poke a hole in each ball, and after this step they went into the fridge overnight. I still held out a teeny tiny hope that they’d miraculously heal themselves in the overnight rest, but of course nothing of the sort happened. The next morning I did a float test with one of them and it floated immediately . . . and was very floppy. I was 100% sure this wasn’t going to end well, but I kettled them anyway:
They looked even more pathetic when they came out of their bubble bath:
After baking, they looked like flat, wrinkled, ugly, NON-bagels:
The inside almost passes for a bagel:
But each is less than half an inch thick. Big problem. The texture was absolutely awful and I had to force myself to eat the single one I ate. We threw out almost the entire batch, and I think I’m still traumatized by the whole thing.
And yes, I will be trying these again in the future.
Once I recover.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting this! I’ve certainly had baking adventures that didn’t quite go as planned, so I appreciate your honesty. It’s always a learning experience, right?
Happy baking!
Flour Girl
Bummer!
I have no doubt that all of us will have at least one “fail” during this challenge, but there’s a lot to learn from failure. I think that’s the best way to look at this challenge – at least that’s how I’m approaching it. I’m nervous about the bagels as I haven’t done them yet, but regardless of how they turn out, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot.
I’m sure you’ll have better luck next time, and I appreciate that you shared this even though it “wasn’t pretty.” Learning from each other is as important as learning on our own.
I haven’t made mine yet, but making bagels can’t be easy…I think that if you have something that kind of looks like a bagel the first time, you’re on the right track!
I did ok with the bagels but had about five that looked flat. I’m glad to hear that you will try again. Good luck.
)
I wonder if I had considered one of my recipes a flop if I would post? It sure would be hard.
Susie
I know we’re not supposed to laugh at others’ failures, but your blog gave me a good chuckle. So I suppose it wasn’t all for nothing. In reading your blog, I have resolved myself to post all of my Challenge recipes, regardless of how well or poorly they turn out.
I’m glad to hear you will try them again. It’s probably hard for someone in NYC to believe, but you really can make a great bagel on your own. That said, I will admit that this is not my favorite bagel recipe. I like it, but I like the recipe on Hamelman’s “Bread” better. And the recipe in PR’s yet-to-be-published book is an improvement on the BBA version.
I would like to point out one last thing. You noted that you ate one bagel and threw the rest away. Well, the birds and ducks in Central Park don’t mind a few flops now and then. Just sayin’.
If you don’t mind a piece of advice, I think you should get right back up on the horse, so to speak. Make those bagels again, first chance you get, before you freak yourself out about it.
I wasn’t too happy with my first try at the anadama, made it again the next day, and it was terrific. In fact, my bagels are not bad, but I want to make them a second time too – this week. Doing that gives me a huge sense of relief – and accomplishment.
Diane
awww… big hugs to you. There really is so much disappointment when we have failures that involve so much time and expense, and let’s face it, that flour isn’t cheap! Thank you so much for posting this, and I hope you do indeed try this recipe again.
Thanks for being so brave and posting. You are so funny. I needed a good laugh this morning. I’m not laughing at you, just with you. Everyone has days like that, when the baking gods are saying, “Don’t make anything new today!”
Try again and then you can have success and failure photos to post, side by side. You could put a big black bar on the “Don’t” Bagels like they do in Glamour magazine!
Cindy
Oh dear. I had the OPPOSITE problem with the first batch. Mine puffed up like dougnuts. They did taste delicious, but they looked awful. I am waiting for my oven to heat up to do the second batch now.
If at first you do not succeed, try, try again. Your heart is in the right place and you will succeed soon. Your sharing the failure was a great idea, as many people can learn from you too. I for one am looking forward to your next batch.
~devany, Hilo, HI
http://www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
I’ve just discovered the BBA challenge, and bagels were my first attempt to bake along. And if it’s any comfort mine turned out exactly like yours, very wrinkled and not at all bagel-like, urgh!!
I didn’t think I did anything wrong with the first measurement, I weighed everything exactly as in the book (in England we don’t use cups). But clearly something went wrong. I’m not a novice baker and have got to grips with yeast, but I’m always concerned that the amount of water in the book varies so much with different flour that perhaps that was the problem. I thought the wetness of the first sponge was how it was meant to be.
I was also rather upset – my partner just laughed at them, and although my kids ate them they clearly didn’t particularly enjoy them. Better luck with the brioche for both you and me!
Kitchen disasters, I’ve had more than a few! I have a habit of “skimming” the directions, which is never helpful! I am so glad for the heads up about weight or I am so very sure, I would have the same dilemma! Best of luck! -Chris Ann
As others said, I’m glad you posted this! We’re all in this to learn together, and after reading your story before making my bagels, I made sure to keep adding flour until my dough was extra stiff! It was hard to do, since usually I try to avoid adding too much flour to a bread dough. I bet your next batch will be great! Again, thanks for sharing!
I can completely commiserate! Mine turned out similarly. They looked beautiful at first, but they got very big and puffy overnight, and then collapsed as I tried to transfer them from pan to boiling water bath. I’ve baked a lot of bread before *and* I’ve baked other bagel recipes, so I felt pretty bad that these bagels turned out so flat and ugly. They taste ok, but they sure aren’t bagels. I think I’ve psyched myself up to try this again, though, and I will make that dough STIFFER!
I feel better knowing I’m not alone.