New York Style Bagels
Homemade bagels with a tender crumb and crispy exterior, perfect for breakfast or lunch
Homemade bagels with a tender crumb and crispy exterior, perfect for breakfast or lunch
- Carbohydrate 0 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 0 g
- Saturated Fat 0 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (0g)
- Sodium 0 mg
- Sugar 0 g
- Trans Fat 0 g
- Calories 0 calories
Step-by-step
- In ½ cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture, until it all dissolves in the water.
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.
- Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed. Depending on where you live, you may need to add anywhere from a couple tablespoons to about ¼ cup of water. You want to result in a moist and firm dough after you have mixed it.
- On a floured countertop, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working in as much flour as possible to form a firm and stiff dough.
- Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and let it rest for another 10 minutes
- Carefully divide the dough into 8 pieces (I used a scale to be extra precise, but it’s not necessary). Shape each piece into a round. Now, take a dough ball, and press it gently against the countertop (or whatever work surface you’re using) moving your hand and the ball in a circular motion pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on top of the dough slightly until a perfect dough ball forms (as pictured below). Repeat with 7 other dough rounds.
- Coat a finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about ? the diameter of the bagel and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Repeat the same step with the remaining dough.
- After shaping the dough rounds and placing them on the cookie sheet, cover with a damp kitchen towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425ºF / 220ºC / Gas Mark 7.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce the heat. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as you are comfortable with boiling. Once the bagels are in, it shouldn’t take too long for them to float to the top (a couple seconds). Let them sit there for 1 minute, and them flip them over to boil for another minute. Extend the boiling times to 2 minutes each, if you’d prefer a chewier bagel (results will give you a more New York Style bagel with this option).
- If you want to top your bagels with stuff, do so as you take them out of the water, you may use the “optional toppings†(listed above) to top the bagels and if you’re risky like me, make a combination of the toppings to top the bagels with, but before hand, you will need to use an egg wash to get the toppings to stick before putting the bagels into the oven.
- Once all the bagels have boiled (and have been topped with your choice of toppings), transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack (or if you’re impatient like I am, slice one of these babies open, and spread some softened butter on it. Take a bite… Oh babyyy!
Operating on a strict budget of pantry staples requires flour, water, yeast, and salt to perform multiple duties without relying on specialty improvers. High-gluten flour is non-negotiable here because lower protein thresholds fail to generate the resilient gluten network required to withstand boiling water without dissolving. Ten minutes of aggressive manual kneading builds the structural integrity necessary for that characteristic chew, anchoring the dough so it can rise to double its volume over a standard sixty-minute primary fermentation window.
Starch gelatinization occurs rapidly when the shaped rings hit simmering water, locking in the exterior crust before the interior crumb finishes expanding in a 425 degrees Fahrenheit oven. While fresh boiling yields optimal results on day one, stale batches benefit immensely from a quick splash of water followed by a brief toast in a dry skillet, which revives the gelatinized exterior without toughening the center. Starches retrograding over a forty-eight hour window cause staleness, but moisture replenishment reverses this staling process effectively.
