Bagels

We finally nailed New York-style bagels! Great not just by homemade standards, but by any standards – incredible chew, thin crisp blistered crust, deeply bronzed and shiny, with that signature dense-but-never-dry crumb. Leaves store-bought bagels in the dust. Why are they always so dry and doughy?!

Foreword: Today’s recipe is a team effort between me, JB and Stephen, head chef at RecipeTin Meals, our food bank. Stephen created the original recipe and did most of the development, guided by JB. My job was to try to “break” the recipe, find common pitfalls and write this post.

I don’t even want to know how many hours went into this. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t wired to go to such extremes to make recipes as perfect and foolproof as I can. But I am who I am, and I couldn’t have published this in good conscience without the 45 50+ batches of bagels we made.

I’m incredibly proud of this recipe – not just because the bagels are exceptional (genuinely New York standard!), but because it was such a team effort. Recipe development can be lonely. It’s so much more fun with a team!

Bagels

Stephen clocked up over 80 hours working on these bagels. Which sounds slightly unhinged given he already had an excellent bagel recipe he’d been making for years.

But I wanted a proper New York style bagel, which to me is the Rolls Royce of bagels. It’s everything that makes a bagel a bagel rather than just a bread roll with a hole in it, pushed to the max – deeply bronzed, extra shiny, satisfyingly chewy, with a thin crackly crust and that tight crumb that’s dense-but-never-dry. And the flavour! My mouth waters at the mere thought!

And as with many things in life, the first 90% was easy, for a decent New York bagel. That last 10% to exceptional was tough. So he kept tweaking and testing until we got there. At one point he said to me, “I never thought I’d get sick of making bagels!” – which I promptly passed on to JB with a cheeky, “This’ll be a good test of his grit!” 😆

And grit he showed!

Stephen estimates he made 25 batches, to arrive at The One (he laughingly recalls one weekend he made 32 bagels in 8 different poaching liquids!). Then just as he put his feet up and cracked open a beer, we asked him to stress test it (we like to find common pitfalls, we found a fair few with bagels).

And I really think we’ve cracked it. We’ve had New Yorkers on Instagram absolutely raving at previews – “As a New Yorker, these look legit”, “I’m from NYC and I approve” and my personal favourite “This might be the first homemade bagel I’ve seen online that actually looks like a real New York bagel.”

And now it’s your turn to experience them!!

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Ingredients In Bagels

I always marvel at how bread making can use basically the same handful of ingredients, yet tiny tweaks to the quantities and method produce completely different results. A little more water, less yeast, shorter proofing – and suddenly you’ve got a bagel instead of a bread roll!

• Bread flour – This type of flour is higher in protein and gives breads and pizza a chewy texture rather than being cakey like muffins. For bagels in particular which are known for their chew, it’s important to use bread flour. If you use plain flour / all-purpose flour, the bagel will work but won’t have the same chewiness.

• Warm water – This is the liquid for the dough. The recipe calls for warm tap water which gets the yeast reacting quicker and helps the dough develop. This was a late addition to the recipe to make it a little more fail-safe.

  The water temperature doesn’t need to be exact, you just want water that’s not ice cold nor boiling hot (like you’d use to scrub oily pans), just a nice temperature you’d want to have a bubble bath in. 🙂

• Instant yeast / rapid rise yeast – This is the type of yeast that does not need to be activated until bubbly in warm water. You just add it straight into the bowl with the flour and water, then mix it up to make the dough. You can find it in the baking aisle of regular grocery stores. It needs to be stored in the fridge to keep it fresh.

  Active dry yeast can also be used too, but it needs to be activated in the warm water with the sugar. See notes on the recipe card for directions. Note: The recipe calls for 1 3/4 teaspoons of yeast so if you’ve got the sachets which are usually 7g (2 1/4 teaspoons), you’ll need to open and measure out 1 3/4 teaspoons (6 grams).

• White sugar – Either regular / granulated sugar or caster sugar (superfine sugar).

• Salt – We use cooking salt / kosher salt. If using table salt which is fine, halve the quantity in the recipe. If using flakes, increase the quantity by 50%.

• Baking soda / bi-carbonate soda – This is for the bagel boiling water. Well, poaching water! We don’t actually boil the bagels, we poach them gently. 🙂 The baking soda helps give the bagels their deep golden colour, shine and distinctive chewy crust.

• Honey – Added to the poaching water to help the bagels brown beautifully, with a subtle sweetness and extra flavour in the crust.

