Baking Tips for Bagels

There are recipes out there that take up to 2 days, but you can get the same results using this quick and easy recipe.

• Flour: All-purpose flour works fine with this recipe. If you want even chewier bagels, use bread flour. They will taste the same but the bread flour will make it chewier.
• Water for yeast: Use water that is between 105 and 115 degrees to activate your yeast. If it’s too hot or too cold your yeast won’t grow.
• Yeast: Both active and instant yeast work beautifully with this dough. I like activating the yeast before adding the ingredients because I can tell if it’s good or not. If your water is a good temperature, but your yeast isn’t bubbling it’s probably gone bad. Get new yeast and start again.
• Boil: Boiling the bagels will give it the classic chewy shiny exterior we have all come to love in a bagel. Adding the honey helps it brown and crisp. You can omit the honey if you want or substitute it for brown sugar. Do not over crowd the water when boiling and keep the water at a low boil, not a hard boil to help avoid wrinkles in your bagels.
• Parchment or Oiled Pan: The last thing you want is your beautiful bagels to stick to the pan. Use parchment paper or a well-oiled pan to bake them.
• Toppings: You do not need an egg wash to get your toppings to stick. As soon as you take the bagels out, they will be tacky, perfect for toppings to stick.

Shaping Into Circles

When it comes to shaping their isn’t a wrong way really, as long as they have that classic hole in the middle. I’ll give you two ways here.

• Roll it long: One way to shape bagels is to roll the sections into a long rope, not too thin and not too thick. Take the ends and overlap them slightly and roll back and forth to form a bond. This gives that classic bagel look where one end of the bagel is thicker and one is thinner.
• Roll it into a ball: This is the method I used and find it to be the easiest. Roll the sections of dough into nice uniformly shaped balls. With your thumb push through the dough till you meet your index finger on the other side. Pull and stretch the bagel shape till you have a large hole. It will rise and close both when you let it rest and boil it, so it’s ok to have a large hole.

How to Store Baked Bagels

If these don’t disappear in minutes, store them to eat later.

• Store: Keep leftover bagels at room temperature tightly sealed in a plastic bag for up to 4 days, or in the fridge for 7 days. Toast them when ready to eat.
• Freezer: Tightly wrap the bagels individually and place them in a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Let them thaw at room temperature, toast, and top as desired.

Bagel Variations

Besides the classic Everything seasoning and poppyseeds, you can get creative and top your bagels in many different ways. As well as add flavors to the dough to mix up the flavors.

• Cheese: Add asiago, cheddar, or other cheese of choice to the dough when you add the flour. Top the bagel with shredded cheese before baking.
• Cinnamon and Sugar: Add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the flour and then make up a cinnamon and sugar topping to add before to the bagel before baking.
• Salt: Use coarse salt to top the bagel. Adjust to your liking.
• Seeds: Besides poppyseeds, you can use sesame seeds or even sunflower seeds to top your bagel. I like to add sunflower seeds to the dough as well.

Every country, every culture has its take on bread, but everyone has some. It is a staple in diets for a reason. It is filling, made with basic easy to get ingredients, and goes with just about everything. Bread comes in all sorts of shapes, and flavors using a variety of ingredients.  Bread is comfort food for a reason. When the bread is homemade, right out of the oven and slathered in butter or your favorite topping it’s divine. It fills the belly and soul. Baking bread for many too is a form of art and relaxation. Whether or not that is true for you, I have bread recipes you have to try.

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes