Bagels: rolls that are boiled first and baked afterwards
The whole difference between a bagel and an ordinary roll with a hole is one minute in boiling water. Hot water with baking soda seals the surface: the starch on the outside gelatinises and sets, so in the oven the dough rises only a little more. That is where the dense, chewy crumb and the glossy, firm crust come from. The dough here is noticeably stiffer than bread dough, and that is not a mistake either.
Your own work in that: 1 h 5 min.
- Dough 20 min
- Rising 80 min
- Boiling and baking 45 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneKnead a stiff dough
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water with the sugar and wait 5 minutes. Pour it into the flour mixed with the salt and knead 10 minutes by hand, or 8 with a dough hook. The dough will be stiff and stubborn, far firmer than bread dough — that is the point. About 52 % hydration is what gives a crumb that pulls instead of crumbling.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 260 ml water · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 1½ tsp salt
TipIf the mixer starts walking across the counter, knead by hand on the board, leaning your weight into it. The dough should end up smooth like modelling clay and tacky only in the first minute.
Stiff as clay, not soft like bread doughLet it rise an hour
Shape a ball, put it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm for 60 minutes, until doubled. Stiff dough rises more slowly than soft dough, so go by the dough, not the clock: in a cool kitchen it may need up to 90 minutes.
Shape the rings
Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces (weigh them if you can: about 95 g each). Roll each into a ball, push your thumb straight through and stretch the hole with your fingers to 4–5 cm across. The hole will look absurdly big — in the bath and the oven it closes to half that. Rest the shaped rings 20 minutes under a cloth. Meanwhile heat the oven to 220 °C and bring the water for the bath to the boil.
TipA bagel with a small hole bakes into a plain roll: the middle closes over and never cooks evenly. Stretch it boldly.
A 4–5 cm hole, because it halvesBoil one minute a side
Add the honey and soda to the boiling water (carefully, the soda foams), then drop to a gentle simmer. Add 2–3 bagels at a time and boil 60 seconds, flip and boil another 60. Lift them out onto a rack with a slotted spoon. All the batches take about 10 minutes in total.
Ingredients: 2500 ml water · 2 tbsp honey · 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
TipThe soda raises the pH of the water, so the crust browns harder and faster — the same reaction that colours pretzels. The honey adds sugar that caramelises.
One minute, turn, one moreGlaze and dip
Brush the wet, still-hot bagels with beaten egg and immediately press the tops into a plate of sesame or poppy seeds. Seeds only stick to a damp surface; two minutes of cooling and they will shower off in the oven.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 3 tbsp sesame seeds · 3 tbsp poppy seeds · 1 tsp coarse salt
Wet and hot, only then the seedsBake 20 minutes
Set them on a lined tray with space between and bake 20–22 minutes at 220 °C, until deep brown and glossy. Cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes: inside, a hot bagel is still gummy and will smear under the knife.
TipA pale bagel is an underbaked bagel. Take the colour darker than feels safe — sugar and soda are working together here, and bitterness only arrives at black.
Deep brown, not golden
Before you start
The classic way to eat them
Split, toasted, with cream cheese, smoked salmon, thin red onion and capers. That is the combination that made bagels famous in New York, although the bagel itself comes from the Jewish bakeries of old Poland.
Overnight in the fridge
Instead of 20 minutes, the shaped rings can sit 12 hours in the fridge, covered. The flavour deepens and turns almost malty. Boil them straight from cold, no warming up.
Freezing
Cut them in half before freezing. Then they go from freezer to toaster and are as good as fresh in three minutes. Whole ones thaw unevenly.
Without soda
Water with honey alone works too; the crust will simply be paler and less glossy. Don't substitute baking powder for the soda — it is not the same thing.