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How To Make Bagels

I don’t normally make a point of the most accurate way to measure flour using cups, but for bagels, it matters. Too little flour and you’ll end up with soft sandwich bread in the shape of rings. Too much and the naturally tight bagel crumb will be too dense and tough. So, measuring the flour accurately is step 1!

PS JB did the legwork for this recipe so it’s his hands you see here in this section, he filmed the video, shot the photos and did the step photos.

1. Make the bagel dough

1. Measuring the bread flour properly – The most accurate way to measure ingredients is using scales. If you don’t have scales, use the spoon-and-level method with your cup measure (it’s the most accurate way):

   i) mix the flour in the tub or bag so it’s not compacted.
   ii) spoon it into the measuring cup – don’t scoop the flour out of the tub directly with the cup, as this packs in too much flour. Don’t tap or shake the cup.
   iii) Level the top with the straight edge of a knife.

   Or, just get scales. Faster! 🙂

2. Mix dough – Put the flour, yeast, water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on low, increasing medium low as the flour gets more mixed in, until it comes together into a shaggy dough and you can no longer see flour (about 1 minute).

3. Rest 20 minutes – Cover with a damp tea towel and rest for 20 minutes.

4. Knead 8 to 10 minutes – Knead the dough using the stand mixer on medium low to medium (speed 2 of 10) for 10 minutes or until you have a smooth ball of dough. When you stretch the dough to make it taut, it should not break (if you do this before kneading, the dough breaks).

   You can also knead by hand – it will take about 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Rise #1 (1 – 1 1/2 hours) – Remove the dough from the bowl, spray or lightly rub the bowl with oil (to stop dough from sticking). Then put the dough in a ball back in and cover with a damp tea towel (run under water, wring out tightly). Put in a warm place around 25°C/77°F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the dough rises by about 75%. Not double, that’s taking it too far (the bagels won’t rise quite as well when they bake because they were over proofed).

   The warmer the place you proof the dough, the faster it rises, but the closer you are to 25°C/77°F the better, and it’s better to be too cold than too hot. If it’s too hot (~28°C/82.4°F+) the dough will rise too fast which compromises flavour development and can make the dough overproof and be more fragile so the bagels don’t rise as well. So don’t put the bowl right next to a hot heater to speed things up – speaking from experience here!

   If it’s not warm enough and it’s not rising, move it to a warmer place. It’s ok if it takes longer than 1 1/2 hours to rise by 75%. (see FAQ for practical suggestions, what’s too hot and what’s too cold).

2. shape into bagels and rise #2

There are two common ways to shape bagels – roll the dough into a rope and join the ends, or pierce a ball through the middle and stretch the hole, which is the method we use. No matter how thoroughly we pinched and rolled, we could never consistently fully seal the seam with the rope method, and it would open up when baked.

Besides, the hole stretching method is more fun – you’ll see!

1. 8 balls – Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces (see tip). Flatten each piece to about 2cm / 0.8″ thick then gather the sides in like a money-bag to form a ball – this makes the skin taut so the bagels have a smooth, neat surface (the stretched side becomes the presentation side of the bagel). Pinch to seal then place seam-side down and roll firmly to seal the seams (you can fix the seam as you roll if necessary). Repeat with all balls.

   Tip: An easy way to divide the dough evenly is to pat it into a thick round disc, then cut it into 8 equal wedges. If you want to be super accurate, use scales to make each piece 125g / 4.4 oz – you’ll have a tiny bit of dough left over.

2. Rest 10 minutes – Leave the balls on the counter and cover with a damp tea towel. Rest for 10 minutes. This relaxes the dough so they can be shaped into bagels. If you don’t, the dough will be too springy and keep shrinking back as you try to stretch it.

3. Bagel shaping – Flatten the ball lightly into a disc ~2.5cm/1″ thick.

4. Bagel shaping (continued) – Place in your hand and pierce a hole in the middle using your thumb and index finger. Then rotate the bagel using both your index fingers to increase the hole size to 4cm (1.6″).

   Note: the dough will spring back and the hole shrinks as the bagels rise and cook. So make the hole bigger than you think. But don’t be tempted to make the whole TOO big because this will make the ring too thin and can tear the dough, which will prevent it from rising properly.

5. Place each bagel on an individual piece of baking paper*. Repeat to with remaining balls. Then put them in two pans or baking dishes at least 4cm / 1.6″ deep (standard 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13″ baking pan is ideal) and cover with cling wrap. Or, use large plastic containers with a lid. Make sure the bagels are at least 3 cm / 1.2″ apart, so they have space to expand.

