Easy Homemade Bagel Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes the perfect bagel? ›

Ingredients for Homemade Bagels:

You can use all-purpose flour if you absolutely must, but the texture will suffer. Instant yeast – You can also use active dry yeast, just note your dough may take longer to rise. Learn more about active dry vs. instant yeast here. Fine sea salt – You can also use table salt.

Homemade bagels are irresistibly chewy, and boast a crisp, golden-brown exterior. They taste fresher and more flavorful than anything you can buy. You can get endlessly creative with toppings and mix-ins. Unlike other from-scratch breads, they require just a handful of staple ingredients, and no special equipment.

Unless you've purchased a fresh-baked bagel - meaning less than six hours old - you'll want to toast your bagel before eating it. Place your bagel in an oven set to 375 °F (191 °C) for 4-5 minutes. Toasting your bagel before slicing it will give your bagel a crisp exterior, and moist, chewy center.

Bread flour – Because of its high protein content, bread flour makes these homemade bagels delightfully chewy. This recipe also works with all-purpose flour, they're just a bit less chewy than bagels made with bread flour.

Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour runs between 12-14%. High-gluten flour is best for bagels AND pizza crust. In our house, sometimes we even combine the two! Jeff Perera tried several flours while perfecting the bagel-making process.

Using cold pizza dough straight from the fridge will yield a denser, chewier bagel. If you let the dough come to room temperature before baking, the bagels will have a more breadlike texture.

This is a sign of over proofing, and when this happened, I ended up with flat bagels (see photo above). Over proofed dough will lose its strength too early and cause the bagels to deflate either during the second rise or while cooking. To correct this, try to find a warm, — not hot — spot to rise your dough.

Both bagels and bread contain yeast, flour, water, and sugar. However, many bagel recipes use barley malt syrup, a grain-based sweetener, instead of granulated sugar. Bagels also generally contain less water and more flour compared to other bread types, which is why bagels are denser than typical slices of bread.

Add honey and baking soda to boiling water in a large pot. This will help give the bagels a nice sheen and golden brown color when out of the oven. Add a few bagels at a time to the pot, making sure they're not crowded. They should float immediately when added to the water.

Why are New York bagels so much better? ›

The New York Water and Local Ingredients

Much like a specific vineyard terroir is used to make a wine, certain minerals in New York City tap water are attributed to creating the best bagels. These include low concentrations of calcium and magnesium and a high level of sediment.

HOW LONG DO FRESH BAGELS LAST? Fresh bagels are best eaten on the same day they're baked. When stored at room temperature in a paper bag, fresh bagels can last for about two to three days. Fresh bagels can last for about three to four months when stored in the freezer, and thawed in a toaster.

Moreira: Usually if you get dense bagels, it's because they were underproofed. But it could also be that your yeast is bad. When you're at home using dry yeast—especially if you don't use it that often—you should always bloom the yeast in a little bit of sugar and water to make sure it's active.

Bagels, like pretzels, are boiled first to create a crunchy exterior. Bagels are boiled in water usually 30 to 60 seconds before hitting the oven. This boiling causes the starch on the exterior of the bread to gel and create a barrier from the interior dough.

Boiling breads like bagels and pretzels effectively sets the crust before it goes in the oven. The water doesn't actually penetrate very far into the bread because the starch on the exterior quickly gels and forms a barrier. Bagels are typically boiled for 30-60 seconds on each side.

The thing that differentiates bagels from other breads is the lack of fluff and air — you want them dense and chewy. To achieve that, don't let your dough get too puffy while proofing.

An everything bagel is a type of bagel baked with a mix of toppings. The exact ingredients vary, but recipes often include garlic flakes, onion flakes, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and kosher salt. The bagels are made with regular dough and the name is independent of additional fillings such as cream cheese.

A New York–style bagel is always boiled in water that has had barley malt added, which gives a bagel its signature taste, texture, and leathery skin.

A bagel is its very own creation with its chewy texture, malty flavour, and goodness to the last bite. A good bagel is made with strong bread flour that has a higher protein content to enhance the gluten formation in the dough. This contributes to the bagel's chewy texture.