Make Your Own New York Style Bagels

The ingredient list below makes about 10 large bagels. We like big fluffy ones, rather than little dinky ones. (Full disclosure: I’ve provided some links for products you may want from Amazon and they are affiliate links.)

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup water
• 2 ¼ teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 ½ cups bread flour
• 3 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3 quarts boiling water
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 egg white
• everything bagel seasoning

Note that this recipe calls for bread flour. All-purpose flour has less gluten and does not give you the right texture. You can either buy bread flour or make bread flour from all-purpose flour by adding vital wheat gluten to it. My formula for making bread flour is to weigh the all-purpose flour and then add vital wheat gluten at 4% of its mass. For example, if I have 500g of all-purpose flour, I would add (500 × .04) 20g of vital wheat gluten and mix it together. Making bread flour rather than buying it is more cost-effective.

Instructions

Step 1

Place water, salt, brown sugar, flour and yeast and knead the dough.

Step 2

Place the dough in a container and cover it. Let the dough rise to about twice its original size.

Step 3

Punch the dough down and then cut it into 10 pieces. Shape them into little balls stretching the dough. Then using your finger, make a hole in the middle and then stretch out the hole so that it’s pretty big. The holes need to be big because they are going to go through a second rise and the holes will get smaller.

Step 4

If you want nice chewy bagels, you want more time for gluten to form. Cover the bagel doughs with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out and put them in the refrigerator. Let them rise overnight.

Bagel doughs after overnight rise in the refrigerator.

But if you are in a hurry, you can also let them go through their second rise at room temperature. Cover the doughs and let them rise for about 15 minutes.

Step 5

Put 3 quarts of water and 3 tablespoons of sugar in to a large pot and bring it to a boil. Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Put parchment paper over a baking sheet.

Step 6

Carefully transfer bagels to the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds on each side. Transfer the bagels to the baking sheet that is covered with parchment paper. Glaze tops with egg white, and sprinkle everything seasoning over bagels. The egg white is what the seasoning will stick to.

Bagel doughs boiling in sugar water.

Brushing the boiled bagel dough with egg white.

After sprinkling everything seasoning over the boiled bagel doughs.

Step 7

Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well browned.

Yummm!

Let them cool but don’t wait too long. Enjoy them while they are warm and fresh!