Okay, I know this bagel looks a little burnt and slightly less bagel-shaped than it should, but the texture and flavor is some of the best I’ve ever had out of any bagel ever. (And that includes the fresh bagels from the bakery.) It’s deliciously chewy throughout the interior, just slightly crusty on the outside, with beautiful subtle flavors of sour and onion. I’m in love.

The three most obvious and important considerations for future success are:

• Baking temperature or the rack position in the oven. The freshly chopped onions on top burned to a crisp and even the dough turned a tad darker than preferable in a few spots. So, next time, use the lower rack or turn the temperature down to 425°F.
• Shaping technique. I thought Peter Reinhart was exaggerating when he said to make the center hole two inches wide. To my great surprise, the hole shrunk drastically as the bagel expanded in the second fermentation. Check out this video for a great example of bagel shaping.
• The dough consistency. The dough was very firm, slightly tacky. To prevent sticking to the kneading surface (cutting board), I put down a decent bit of flour, but perhaps next time I should keep the dough slightly more wet because the dough did not respond well to shaping after the first fermentation. Or, alternatively, I could use egg wash or dabs of water to encouraging a better seal between the dough ends.

The picture at the top was the worst of the six; you can barely see the slight wrinkle where the hole used to be, and there was partial separation of the ends. The center holes of the other bagels were at least finger-wide.

Here’s a few other minor hints and tips for the future:

1. Buy a brush for the egg white. This time, I dabbed the wash onto the bagels with my fingers. Very messy!
2. Cut the parchment paper to fit the baking sheet. Then spray the baking sheet with canola oil and lay the parchment paper on top. When the bagels come out of the boiling pot, apply the egg wash and then sprinkle the toppings onto the bagels.

One critical change I made to Reinhart's original recipe involved substituting part of the flour and water in the biga with wild yeast starter. I attribute the subtle sour flavor of these bagels to the adjusted formula:

100g wild yeast starter
177g hard white whole wheat flour
92g water at room temperature
1g instant yeast