Homemade Bagel Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What flour is best for bagels? ›

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. Maple syrup – It activates the yeast and gives the bagels a hint of sweetness.

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.

Make sure you use only baking soda and not baking powder. The baking soda helps the bagels form that beautiful golden crust and give them the distinct bagels taste. Use bread flour instead if you want, or any high-gluten flour, this will help create more glen in the 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.

If your dough is too wet, it'll create large holes in the crumb of the dough and your bagels will be more like French bread, with a fluffy interior (see top photo). When too much flour is kneaded in, bagels become dense, hard and tough, instead of crisp and chewy.

A brief boil gives bagels a thin and fairly elastic crust that will still allow the bagels rise quite a bit in the oven, resulting in a softer texture. A longer boil and a thicker crust prevents the bagel from rising very much at all, giving you a very dense interior.

Usually, one standard ball of pizza dough will make about 4 large or 6 mini bagels, but this recipe is all about eyeballing, so don't overthink. The dough you buy is already proofed, so it is just about forming, boiling, and baking!

Well yes, lye can do that but did you also know it is used to make bagels? Some bakers will dip the bagel in a lye solution as it speeds up the process that creates the distinctive bagel crust and taste.

Should you sift flour for bagels? ›

Sift flour into a large bowl. Mix in sugar, yeast and 11/2tsp fine salt. Add melted butter to a jug with 325ml lukewarm water. In one go, add butter mixture to flour bowl and mix quickly to a rough dough.

According to Molly, “If the bagels proof too much, they'll deflate in the water bath.” If you're keeping an eye on your dough, she advises pulling it a little too early rather than a little too late (and definitely before they double in size), as it's better to be underproofed.

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.

Ever wondered why bagels have holes in the middle? The basic shape is hundreds of years old and serves lots of practical advantages besides an even cooking and baking of the dough. The hole also allowed them to be threaded or piled high on a dowel which made them easier to transport and display.

Bread Flour

This comes in handy when baking yeasted breads because of the strong gluten content required to make the bread rise properly. Bread flour makes for a better volume and a chewier crumb with your bakes. Bread flour is best used for: artisan breads, yeast breads, bagels, pretzels, and pizza dough.

As we've already discussed — bagel dough is a low-hydration dough and we want it to be stiff, smooth, and not sticky at all. Working with bread flour will help you get those truly optimal results. That said, you absolutely can use plain old regular all purpose flour to make your bagels.

“AP flour can be used in the making of rich or enriched breads such as soft rolls, or brioche,” says Chef Stephen, which are meant to be softer in nature, rather than crusty.

Bagels traditionally use a dough made with high gluten flour and a slightly lower hydration (ie less water) than most bread, especially for that kind of flour. Here's the baker's % for bagels from Hamelman's Bread: High Gluten flour 100% Water 55%