Sourdough Sesame Bagels {with whole ground Kamut}

Sourdough sesame bagels are very popular with the crowd in my house. There is more excitement when I announce I’m making these bagels than when I’m baking cookies. And the house smells magical during the bake too.

I’ve always loved sesame seeds and thought that there isn’t enough in most bagels I would buy. Who didn’t feel cheated getting the bottom of a bagel with one pitiful seed hanging on? That’s why I’m taking the sesame seed thing to the extreme here. I add toasted sesames to the dough (idea from Chad Robertson’s Tartine #3), and drown my bagels in seeds on both sides.

I have been using King Arthur organic bread flour recently, but I have made these bagels with all-purpose spelt flour before. Bread flour adds that typical bagel chewiness that I couldn’t replicate with ancient flours.

The reason to use Kamut is to add whole grain without adding color. Kamut is remarkable for both taste and baking qualities. If I used the same amount of other whole grain wheat here, the bagels would be much darker in color, and heavier in consistency. But Kamut keeps sourdough sesame bagels light, and basically identical to the classical visual presentation. Kamut is also very nutritional and easy to digest, and I feel good about having my family eat it.

HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH SESAME BAGELS

Ingredients
1/3 cup raw sesame seeds
225g strong sourdough starter
300g water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
200g whole grain Kamut flour (I mill my own berries with a Komo Mio mill)
370g King Arthur organic bread flour
10g salt
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (optional, if your starter is weak)
For boiling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
Water
For topping:
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 cup (more or less, as needed) raw sesame seeds

Equipment
Food scale
Stand mixer with dough hook
Large cookie sheet + parchment paper

Instructions
Toast 1/3 cup raw sesame seeds in a skillet until the seeds start getting golden with a few darker ones (don’t toast more than that or the seeds will turn bitter).

Combine 225g starter with 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 300g water in a bowl of a stand mixer. Add 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast, if using. Whisk until combined.

Add 200g whole grain Kamut and 370g King Arthur organic bread flour, sifted (I use a mesh to sift the flours straight into the bowl). Add 10g salt.
Using a spoon, roughly mix everything together until chunky.

Add 1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds. Give it a couple of whirls with the spoon, then connect the bowl to a stand mixer.

Using a dough hook, knead the dough until it becomes uniform. I usually do 5-10 minutes.
Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover and place in a warm spot.

I use a cooler with a fermentation space warmer for my day ferments. The temperature inside it stays around 100ºF. Favorite thing I own.

Once the dough doubled in size (could be anywhere between 2-6 hours), or at least raised dramatically, transfer it onto a floured surface and cut into 12 pieces. You might want to cover the dough pieces while shaping, they dry out fast.

Shape the dough into disks, making sure to pinch the seams tightly. Let the disks rest while you are working on the rest.

Poke a hole in each disk with your finger, then widen the opening with two fingers.

Leave bagels to rest for 15 minutes or so (you can also let them rest longer than that to get a higher rise, I don’t bother).
Preheat oven to 425ºF.
While bagels are resting, bring a 4-quart pot of water to a boil. Add 1/4 cup brown sugar to the pot. Drop the bagels, three at a time, into the boiling water, seam side up. Boil each side for 1 minute, flipping with a slotted spatula. Repeat until all bagels are boiled. Transfer bagels to parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Whisk 1 egg white with 1 tablespoon water and brush over the bagels. Place 1 cup raw sesame seeds in a shallow dish and dip each bagel into the seeds. I do both sides holding my finger in the middle and gently press down.

Bake sourdough sesame bagels for 20-25 minutes, turning once.
Sourdough sesame bagels are delicious straight out of the oven, but they get even better the next day. They freeze nicely.

NOTES

Make bagels holes bigger than you think you need because bagels puff up quite a bit.
You can use less sesame seeds, I like to go overboard.
Because we use a whole cup of active starter, fermentation goes pretty quickly so keep an eye on your dough.
I keep salt on the low side, feel free to increase salt up to 15g.

BLUEBERRY SOURDOUGH BAGELS

I use the same recipe to make Blueberry Sourdough Bagels. Instead of sesame seeds, I add 1 cup of freeze dried blueberries. They come out delicious! I tried used fresh and frozen blueberries, blueberry reduction and dried blueberries and came to definitive conclusion that freeze dried blueberries are the best.