Everything bagels with a biga

Stir the water, pinch of yeast and bread flour into a thick paste -- the biga.

Lid on and ferment on the counter 12 to 24 hours.

Measure the warm water into a medium bowl and tear the biga into it.

Add the instant yeast, bread flour, diastatic malt powder and salt and stir about a minute; bagel dough is dry and will look powdery.

Switch to a soaking wet hand, squeeze and fold to hydrate, then knead in the bowl.

Turn out and knead by hand at least 10 minutes, squeezing and pushing the dough into the board with alternating hands.

Check the windowpane test -- pull into a thin sheet and look for light through it. Keep kneading if it tears.

Round the dough off, drop it into the bowl, lid on, and bulk ferment one hour. It should not rise much.

Divide into 12 pieces of 125 grams.

Degas, fold back three times into a cigar, then roll to a 10 inch tube with very little taper.

Wrap the tube around the hand, overlap the ends by three inches, squeeze firmly and roll on the table to seal.

Wrap the tray tightly in plastic and cold rise in the fridge four hours, preferably 24 to 48.

Preheat the oven to 475 F, 245 C, with a pizza steel on a low rack.

Soak the bagel boards in cold water so they do not smoke in the hot oven.

Bring about a gallon of water to a rolling boil and stir in the molasses.

Boil six bagels 30 seconds a side, 60 seconds total, then lift onto a wire rack.

While still hot and wet, drop each bagel into the seed mix and coat both sides.

Lay them seed side down on the wet burlap boards and bake five minutes.

Flip them off the boards onto the hot steel and bake 12 to 15 minutes more, about 17 minutes total.

Cool on a wire rack.

Variation: without boards, bake at 425 F and expect blonder bagels.