Asiago Bagels

Bread and cheese is quite possibly one of the best culinary combinations, ever. Unless you throw in bacon and then, well, I think you have heaven. Whether it comes in the form of a French baguette and a chunk of your favorite cheese, a perfectly melted grilled cheese, or, in this case, Asiago bagels, there is something so intensely satisfying about the taste of warm, fresh bread paired with the salty smoothness of cheese. These bagels are now the third adaptation I have made to Peter Reinhart’s original recipe for bagels, and they just keep getting better and better. I love getting specific baking requests and when my Chief Culinary Consultant suggested Asiago bagels a few weeks ago I thought that it was a fantastic idea. Having now eaten them, fantastic doesn’t even begin to describe the deliciousness that awaits you with this recipe. From the crusty, melted cheese on the outside of the bagel to the magnificent cheesy bubbles floating throughout the inside, if you make these I guarantee you will never be tempted to go to Panera or Bruegger’s again.

Once again, Peter Reinhart was extremely generous with his time, giving me some guidance via email about how to adapt his original bagel recipe into these wonderful Asiago bagels. Since his recommendations for the egg bagels I made resulted in absolutely wonderful bagels, and the adaptation for cinnamon raisin bagels printed in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice is quite possibly my favorite bagel ever, I had all the faith in the world that these would be equally spectacular. And right I was. Thank you Peter! If you haven’t ventured into homemade bagel making yet, I highly recommend giving it a try. Once you get started, you won’t be able to stop thinking of all the possible varieties. I think next up for me may be blueberry bagels! Stay tuned…

What is your favorite type of bagel?

One year ago: Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Two years ago: Russian Grandmothers’ Apple-Pie Cake
Three years ago: Texas Sheet Cake

Asiago Bagels

Yield: 12 large bagels

Sponge:
1 teaspoon (0.11 ounce) instant yeast
4 cups (18 ounces) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2½ cups (20 ounces) water, at room temperature

Dough:
½ teaspoon (.055 ounce) instant yeast
3¾ cups (17 ounces) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons (.33 ounce) malt powder OR 1 Tablespoon (.5 ounce) dark or light malt syrup, honey or brown sugar
8 ounces Asiago cheese, shredded

To Finish:
1 Tablespoon baking soda
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
1 cup shredded Asiago cheese

1. To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-quart 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.

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. 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.

3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine). Add the Asiago cheese during the last minute or so of kneading, and knead until evenly distributed. The dough should be firm, stiffer than French bread dough, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour – all the ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 81 degrees F. If the dough seems dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems sticky or tacky, add more flour to achiever the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.

4. Immediately divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. For the pieces into rolls.

5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes.

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.

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.

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. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float, return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.

9. 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. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the better), and add the baking soda. Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby.

10. 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 Asiago as soon as they come out of the water.

11. 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. (If you are only baking one pan at a time, keep it on the center shelf but still rotate 180 degrees.) 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.

12. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving.

(Adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart)

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