Description
Are you craving some delicious, chewy New York-Style Bagels? Well, look no further, these homemade bagels are simply the best. They’re super flavorful and have a nice golden, toothsome crust. The perks of making these bagels from home are that you get them hot and fresh! There’s nothing better than schmearing cream cheese over a fresh-baked bagel.
Ingredients
Scale
- 30g (2 tablespoons) – barley malt syrup, see notes https://amzn.to/2WxRFeg
- 5g (1 1/2 teaspoon) – active dry yeast
- 355g (1 1/2 cups) – warm water
- 625g (5 cups) – bread flour
- 15g (1 tablespoon) – vital wheat gluten, see notes https://amzn.to/3DufXGu (optional, sub for 15g more of bread flour)
- 10g (2 teaspoons) – salt
- Toppings, use whatever you want! I used King Arthur’s Everything Bagel Seasoning https://amzn.to/3Bj2mQE
Poaching Solution:
- 1 tablespoon – barley malt syrup https://amzn.to/2WxRFeg
- 1 tablespoon – baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon – salt
Equipment:
- Food scale, very important to have https://amzn.to/3mVhAYj
- Stand Mixer https://amzn.to/2Wro2eM
- Bowl cover
- Bench scraper https://amzn.to/3mDrFsF
- Parchment paper or silicone mat https://amzn.to/3DjJ5jM
- 1–2 baking sheets
- Plastic wrap or turkey size oven bags, see notes
- Large pot
- Slotted spoon
- Wire cooling rack
Instructions
The evening before:
Making the dough:
- In a small bowl, mix the barley malt syrup, and water until well combined. Then add in the yeast, stir to dissolve. Allow the yeast to bloom and get frothy for about 10 minutes. See notes.
- Meanwhile, in a bowl of a stand mixer, add in the bread flour, vital wheat gluten, and salt. Mix to combine.
- When your yeast mixture is ready, add it to the dry ingredients.
- With the dough hook attachment, mix all the ingredients at the lowest speed until it forms a shaggy dough. Switch the speed to 2 (or medium-low) and continue to knead for another 10 minutes until you get a smooth dough ball. You should get a stiff, satiny dough. It shouldn’t be sticky at all.
- Transfer your dough onto a work surface (no flour dusting needed) and lightly knead it into a smooth ball.
- Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl, and cover with a damp cloth or bowl cover. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- While you wait, prep 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat mat, and lightly spray it with oil. Also, make some space in your fridge for the baking sheets to fit.
- When your dough is done rising, punch down the dough and measure out 10 equal-sized pieces. You can eyeball this, but for accuracy use a food scale. Shape each piece into a round ball.
Shaping:
Hole Punch Method:
- Work with one dough ball at a time, and cover the rest with a damp kitchen towel. This will prevent the dough from drying out.
- Poke a hole through the center of the dough ball. Use both your index fingers to rotate and gradually stretch to create a hole that will fit 4 fingers or bigger. As it rises and bakes, the hole will get smaller.
- Place each shaped bagel on the prepared baking pan, leaving about an inch of space in between.
- Brush or spray light coating of oil over the surface of the bagels.
- Cover the entire pan with plastic wrap or sheet pan cover. I like to use a turkey size oven bag, and I just reuse it.
- Place them in the fridge overnight, 10-12 hours. See notes
The Next Day:
Poaching and bake:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F, and have your toppings prepped on the side.
- Fill a large pot with water, at least 4-inches deep. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Add in the poaching liquid ingredients, the barley malt syrup, baking soda, and salt. Stir until completely dissolved.
- Remove the bagels from the fridge, working in batches of 2-3, carefully lower each bagel into the poaching liquid. They should be floating, see notes.
- Boil the bagels for 1 minute on each side.
- With a slotted spoon, remove the bagel from the poaching liquid and place the bagels on 1-2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle your desired toppings as soon as the bagels come out of the water. Repeat for the rest of the bagels.
- Once the bagels have been boiled, place them in the oven to bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove baking sheets from the oven and carefully transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Serve and enjoy! Best served within a couple of days, but you can also place them in the freezer once they are completely cooled.
Notes
- Use barley malt syrup. I know, this is quite a unique ingredient, but it gives the bagels that classic flavor and the beautiful golden brown color. But, as always if you don’t want to go out of your way to buy this, you can sub it in for molasses.
- Vital Wheat Gluten? I like to add a touch more protein to my bagels, to make them chewy. You don’t need to add this, you can skip and add in an equal amount of bread flour.
- Having a food scale is important to this recipe. The measurements are exact to the gram. Unfortunately, cup measurements will not give you the same consistent results. A food scale will always give you consistent results every time, you’ll have fewer dishes to clean, and they’re very inexpensive. This is the one that I use in my kitchen: https://amzn.to/3mVhAYj
- If that doesn’t convince you to get a food scale, then you can check this video on how to properly measure using cups. However, please keep in mind that this is not a guarantee that this method will give you exact measurements.
- You’ll need a cover big enough to cover the pan as the bagels do a cold fermentation in the fridge. I like using oven bags since they are meant to fit a baking pan.
- Use a stand-mixer. This dough is low hydration and stiff, so use a quality stand mixer. Lower quality mixers might burn out the motors. You can knead this by hand, but it’ll be a workout, and it’ll take about 30 minutes or more of constant kneading.
- How can you tell if your yeast is active? If you notice that your yeast isn’t getting frothy or bubbly, then your yeast is most likely dead. You will need to purchase a new one to move forward.
- This recipe will need time to do a 10-12-hour cold fermentation. Meaning, it’ll do the second rise in the fridge. Doing a long cold fermentation enhances the texture and flavor of the bagels.
- If you’re worried about your bagels not floating, you can test it out. Prep a medium-sized bowl and fill it up with cold water. Take one bagel and gently place it in the water, if it’s floating then you are ready to boil them. If they are not, place them back in the fridge for another 2-3 hours and test again.
Keywords: bread recipe, bread, bagels, new york-style bagels, everything seasoning, cream cheese, toppings, vegan bagels, vegan bread recipe, vegan bread
