2 days before baking

Feed Your Starter

• 2 days before you plan to bake your bread (or the morning before, if your kitchen is very warm)
• Take 17g of your existing sourdough starter. Add 70g all-purpose flour (or bread flour) and 60g filtered water (or good quality drinking water). Leave it in a lightly covered container on your kitchen counter until the next day. If your kitchen is particularly warm, especially in summer, preparing it the morning before baking might be best.
• This makes a fairly stiff starter, which will stay active longer, allowing you to use it when it suits you best.

1 day before baking

Blend The Wet Ingredients

• In the morning, the day before baking, start by blending the cottage cheese with some of the water, malt extract (or honey) and the protein powder until smooth.
• Using a bread whisk, stir in the remaining water and 113g of the sourdough starter.
• You could probably blend it, but I’m trying to be respectful of the little sourdough bacteria and treat them gently. Not everyone appreciates the wild ride in a blender!
• Keep the remaining starter for your next bread. You can keep it in the fridge, and it’ll last for at least a week.

Mix The Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl stir together the bread flour and salt. I’m using kosher salt, which has a higher volume per gram, so for me this is 1 tsp. If you are using sea salt, use 1/2 tsp.

Mix The Dough

• Stir the wet into the dry ingredients using your dough whisk or spoon, make a little well in the middle of your flour then pour in your wet ingredient blend, stirring as you go. Mix until you have a very roughly mixed mass.
• Now you can use either your stand mixer or knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes.
• If you’d like to add any mix-ins to your dough, do so during the last minute of kneading.
• I used my stand mixer on low for about 5 minutes, until the dough was very smooth and came away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.
• Assess your dough at this point. It should be fairly firm and smooth, a bit like play-doh, but not so dry that it cracks or doesn’t come together. Add a little flour or water if you think it needs it.

Bulk Fermentation

• Use your hands to shape it into a smooth ball.
• I like to spray the bowl or box I use for fermenting my dough with a bit of oil at this point, to make it easier to take it out later.
• Cover your bowl or container with a damp towel, a lid (needs to be able to breathe, so no tightly sealed box) or some cling film.
• Leave to rest until about doubled in size. I like to do this in my kitchen, which is at about 70°F/21°C (fluctuating a bit depending on season) and it took about 6 hours.
• If you’d like to speed up the fermentation, you can switch the light of your oven on, put the bowl with your dough in and accompany it by a mug of freshly boiled hot water, which will raise the temperature and moisture to just the perfect environment for sourdough to thrive.
• It is hard to give an exact time, as everyone’s sourdough starter, kitchen temperature and humidity and even height above sea level can influence the time. So just check on your dough occasionally.
• Sourdough is very forgiving though, so no worries if it’s not perfectly doubled.
• Now, if you read my bread recipes, you saw a lot of stretch and folds. But since this dough is kneaded until smooth and elastic, it doesn’t need it.

Shape The Bagels

• Line a sheet pan with baking parchment.
• Once your dough is nice and puffed up, take it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured worktop or silicone mat.
• Gently pat it out a bit and, using a bench scraper or knife, cut it into 6-8 even pieces. I find that easiest by cutting it like a pie.
• You could use digital scales to get pieces that are exactly the same size, but frankly I never bother.
• Now shape each of the dough pieces into a nice, tight ball by grabbing the corners and pulling them into the center, pinching them to close, until you see and feel some surface tension. Turn the ball over, so the seam side is in the palm of your bottom hand and roll until smooth.
• Do the same with each of the pieces.
• If you like (and have time and patience) you can let them rise for about 30 minutes until puffed up a bit. I skipped this step.
• To get the typical bagel shape with the hole, push your thumb into the middle of a dough ball all the way through. Then widen the gap a bit until both of your index fingers fit into it, one from each side.
• Now twirl the bagel around your fingers, gently stretching and widening the hole, until it is about 2-3in wide and looks decidedly wider than you’d expect it to be later. It will close a good bit during resting, boiling and baking.
• Transfer your bagel to the waiting sheet pan and proceed to shape the remaining dough balls.

Rest Until Doubled

Cover with a (very) damp tea towel or cling film (I use cling film, as I found towels too drying when left overnight in the fridge) and allow to rest on the counter until your bagels have about doubled in size and look visibly puffed up.

Overnight Fermentation

• Now you can either boil them right away or rest overnight in thew fridge. I went with overnight rest, since it leaves them nice and firm for the boiling and deepens the flavor considerably.
• Plus it gives you all the above mentioned benefits of slow fermentation.
• If you don’t get around to baking the next day, don’t worry. You can leave the shaped bagels in the fridge for up to 48h. The sourdough flavor will get more pronounced, which can be a good thing.

Boiling The Protein Bagels

• Preheat your oven to 425°F/220°C.
• Get all your favorite toppings ready. If you like your bagels covered with them all around, you’ll need about 6-8 tbsp in a deep plate.
• In the morning (or evening, if you so choose), bring about 2 quart/2 litres water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Add the baking soda (careful, it will foam) and malt syrup or honey.
• Using a slotted spoon to lower them into the water, boil the bagels, 2-4 at a time on each side for 30 seconds to 1 minute. This will give them their shiny crust, hold the moisture in for the perfect chew and help with the perfect browning and characteristic flavor of the crust.
• You can boil them for a maximum of 2 minutes per side, but for me they get a bit too chewy at that point.
• Shake off the excess water or rest on a wire rack while you finish the remaining bagels.
• Now you can either sprinkle on your preferred toppings (I like my lower bagel half topping free, so I sprinkled the top) or you can roll the still wet bagel in the seeds to cover it all over.

Bake Your Sourdough Cottage Cheese Bagels

• Bake your sourdough protein bagels for about 18-22 minutes. If your oven bakes unevenly (like most do), rotate your sheet pan about halfway through the baking time, to get them evenly browned.
• My oven runs fairly hot, so mine were ready after 18 minutes.
• Allow to cool for 15-30 minutes.
• These bagels are particularly good while still warm!
• Enjoy with your favorite toppings.