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Stuart Hoffman and his daughter, Niki, began baking bread together several years ago before turning their attention to bagels. Their earliest attempts drew blunt reviews: Some people called the bagels misshapen and questioned whether they should be plumper.
Hoffman treated the criticism as motivation to improve his recipe.
The project took a bigger turn during Niki’s sophomore year at McLean High School. Parents regularly ordered hundreds of bagels from a nearby shop for school events, and Hoffman once volunteered to bake them himself.
“It became a continuous thing,” Niki said.
Seeing that her father enjoyed producing bagels in large batches, she encouraged him to sell them at farmers markets. He agreed and launched McLean Bagels, which now produces hundreds of bagels each week. His aim is to turn the startup into a dependable business.
“I grew up loving bagels,” Hoffman said. “The key, at least from my perspective … you want it to be chewy. You want it to be the right density. To me, it’s got to taste like good bread.”
Hoffman works as a government contractor during the day. He initially baked with his home convection oven and standard kitchen mixers, but the growing operation has since moved into a commercial kitchen and added several helpers.
For one recent weekend, he prepared 300 bagels for the Mosaic District farmers market and more than 400 for the Dupont Circle market.
The bagels are made with sourdough and undergo a long fermentation, a process Hoffman said builds flavor. He also uses toppings sparingly because he wants the bread itself to remain the focus.
His lineup includes plain, poppy, sesame and everything bagels. Pumpernickel is also planned because, he said, the “old school” variety reflects a commitment to traditional flavors.
Sweeter and heartier options include cinnamon raisin, blueberry and honey whole wheat. Bagels cost about $3 each, with cream cheese available for another $2.
Hoffman said the baking schedule fits reasonably well alongside his contracting work because the process does not require constant hands-on attention. Still, the young business has endured setbacks.
A refrigerator power failure once ruined a batch of dough even though Hoffman still had a farmers market to attend. More recently, a mixer at the commercial kitchen stopped working.
McLean Bagels sells at the Oakton and FreshFarm Mosaic markets, and Hoffman is scheduled to return to the Dupont Circle market in March.
Niki, now attending Cornell University, follows the business from Ithaca, New York, where she sometimes finds herself frustrated by the limited selection of quality bagels.
Back in Northern Virginia, Hoffman said he appreciates talking with customers, including those who suggest flavors he does not yet make. Although opinions about bagels can be intensely personal, he hopes the business can demonstrate what a carefully made bagel tastes like.
“People always want to talk about bagels,” Hoffman said. “They want to talk about the process. They want to know the behind the scenes.”