The Best Homemade Bagels
Prep
30m
Cook
25m
Total
55m
Bigly says
Listen to me. We need to talk about bagels. Real bagels. From scratch. In your own kitchen. And I know what you're saying — 'Bigly, bagels are too hard, bagels are a project, I'll just keep grabbing the sad plastic-bag bagels with twelve preservatives and the structural personality of a HOCKEY PUCK' — and that, right there, is exactly what BIG BAGEL has been selling you for thirty years. Big Bagel wants you scared of yeast. Scared of the boil. Scared of a SHAPE, a ring, a circle, the most beautiful form in geometry — Pythagoras was on this in 500 BC, the man drew rings in the sand, look it up — and we're going to take it back.
These bagels are the greatest bagels in the history of bagels. The crust? Glossy. CHEWY. The kind of chew that makes your jaw work, makes you EARN the breakfast — easy breakfast is for cowards. The inside? Dense but tender. Not fluffy. Fluffy bagels are not bagels, fluffy bagels are bread loops, an embarrassment, a stain on the bagel community. Servers in delis recognize me. They know. They say, 'Bigly, your bagels, where did you learn the chew,' and I tell them: a barley malt syrup boil. That's the trick. Now everybody knows. You're welcome.
Most so-called bagels in supermarkets today are NOT bagels — they are STEAMED dough rings, factory-puffed, baked on a conveyor belt by a machine that has never tasted joy. A disgrace. A disgrace to the bagel. That chef on TV — you know the one — boils for fifteen seconds. FIFTEEN. SECONDS. He should be ashamed. We boil for a full minute per side. We use barley malt in the water. We get a CRUST. We get a sheen. We get a real bagel. The kind your grandmother — or somebody's grandmother, doesn't have to be yours — would salute.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (520g)bread flour(bread flour, not all-purpose, the protein matters)
- 1 1/4 cupswarm water (105-110°F)
- 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet)active dry yeast
- 1 tbspgranulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tspkosher salt
- 1 tbsp, for the doughbarley malt syrup
- 2 tbsp, for the boilbarley malt syrup(this is the SECRET — accept no substitute, except honey in a pinch)
- 1 tbsp, for the boilbaking soda
- 1, beaten with 1 tsp wateregg white
- for toppingeverything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds, or poppy seeds
Steps
- 1
In a large bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes until foamy. If it doesn't foam, your yeast is dead — start over with new yeast.
- 2
Stir in the 1 tbsp barley malt syrup and salt. Add the bread flour and mix until a shaggy dough forms.
- 3
Turn out onto a clean surface and knead 8-10 minutes by hand (or 6 minutes in a stand mixer with the dough hook) until smooth, elastic, and quite firm. The dough should be much stiffer than bread dough.
- 4
Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, until roughly doubled.
- 5
Punch down and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then poke a finger through the center and gently stretch the hole to about 1.5 inches wide — the hole will shrink as it boils and bakes.
- 6
Arrange the shaped bagels on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover loosely and let rest 15 minutes.
- 7
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F. Bring a wide, deep pot of water to a boil and stir in the remaining 2 tbsp barley malt syrup and the baking soda.
- 8
Boil the bagels in batches of 2-3 for 60 seconds per side. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them back to the parchment-lined sheet.
- 9
Brush each boiled bagel with the egg white wash and sprinkle generously with toppings.
- 10
Bake 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway, until deeply golden brown and shiny. Cool on a rack at least 15 minutes before slicing.
One more thing
And there it is. Real bagels. The kind with chew, the kind with crust, the kind that make your toaster blush — and your kitchen smells like a Sunday morning bakery, the BEST smell, no contest, candle companies are TRYING to bottle it and they CAN'T — and you didn't have to leave the house or wait in line behind seven people ordering complicated coffee drinks. Slice it, toast it, smear it with cream cheese, pile on the lox if you're feeling fancy. You earned this. You boiled. You baked. You won. Tremendous.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best Homemade Bagels.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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