The bagel debate continues in Chicago, with several new options having opened recently.
The die-hards want to know if they’re hand-rolled, then boiled-and-baked.
I’m still a fan of the old school places on the North Shore like New York Bagel and Bialy or Once Upon a Bagel. But few, if any shops, use an all-natural sourdough starter for their dough. You can taste the results before you even say “schmear.”
Rachel and Adam Beltzman got bit by the baking bug during the pandemic, moving from bread to bagels pretty quickly. The resulting business – R & A Sourdough – which now occupies the corner of Lawrence and Winchester in Ravenswood, has allowed them to grow steadily.
“We had nothing but time, so it kind of allowed us to do something with that time and slow down and create something out of nothing,” Rachel said.
The key to everything is their sourdough starter.
“So a sourdough starter is like the bloodline of this bakery. It provides the bacteria; instead of commercial yeast it allows the bread to rise,” she said.
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They take a little bit of the starter each day, adding it to their large batch of dough.
“We’ve gone from our 5-quart KitchenAid we got at Target to our bagel mixer that can hold 100 pounds of flour,” the business owner said.
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The dough is portioned into balls using a machine, then each sphere must be turned into a bagel, using both hands. They’re eventually boiled for a few minutes, sealing the shape. Some are dunked into sesame seeds or turned into “everything” bagels or another half dozen-plus options. They’re finally baked until crusty outside.
Their team produces nearly 2,000 bagels a day, all of which can be either schmeared with one of several cream cheeses or sandwiches, featuring cold-smoked salmon, which is made on the premises, then hand-sliced and paired with the usual suspects: tomato, red onion, capers. There’s also corned beef, if you’re not a fish person.
The key, Beltzman said, is feeding that sourdough starter every day, with equal amounts water and flour.
“So we feed it and we take care of it every day, kind of like another child. Even when we go on vacation we need somebody to babysit our starter,” she said.
All of the baked goods at R & A have a sourdough starter in them. Not just the bagels and the breads but even the sweets, like the pumpkin whoopie pies.
Here's where you can go:
R & A Sourdough
1938 W. Lawrence Ave.
