I have a small addendum to my bagel method, actually two addenda:
- The best place I have found recently to purchase 50 lb bags of King Arthur Sir Lancelot flour is Seven Grains Natural Market.
$54.99, free FEDEX shipping, $10.00 handling charge, total $64.99, which is well below the cost from any other source I could locate. Shipping was prompt and it had been in the warehouse for under 3 months before I got it, so it should easily keep another year. (That would be slow bagel making--under one batch a week.) A year is about the longest I have ever kept this type of flour, and there has never been any sign of deterioration over that interval. - 2. Diastatic malt in the form of malted barley flour is an additive here, as it is in most commercial flours. Since King Arthur products can come from any of a number of different mills, my impression is that they each add somewhat different amounts of barley flour. The last bag of flour I had made gummy bagels when my recommended teaspoon of Bob's Red Mill Malted Barley Flour was added to the dough, but using just half of that produced perfect results. I will have to experiment with the new stuff, and I will let you know if it seems any different.
Thank you Bob!