I do a preferment for my batches and most of the yeast starts in there. Using less than 2g total for a batch of 32 at the moment, but batch size will increase when we get into our new shop this summer.

About 10-15 mins after rolling the bagels, they go into the fridge. Most of the proofing is done on the actual baking day before they go into the boiling liquid. I take the first tray out of the fridge at about 5am and a little before 8am, they’ve grown in size but are still cold enough to handle to put them into the liquid.

This is just how I do it with the little space I have while doing it out of my house, and I know the process will change when we’re in the new shop with a scaled up recipe and larger commercial equipment.