   * We use individual pieces of paper for ease of handling when placing in the water to poach, to avoid denting the bagels with your fingers.

6. Cooking now option (30 minute proofing) – Place the pans in a warm location and let them proof for 20 – 30 minutes until they increase by around 30%.

7. 24 hour cold proofing (for serious New York-style Bagels) – Place the pans in the refrigerator for 24 hours. They will only rise by about 15 – 20%. These bagels will have sourdough-like blistering on the surface and even better flavour that you can only get from long, slow cold proofing. There’s no shortcuts here!

   Note: Don’t go much beyond 24 hours. If you do, the bagels will overproof. We found anywhere between 20 and 26 hours is safe. By 48 hours (even 36 hours), we found the bagels did not rise as well because they had over-proofed.

3. POACHING (NOT BOILING) and baking

The terminology “boiling bagels” is commonly used to describe this step but it’s really important to NOT boil them but rather poach them gently. If you boil – and I have made the mistake of doing so – the bagels will overproof in the water so they will deflate when baked.

So we use the term “poach” rather than boil, to emphasise how important it is!

Poaching the bagels in water with baking soda before baking is what gives them their signature chewy crust and helps with browning, while a touch of honey adds subtle sweetness and even more colour. We tried molasses, treacle and golden syrup – honey was the best!

1. Bagel poaching water – Put the water, baking soda and honey in a large pot at least 24cm / 10″ wide and bring it to a boil over high heat. Then lower heat to medium high so it’s simmering gently – the surface should be rippling with some tiny bubbles coming up from the base but not giant boiling bubbles (too strong, the bagels will poof up too quickly too much and then deflate in the oven and come out bit wrinkly – not a disaster, they are still enjoyable but not as good as they could be!).

2. Poach 2 minutes – Remember, poaching rather than boiling, boiling is too strong! Using the paper, drop two bagels in top side down (ie. use paper to gently flip the bagels in upside down, then peel the paper off). The bagels will be slightly stuck to the paper so they won’t drop in and splash.

   Poach for 1 minute per side, using a spider or a slotted spatula to flip, then drain on a wire rack. The water should not be bubbling nor foamy – if it is, the heat is too strong so reduce it.

   Note: If you did the overnight cold-proofing, poach the bagels straight out of the fridge ie. don’t bring them to room temperature first. It can mess with how they rise (we tried).

3. Sprinkle (if using) – Lightly whisk the egg white and water together to loosen. As soon as you place the first two bagels on the rack, add the next two in the water. While they are poaching, brush the top and sides of the first two bagels with the egg white mixture, then sprinkle with toppings. Repeat with remaining bagels if using.

4. Keep moving – Poach remaining bagels. Keep moving here, you want to minimise the time between boiling and baking. Now is not the time to have a gossip session with your bestie!

5. Bake – Place 4 bagels each on 2 trays lined with baking paper (parchment paper). Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven at 220°C/425°F (200°C fan-forced), swapping the tray shelves and rotating the trays at the halfway mark. The bagels should be a rich dark golden and crispy. The colour is impressive!

6. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before enjoying!

How To Eat bagels

There’s nothing like a homemade bagels are straight out of the oven! They are so heavenly all you want is a bit of butter so you can really enjoy the flavour and texture of the bagel. It tastes so superior to any bagel I’ve had outside of New York – ever. And we hunted high and low for the “best bagels in Sydney” – we’ve been on the prowl since JB started with us almost 6 years ago!

But, of course, if you want to sandwich it with classic bagel toppings you can’t beat cream cheese with smoked salmon, cucumbers, capers and red onion with dill. Just, gorgeous!

To me though, I enjoy bagels the most with butter and my favourite spread – Vegemite!! 🇦🇺 I know there are places famous for bagels overloaded with extravagant fillings and dripping with sauce, but I’m a bit of a purist when the bagel itself is this good, it seems a shame to overwhelm it with other flavours. Just give me a warm, chewy bagel with butter and Vegemite and I’m very, very happy. 🙂

Hope you love this! And once again, a massive thank you to Stephen for developing and testing this recipe. He showed some serious grit with the number of batches it took to get these bagels exactly where we wanted them – tweaking, testing, starting again, then stress testing it to see “what happens if….” and refusing to settle for “good enough”.

But enough from me. I’d love to know what you think! Any bagel connoisseurs out there?? 🙂 – Nagi x

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Watch How To Make It

Here’s a recipe video of JB making these bagels. Marvel at that gorgeous crust and the impressive chew!

Life Of Jaffle

This is called procrastination. 🤣