How is bagel made

This bagel recipe has 3 parts: the dough, the poaching liquid, and the bagel topping. Did you know that you have to boil bagels before you bake them? It gives them their signature chewy, shiny coating, and it keeps them from puffing up too much and losing their holes in the oven.

I boil them in a mix of maple syrup, baking soda, salt, and water to give them a light golden brown color, a crave-worthy chewy exterior, and a nice shiny finish. You can attach the toppings in two ways: with or without an egg wash. I think the egg wash adds an extra-delicious chew, and it helps the topping adhere better to the baked bagels.

However, you can also dip the boiled bagels directly into the topping. Without an egg wash, this bagel recipe is vegan. Ready to learn how to make bagels? Check out this step-by-step guide first, and then find the full recipe at the bottom of this post!

First, make the dough. Activate the yeast by mixing it with warm water and maple syrup. When it foams, add it to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, and mix it with the flour and salt until the dough is smooth and not sticky, about 5 to 7 minutes. Then, transfer the dough to a clean work surface and knead by hand for 2 to 3 minutes. Favorite bagel toppings vary from person to person. Depending on the day, I like a good homemade everything bagel or a poppyseed bagel.

I know many people who are partial to single toppings like minced onion or coarse salt. Whatever you like, definitely customize the toppings to match your tastes. Everything bagel seasoning, minced fresh garlic, minced fresh onion or shallot, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, coarse salt, cinnamon sugar- these are just some of the many topping options you can go with to customize the taste of your bagels.

A proper New York-Style bagel always requires a schmear. However, there are multiple ways you can serve them— all of which I have listed within this post. First, proof the yeast. To do this, you will need to add sugar and yeast into luke warm water. After about 5 minutes, the yeast will bubble up; this indicates that the mixture is ready to stir until everything is properly dissolved.

Then, mix the bagel dough together. When mixing the bagel dough, you may or may not need the entirety of the water called for in the recipe. You want the bagel dough to be moist and firm after it is mixed.

Sometimes you may need more water, depending on humidity, brand of flour, your altitude, climate, amongst many other things. Once the bagel dough has rested, you will need to deflate it. You will know it has rested enough when you poke the dough with your finger and the impression remains. If it bounces back, the bagel dough has not risen enough. Once deflated, divide the dough. It should be divided into 8 equal portions.

Feel free to use a scale or eyeball it. After that, form the bagel dough portions into rounds. This is going to sound more complicated than it is, but hold your hand in a C shape while cupping a portion of dough. Press the dough against the work surface remember to avoid flouring it and move your hand and the dough in a slow, circular motion. Allow the irregular edge of the dough to pull onto itself, while decreasing the pressure on top of the dough slightly until a perfectly smooth round ball forms.

Repeat this with the other portions. Have your eyes crossed? Now, here comes the part when we shape the bagel dough! Working gently and firmly with the dough will result in perfectly smooth bagels. Simply coat a finger with flour and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball.

Then you stretch the rings out to about a third of the diameter of the bagel and place them onto a prepared baking sheet. The bagels need a little rest in between shaping and boiling. So, while the unbaked bagels rest, bring a large pot of water to a bubbling boil. Once it has reached a boil, lower the heat to a simmer. Some folks like to use small squares of parchment that they cut up before hand— do what is most comfortable for you.

Boil as many bagels as you can comfortably fit into the pot. They will puff up quite a bit, so do keep in mind they do need some breathing room. Once in the water, the bagels will float on the top. Let them sit for 1 minute, then gently flip them over to boil for another minute on the other side. This will give them a nice crust and their signature New York-Style chew. You can go a little bit longer on the poach, as well. This will give them a stronger crust and chew— more on that in the recipe.

After boiling them, top the bagels! This is the time when you can let your creativity run free. The flour the bagel baker uses matters little-various recipes call for bread flour, regular flour, bromated flour, whole wheat flour, and rye flour. Some call for a pinch of sugar to assist the yeast in rising. Of course, the flavor of the bagel determines the remainder of the ingredients. This can vary from maple syrup, to jalapenos, to walnuts. The flavors are only as limited as one's imagination.

The design and marketing of commercial bagel bakeries is extensive. Many bagel bakeries bring in competitors' bagels for blind survey by the general populous. These guests are served a variety of bagels and asked as series of questions regarding important characteristics of bagels including texture, chewiness density , flavor, value, and fat and nutritional content. Answers to these questions help the bagel bakery determine the direction of product development.

These bakeries cannot produce an infinite number of flavors within their facilities. Thus, these taste surveys help the bakeries determine the bagel flavors they will offer to the public. Customer surveys and continual blind tastings insure that the companies can offer the consumer what he or she is looking for in a bagel. The bagel franchises prepare bagel dough and bake them in a variety of ways. Essentially, the dough must be created with the raw ingredients, the yeast must rise, the bagels likely stored for some period of time before baking as it is unlikely a new batch is made each time bagels are baked , and the then the bagels boiled and baked.

Some bagel bakery chains make the dough in regional commissaries in very large quantities-they mix the ingredients, form the bagels, activate the yeast, then cool it for storage until it is ready to be transported to small bakeries which produce the fresh, hot bagels. Thus, all but the baking of the bagels occurs at the regional commissaries. Here we'll look at this method of fresh bagel baking in which bagels are mixed and formed in one place and then sent to the store for baking.

An automatic stomper forms the raw bagel. After kettling, the bagels are baked. Watch Claire walk through the whole process on YouTube. Tip: For the crustiest, chewiest bagels, use bread flour. However, you can still achieve good results with all-purpose flour. Just try to use a brand with a relatively high protein content. Tip: When measured by volume, Morton salt packs more densely than Diamond, making it about twice as salty.

For consistent measurements across brands, either weigh it with a scale, or use half the volume of Morton. Scale optional but recommended , a small bowl, a large mixing bowl, flexible spatula or wooden spoon, bench scraper, two large rimmed baking sheets, parchment paper, plastic wrap, a spider or slotted spoon, tea towel, a large Dutch oven, several separate large plates if topping bagels , wire rack and a serrated knife.

Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Whisk in 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup and the packet of yeast until both dissolve. Let sit until the mixture foams, about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, combine bread flour and salt and whole-wheat flour, if using , and make a well in the center. Knead the mixture in the bowl several times, continuously folding it over and onto itself and pressing down firmly to bring it together in a solid mass, then turn it out onto a clean work surface.

Continue kneading until there are no dry spots, then, adding more flour only if needed to prevent stubborn sticking, until you have a stiff but very smooth dough that is still slightly tacky, 15 to 20 minutes. Tip: This amount of kneading, necessary to develop the gluten for a chewy bagel, is best done by hand, since the motor of the average stand mixer would strain against the very stiff dough.

Gather the dough into a ball, dust it lightly with flour, and place it in a large, clean bowl, seam-side down.