All the flavors of fall packed into a sourdough bagel? Yes please. I’m totally crushing on these Apple Butter Sourdough Beer Bagels right now.
So beer bagels are kind of my thing right now. I already shared my Pickled Pepper & Cheddar Sourdough Beer Bagels with the world…and my co-workers. Side note – my co-workers have the best gig right now. They get to taste all of my baking recipes, such as these apple butter bagels, my cheddar sourdough bagels, my Apple Butter Quick Bread, and my jalapeño cheddar pull-apart sourdough dinner rolls that I will soon be sharing!
My Sourdough Beer Bagel Series
Back to those beer bagels. So far I have made:
- Pickled pepper & cheddar sourdough beer bagels
- Apple butter sourdough beer bagels
- Pumpkin pie sourdough beer bagels
- Buttery sourdough beer bagels
- Plain sourdough beer bagels.
(I tried making some with dried blueberries and that recipe failed…but we shall overcome and try it again one day!)
Flavor Profile & Ingredient Choices
Anyways, back to these apple butter bagels! They have a ton of flavor from warm apple pie spice and unsweetened apple butter. I use Eden Organic brand—it tastes great and it isn’t overly sweet, which lets the spices shine through.
Additionally, I also swapped my usual water-boil routine for this batch. I normally use honey in the bagel boil, but maple syrup seemed like the perfect fit for a bagel full of cozy fall flavor.
Why Did I Use Beer in These Apple Butter Sourdough Beer Bagels?
Y’all probably have heard this story many times, but I am going to tell it again: my husband is a homebrewer. We have a lot of beer on tap. I love using my husband’s delicious beer in some of my recipes. And right now, the beer is being used in all of my bagel recipes. I love the depth of flavor that the beer gives to the bagels. For this recipe I used my husband’s Festbier. Some store-bought alternatives include:
- Weihenstephaner Festbier
- Sam Adams Octoberfest
I’ve tried using the beer in my sourdough loaves, and every single time it causes a super slow bulk rise and results in a very dense loaf. However, it has worked really well in my bagel recipes! I think it works so well in bagel recipes because bagels are naturally meant to be a denser type of bread.
Apple Butter Sourdough Beer Bagels
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g Active Sourdough Starter
- 190 g Flat Beer Festbier is a good option
- 100 g Unsweetened Apple Butter I use Eden Organic
- 16 g Granulated Sugar
- 6 g Apple Pie Spice
- 500 g Bread Flour
- 9 g Fine Sea Salt
Instructions
- Prepare the dough. Whisk together the starter, beer, apple butter, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together theflour, apple pie spice, and salt. Then add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir with a spoon until the doughcomes together, and then use your hands to finish mixing until a rough, stiff dough forms. If the dough seems too dry, add more beer in half-teaspoon increments until the dough comes together but is not sticky. The dough should be firm and dense.
- Let the dough rest. Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 45 minutes to an hour. No need to be exact here.
- Form the dough into a ball. After the dough has rested for 45 minutes to an hour, form it into a ball. Place the dough ball back into the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
- Let the dough rise. Let the dough rise overnight for 8-12 hours, or until doubled in size. I live in Florida, my house is around 74°F at night, and I let the dough sit out all night. In the morning, I put the dough into the fridge. Leave the dough in the fridge for a few hours – I have left it all day while at work for nearly 12 hours, and it was fine. ***12 hours is optional; 2-3 hours in the fridge is fine. Cold dough will be easier to work with for shaping.
- Shape. Weigh the dough. It should weigh approximately 970g. Then divide that number by 8. That number will be the weight of each bagel dough ball. Don’t worry if one or two are smaller than the others-it’s ok; it won’t be enough to notice. Cut the dough into pieces (weigh each piece to match the number you previously calculated) and then roll each piece into a ball. Set them on a silicone mat lined baking sheet. You can also use parchment paper instead of a silicone mat. Let the dough rest uncovered for 12 minutes. I rest them for 12 minutes, but you can rest them from 10-15.
- Shape into bagels. After the dough has rested, shape the dough balls into bagels. Poke a hole in the middle of each dough ball with your index finger. Pick up the dough and work it to create the hole and the bagel shape. I like to put the bagel around my index finger and spin it a few times to help with shaping. Don’t worry if they don’t look perfect. They will puff up during the boiling and baking processes. Place the shaped bagels onto the silicone mat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with a damp paper towel or tea towel and let rest for 17 minutes – that’s how long I rest them. You can rest them for 15-20 minutes. They will barely rise during this rest.
- Boil. Add water and maple syrup to a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil two bagels at a time for 30 seconds per side. I use my phone timer to track this. The bagels will puff up now! Use a slotted spoon or a fish spatula the bagels to the water, flip them, and remove them. Place them back onto the lined baking sheet. Repeat until all bagels are boiled.
- Bake. Bake at 425°F for 20-25 minutes. I bake mine for 23 minutes. Begin checking at the 20 minute mark. If they seem to be getting dark, cover loosely with parchment paper for the remainder of the bake. Remove from the oven and allow the bagels to cool on a wire rack.
