What is the best homemade bagel recipe? How do I make bagels at home? Check out my 2021 updated guide to making the best homemade bagels…
Is there a better way to start the day than with a fresh bagel? I certainly don’t think so.
A delicious canvas that allows whatever spread you have on hand to dance across it, a bagel is a beautiful breakfast.
Still, unlike more orthodox bread, we don’t really see home cooks attempting to make them all too often. Given their glamorous nature, strewn across the bustling streets of New York, perhaps people fear they’re too difficult to make.
Well, as much as I sympathize with that viewpoint, they couldn’t be more wrong.
Indeed, you can quite easily whip up a low-fat bagel at home in order to battle those mid-morning desires. We’ve all been there, after all. You can start the day right with some healthy cereal, or a bowl of fruit with fat-free yogurt, but your stomach starts rumbling and you dive into something that ruins your good work.
So, the point of this recipe is to help out. Boasting only 40g of carbohydrates and 1g of fat, these homemade bagels are absolutely glorious, offering you a fresh start to the day without compromising on flavor.
Table of Contents
Homemade Bagel : The Recipe
Homemade Bagel : Cooking Time
- Preparation time: 30 minutes
- Cooking time: 30 minutes
- Total: 60 minutes (1 hour)
- Servings: 10 bagels
Homemade Bagel: The Ingredients
- 7g sachet dried yeast
- 4 tablespoons of caster sugar
- 2 tablespoons of salt
- A handful of seeds (poppy, fennel, sesame)
- Cracked black pepper to taste
- 450g bread flour
Homemade Bagel: Step-By-Step Guide
- Pour the yeast and one tablespoon of caster sugar into a large mixing bowl.
- Then, pour 100ml of warm water on top
- Leave that for ten minutes, until what is in the bowl gets frothy
- After waiting, pour 200ml more warm water into the bowl
- Stir in salt and half the flour
- Keep adding the rest of the flour while mixing with your hands until you have a soft dough
- Knead for ten minutes, until the dough is smooth
- Shape that into a ball
- Leave that ball of dough in a lightly oiled (olive oil) bowl
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave for an hour
- By then, it should have doubled in size
- Pre-heat your oven to 220C (or 430F)
- While the oven heats, divide your dough into ten separate pieces
- Lightly flour your work surface
- Shape each piece into a ball then flatten with your palm
- Pierce a hole in the middle with a wooden spoon
- Place the spoon in the middle of the dough
- Twist bagel mixture around the spoon to make a hole that goes through the dough
- Cover each bagel with plastic wrap while you finish each piece
- Boil a large pan of water
- Pour in remaining sugar
- Place bagels into boiling water (don’t overcrowd)
- Cook in water for one to two minutes (turning constantly)
- Remove and drain on paper towel
- Sprinkle your choice of seeds
- Place on baking paper
- Place on baking tray
- Bake for twenty-five minutes
- Leave to cool on a wire rack
Phew, so we got there in the end.
As you can see, it’s pretty easy but there are a lot of steps. Nothing too taxing, no, but a lot of things to remember. However, DON’T let that put you off. It’s effectively just like making any dough but then you must cook that in boiling water to get the desired effect before placing them in the oven.
Homemade Bagel: Pro Tips
- Beat an egg and brush it onto the dough mixture before it goes into the oven to give a glossy finish
- Use a coarse salt in your mixture to give a more rustic feel, giving a more pronounced flavor when biting into the bagel
- MIx up the seeds! Use half poppy seeds and half sesame seeds for a balance (or whatever combination you’d like to)
- When it comes to mixing together the dough ingredients, do so slowly. That way, more air is incorporated and will result in a fluffier texture.
- Make sure your dough mixture has enough water. The more water you include, the crispier the outer layer of your bagel will be!
- Add sprinkles of cinnamon or nutmeg before baking! Those spice tones will sing once baked! Even things like garlic, anchovy paste or cayenne pepper will lift the level of your bagels
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can you freeze homemade bagels?
Sure! These can be frozen (though I’d advise you to wrap them in a bag first to avoid the dough breaking) for up to 3 months. It’s important to remember, however, to thaw these out in the refrigerator for a few hours before baking again.
- Do I have to use homemade bagels quickly?
Unless you’re planning on freezing them obviously, then yes it’s important to use your bagels within days. If left for much longer than that, they’ll harden up!
- How do I store homemade bagels?
Again, providing your plan isn’t to freeze them, make sure to put your bagels in a bag and put them on the side in your kitchen. Keeping them at room temperature might not sound like a good idea and all, but the key is to avoid the refrigerator at all costs. If you put them in there, they’ll harden up even faster.
- How do I stop my bagels from getting moldy?
The name of the game here is to try and keep your bagels away from moisture in the air. With that in mind, roll them up tightly in a bag in order to shut them out from the world. Effectively, make your own little bread bin!
Alternatively, you can squeeze a drop of lemon juice if you’re looking to use them relatively quickly, much as you’d do with an avocado.
Recommended Cookware
The good thing is, there isn’t a huge amount of cookware you need to start buying in order to get delicious homemade bagels. That’s the joy of baking, to be honest. A few wise of investments at the start of your journey should pretty much sort you out, so make sure you get it right.
Wire rack
You might think you can cool your dishes on pretty much everything and, while that is true to a certain extent, you’ll never get the benefits of a wire rack.
As simple as they are, they allow the air to completely circulate around the foodstuff on it, meaning your bagels (or whatever else you’ve baked) will cool quicker and more efficiently than leaving it on the countertop.
Baking tray
Stainless steel trays don’t create chemicals when placed in the oven at high temperatures so they’re safe to use. Indeed, they’re also crafted in a way to allow hot air to circulate evenly, making sure everything is cooked at the same place.
Easy to clean in that they sit in a dishwasher care-free, baking trays are absolutely essential.
Large bowl
Something like a 5-quart mixing bowl is a lifesaver. The whole point in making dough is allowing it to expand and breathe, so limiting the space in which it can do that defeats your main objective here.
Homemade Bagels: Final Thoughts and Conclusions
It seems like a lot, we know.
But all you’re really doing here is making a dough, blasting it in some boiling water and then baking them. Pretty simple stuff when you think about it!
Absolutely lovely stuff and so rewarding. These easy-to-make homemade bagels really lift the mood in the morning and, crucially, are really rather healthy. They’ll stave off mid-morning hunger pains and leave you satisfied for the day ahead.
The exciting bit here is that they are only half-done too! You’ve made yourself a lovely little pillow ready to offer any spread or seed the fluffiest bed in which to sit, with the filing being your choice!
We’ve given you the tools put you are the artist here. Anything that tickles your fancy will taste amazing in these.
An absolutely amazing thing to make, all you need to do is to get yourself the right baking tools.
Amazing!