Bagels Egged or Oven?

Botch

LetsEat said:
The culinary dream I have been chasing is the dark golden exterior color, shattering crunch of the crust, open textured crumb, and deeply flavored bread. 

I just finished reading an article on pretzel-making in Cooks Illustrated.  To get the full-mahogany color on a German pretzel they are dipped in a lye (!) solution for 15 seconds before baking; had half a page of safety precautions included and sounded kind've fussy.  They also included an alternative, baking soda in the dipping water (1/2 cup soda for 8 cups water).  The soda pretzel wasn't near as dark as the lye version, but I bet you could apply the idea to bagels.  
 
Thanks for the recipe.  Do you have a good way of storing/reviving them the next day?  I usually buy one at Einstein's, as they're best cooked that day, but would like to try these.  EDIT: never mind, I saw in the recipe to freeze and reheat.  

LetsEat

Botch said:

LetsEat said:
The culinary dream I have been chasing is the dark golden exterior color, shattering crunch of the crust, open textured crumb, and deeply flavored bread. 

I just finished reading an article on pretzel-making in Cooks Illustrated.  To get the full-mahogany color on a German pretzel they are dipped in a lye (!) solution for 15 seconds before baking; had half a page of safety precautions included and sounded kind've fussy.  They also included an alternative, baking soda in the dipping water (1/2 cup soda for 8 cups water).  The soda pretzel wasn't near as dark as the lye version, but I bet you could apply the idea to bagels.  
 
Thanks for the recipe.  Do you have a good way of storing/reviving them the next day?  I usually buy one at Einstein's, as they're best cooked that day, but would like to try these.  

@Botch I’ve always utilized food grade lye in making pretzels. I grew up watching my German grandmother making them so I never gave it a second thought. Now I have pretzel cravings!

My recipe yields a dozen bagels. They freeze perfectly. Once baked, cool and place in a freezer grade ziploc bag and pop into your freezer. Defrost, toast/warm as needed. 

Give the recipe a go and let me know if you have questions. Enjoy!

ColbyLang

Lye bath critical in pretzel and most bagel formulations. Changes crust texture as well as gives color. There are no bagel makers/bakeries in Louisiana 

caliking

Those look darn good.

I've  done long ferments with sourdough before, but not with instant yeast. Thanks for the clarification re: timeline. 

caliking

I might try adding baking soda to the bath. Thanks for the tip @Botch.

I started to dip my toes in the pretzel rabbit hole some years ago, then came to a hard stop when I read about the lye bath. Caliprince was a toddler back then. 

PSA - if you have little kids, please don't store lye in the house. Anywhere. I've seen horrible things happen to kids who accidentally ingested lye. 

LetsEat

caliking said:

Those look darn good.

I've  done long ferments with sourdough before, but not with instant yeast. Thanks for the clarification re: timeline. 

The added 24 hours wasn’t intentional but the result of being distracted with the dog’s surgery. When I remembered the bagels were still in the refrigerator, I figured had nothing to loose.  I’m still maintaining my three day bake. 

ColbyLang

24 hour cold proof shouldn’t do anything but make them better! More fermentation.