Instructions

Day 1:

• A day before mixing the sourdough bagel dough make a sponge. Take half a cup of active starter in a large bowl. Add four cups of bread flour and 2 1/2 cups of water. Mix thoroughly with hands or a wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and allow it to sit at room temperature. After 12 hours, this mixture will look like active and bubbly starter.

Day 2:

• The next day, or after about 12 hours, dump your sponge into the bowl of a stand mixer and add to it the remaining flour, salt, cinnamon, raisins and brown sugar. Begin to mix on low with the dough hook until all the ingredients come together. Then turn the mixer up to medium high, and continue to knead with the mixer for about six minutes. Alternately, you can knead the dough on the counter for 10 minutes. What starts as a rough and shaggy dough should become smooth and satiny and form a ball of dough around the dough hook.
• Let your dough rest covered, until doubled. This may take 6-10 hours.

  Lightly dust your work surface with flour. Next, dump the dough out on the counter and divide the dough into pieces.
• For large bagels, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. For standard sized bagels, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.

Shaping your Sourdough Bagels

• Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper and greasing the parchment.
• Form each piece of dough into a ball. To shape your bagels, take a dough ball and flip it over so that it's seam side up. Use your fingers to gently press the dough into a rectangle about 2ish inches tall and 5ish inches wide. Take the bottom edge of the dough and fold it up and over two thirds of the way covering the dough. Press the dough to seal the seam.
• Once again, take the bottom edge of dough, the folded edge, and roll it up to form a rope approximately four inches wide. Use the palms of your hands to roll the dough back and forth, stretching as you go, until you have a length of about 8 inches.
• Take the length of dough in one hand. Wrap the dough around your four fingers so that both ends are tucked together at your palm. The ends should overlap by about an inch. Roll your palm along the counter back and forth to seal the ends together.
• Once you've formed a ring, transfer it to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this process with the remaining pieces of dough until you have all of your shaped bagels ready to go!. Allow about 3 inches between each bagel. You may need 2 sheet pans to fit all of the bagels.
• Wrap the cookie sheet tightly with plastic wrap so that the bagel dough won't dry out in the fridge. Place the pan in the fridge and let them cold ferment for 12 hours or up to three days.

Day 3

• Preheat your oven to 500 degrees
• Prepare your water bath. Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda and 1 tablespoon of honey to a large pot of water and bring the water to a boil.

To Boil Bagels:

• Pull the baking pans out of the refrigerator. Place a cooling rack close to the pot of water. When it's reached a full, rolling boil, gently drop three bagels (or however many will fit in the pot without crowding) into the boiling water. Allow the water to return to a boil and set a timer for 30 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to gently flip each bagel and continue to boil for another 30 seconds.
• Finally, use the slotted spoon to remove the bagels from the water and transfer them to the cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining bagels.

To Bake Sourdough Bagels

• Transfer the bagels back to their original spots on the cookie sheets.
• Bake the bagels for 5 minutes at 500 degrees. After the first five minutes, decrease the oven temp to 450 degrees and continue to bake for an additional 5 minutes. When done the bagels should have a golden brown crust and an internal temperature of 200 degrees.
• Let your bagels cool completely on a wire rack. Slice them open with a serrated bread knife and enjoy with butter or a thick slab of cream cheese!