Hand-Rolled Bagels

Whisk the flour, yeast and fine salt together in a large bowl.

Stir the 20g of malt extract into the lukewarm water until it has dissolved.

Pour the liquid into the flour and mix to a stiff, ragged dough.

Expect it to look dry and unpromising. This dough carries barely half its weight in water, and that stiffness is where the chew comes from; a softer, wetter dough gives a bread roll with a hole in it.

Rest the dough for 10 minutes so the flour hydrates.

Knead for 10-12 minutes, until it is smooth, very firm and springs back quickly when pressed.

Use the heel of your hand and push rather than stretch, since this is harder work than an ordinary bread dough.

Cover and prove at room temperature for 60-90 minutes, until risen by about half. A stiff dough will not double, and waiting for it to only over-ferments it.

Dust a baking tray with fine semolina.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces of about 100g.

Roll each piece into a tight ball under a cupped palm.

Roll one ball out into a rope about 20cm long.

Wrap the rope around the back of your hand so the two ends overlap by 3-4cm.

Roll that overlap under your palm on the worktop for a few seconds, until the ends weld into one smooth join.

Weld the join rather than pinching it shut. A pinched seam comes apart in the boiling water and you lift out a C instead of a ring.

Shape the rest the same way and set them on the semolina.

Cover the tray and refrigerate for 12-18 hours.

Do not shorten the cold night. It is where the flavour is made, and a bagel mixed, boiled and baked in one day tastes of nothing but bread.

Heat the oven to 240C/475F.

Bring the 2 litres of water to the boil in a wide pan.

Stir in the 30g of malt extract and the bicarbonate of soda.

Test one bagel straight from the fridge by lowering it into a bowl of cold water: it is ready if it floats within 10 seconds.

Leave the tray at room temperature for 20-30 minutes and test again if it sinks.

Lower in 2 or 3 bagels, as many as sit in the water without touching.

Boil for 30 seconds.

Turn them with a slotted spoon and boil for 30 seconds more, until they have swollen slightly and the surface looks tight and matte.

Keep the boil short. Thirty seconds a side sets a thin gelatinised skin that dries to a glossy chew, where a minute or more a side gives a thick leathery crust and a bagel that barely rises in the oven.

Lift each one out and let it drain for a few seconds.

Press the wet top straight down into a plate of the sesame seeds.

Seed them while they are still wet. Nothing sticks to a bagel that has been left to dry, and no egg wash is needed at any point.

Set them back on the semolina-dusted tray, seeded side up.

Bake for 18-22 minutes, until deep brown and hard when knocked.

Check the centre with a thermometer if you have one: 96C/205F.

Cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before splitting, since the crumb is still setting.

Split and toast one for the poached eggs in this collection, which is the job the chew is for.

Freeze whatever will not be eaten on the day, split in advance. A bagel is stale by the following morning and toasts straight from frozen.