New York Classic Bagels

These bagels are very tasty—their chewy texture, soft, springy inside, and malty-yeasty flavor are all irresistible.

Video: How to Make New York Bagels:

Let’s clear something up right away: New York City isn’t the only place in the world to get decent, authentic bagels. The truth is, you can make bagels that are just as good at home, no matter where you live. 

With this easy and authentic homemade bagel recipe, you can make a classic New York Bagel sandwich in your own kitchen with some very basic ingredients.

These bagels are one of the simplest bread to make, requiring only flour, water, salt, yeast, and malt—and one secret ingredient: time (in the form of long, slow, cold fermentation). 

Patience and perseverance pay off. You’ll notice several periods of work and rest in this recipe; these encourage the full, complex flavors that only time and fermenting yeast can provide. The end result is just what you imagine: a kitchen filled with the incredible aroma of homemade bread and that deep satisfaction you get only from making something from scratch. Oh, and a ridiculously delicious breakfast. And a house full of adoring fans. And fresh bagels for days.

Let’s Make Bagels from Scratch:

The 1st step to make the bagel is a lean and elastic dough.  Mostly bagel shops often use a type of high-protein flour not available to home cooks to achieve that distinctively chewy texture but regular, unbleached bread flour can also do the trick. If you cannot get the unbleached bread flour you can use all-purpose flour instead.

The real key is to use a much lower percentage of water than is used in the kneading of any other dough.

Bagels do usually feature one other distinctive ingredient: barley malt. While this may seem like an exotic, hard-to-find product, it’s actually commonly available at most supermarkets, usually labeled “barley malt syrup.” If you can’t find it, simply substitute an equal amount of honey or brown sugar. Your bagels might not have that malty flavor, but they’ll still be better than almost any bagel you can buy. 

Take lukewarm water at 90 F and add in brown sugar and instant yeast. Mix it and let it proof for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes when the mixture foams up, add that yeast in bread flour and salt.

Combine all of the dough ingredients and knead vigorously for 15 minutes. Since we’re using a high-protein bread flour here, it takes a bit more effort and time to develop the gluten. The dough will be quite stiff.

Make sure you don’t use extra water, oil and extra flour. with the vigorous kneading the dough will become elastic and smooth.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and set it aside to rise until it’s noticeably puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

How to Shape Bagels:

Transfer the dough to a work surface, and divide it into eight pieces (for large bagels), or 12 pieces (for standard-size bagels).

Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a smooth, round ball. Place the balls on one of the prepared baking sheets. Cover the balls with plastic wrap, and let them rest for 30 minutes. They’ll puff up very slightly.

Use your index finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it’s about 1 1/2″ to 2″ in diameter. Place six bagels on each of the baking sheets.

Bagel Water Bath:

More than any ingredient or other aspects of the method, this boiling step is what defines the uniqueness of the bagel.  While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water, malt, and sugar to a very gentle boil in a large, wide-diameter pan.

Transfer the bagels, two at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gently simmering boil, if necessary. Cook the bagels for 1 minute, flip them over, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.

Preheat your oven to 425°F or 200°C. Brush egg wash on bagels and sprinkle seasoning on top.

Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they’re as deep brown as you like. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely.

I enjoyed these extra delicious bagels with homemade cream cheese, you can also make creamy and rich cream cheese very easily at home by following this recipe.

Homemade New York Bagels

Ayesha These bagels are very tasty—their chewy texture, soft, springy inside, and malty-yeasty flavor are all irresistible. Video: How to Make New York… Breads New York Bagels American Print This

Serves: 8 Prep Time: 30M Cooking Time: 30M 30M

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 tablespoon or 9 grams instant yeast
• 4 cups or 482 grams Unbleached Bread Flour*
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon or 14 grams non-diastatic malt powder or brown sugar, or barley malt syrup
• 1-1/3 cups or 303 grams lukewarm water

Water bath

• 2 litter or 1814 grams of water
• 2 tablespoons or 28 grams non-diastatic malt powder or brown sugar or barley malt syrup
• 1 tablespoon or14 grams granulated sugar

Bagels Seasoning

• 2 tablespoons dried garlic flakes
• 2.5 tablespoons dried onion flakes
• 1.5 tablespoons white sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon flakey salt or kosher salt (ideally flakey)

*You can use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour but bread flour is highly recommended.

Instructions

1. Combine flour and salt. Take lukewarm water at 90 F and add in brown sugar and instant yeast. Mix it and let it proof for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes when the mixture foams up, add that yeast in bread flour and salt. Knead vigorously for 15 minutes (if you're kneading by hand).  The dough will be quite stiff but with time it will become elastic and smooth.

2. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and set it aside to rise until it's noticeably puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

3. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line them with parchment and grease the parchment. Transfer the dough to a work surface, and divide it into eight pieces.

4. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a smooth, round ball. Place the balls on one of the prepared baking sheets. Cover the balls with plastic wrap, and let them rest for 30 minutes. They'll puff up very slightly.

5. While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water, malt, and sugar to a very gentle boil in a large, wide-diameter pan. Preheat your oven to 425°F.

6. Use your index finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it's about 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter. 

7. Transfer the bagels, two at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gently simmering boil, if necessary. Cook the bagels for 1 minute, flip them over, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.

8. Prepare the bagel seasoning in a bowl. Brush egg washes on each bagel and sprinkles seasoning on top.

9. Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they're as deep brown as you like. Remove the bagels from the oven, and cool completely on a rack.

Tips:

• Want to make cinnamon-raisin bagels? Knead about 2/3 cup of raisins into the dough toward the end of the kneading process. Just before you're done the kneading, sprinkle your work surface heavily with cinnamon-sugar, and give the dough a few more turns; it'll pick up the cinnamon-sugar in irregular swirls. Divide the dough into pieces, form each piece into a ball, and roll each ball in additional cinnamon-sugar. Proceed to let rest and shape as directed above.