Like a dying swan, I came to L.A. and watched as, feather-by-feather, all of my bagel-eating genes fell to the ground. I tried, I really did. I made bagel bombs, which were a nice alternative, but not the real thing. I stood and ate a bagel at Brooklyn Bagel and thought, “Oh man: this doesn’t feel right at all.” I basically gave up. And then, very gradually, a new idea began to hatch in my brain: what if I made my own everything bagels? How hard could that be? On Friday afternoon, I bought bread flour and malt powder and cream cheese and nova and red onions; on Saturday morning, I woke up all set to make Peter Reinhart’s famous recipe.
It was then, and only then, that I realized it was a two day process. A normal person would’ve accepted that fact: it was only Saturday, I could start today and have bagels on Sunday. Most people eat bagels on Sunday anyway.
But no, I’d been bagel-bereaved for too long. I wanted my bagel NOW. (Or at least in two hours.) Which is when I stumbled on this Chow recipe. The process takes 2 hours and 15 minutes and that was time I was happy to put in if it meant I’d be eating a warm bagel at the end of it.
You start, simply enough, by making the dough. It’s a combination of bread flour and, according to the recipe, malt syrup; I followed Smitten Kitchen’s advice, however, and used malt powder instead. There’s also salt–a lot of it (2 tablespoons!)–which had the commenters on Chow grousing, but I didn’t see that until later. Finally, there’s yeast dissolved in warm water.
You work that all together with a dough hook until the dough is nice and smooth, and the gluten is well developed (about 8 minutes):
Plop the dough into a greased bowl and let it rise for 20 minutes. 20 minutes? That’s nothin’!
While that was happening, I did a few things. I filled my Dutch oven with water and brought it to a boil. I separated an egg white and mixed it together with a little water. And I made an everything bagel mix using leftover ingredients from those bagel bombs. After that, I flipped the dough on to a floured cutting board and used a pastry cutter to separate it into 12 pieces.
Then it’s fun: you roll each of those pieces into a rope, about 9 inches, wet the ends and pinch them together into bagels. “This is fun,” I said to Craig who was reading the newspaper on the couch. “Mmmmhmmm,” he responded. Here’s what I had when I was finished:
Bagels! Well, not yet. (And note: if I had weighed the pieces when I divided them, at the beginning, they would’ve all been a similar size. But I didn’t care.)
Here’s how easy this is: a few at a time, you lower the raw bagels into the boiling water.
You cook them very briefly–they’re almost like dumplings, in that way–and lift them on to a drying rack to drip away while you boil the rest.
Once all your bagels are boiled, you simply brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle with the seasonings.
Into a hot oven they go and, 25 minutes later, they’re done.
That’s it! Are you shocked? Hot, homemade everything bagels out of the oven in 2 hours? Under what rock have I been living that I didn’t know this was possible?
The hardest part, obviously, is waiting 30 minutes to eat them. The recipe says they need to rest so the insides continue to cook and the outsides firm up. Ugh. What a cruel recipe, this is.
After 20 minutes, I couldn’t stand it and sliced a bagel in half, spread on cream cheese, topped with nova, red onion and capers.
Dear God in Heaven, I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you thank you thank you. My prayers have been answered: this moment was one of the most blissful I can remember since moving to L.A. two years ago.
Coming back down to reality for a second, was it a perfect bagel? Was it too salty? Well: to the first question, I loved it. Probably not perfect, no…I bet the Reinhart recipe develops a lot more flavor. But a hot bagel out of the oven that looks like a bagel, smells like a bagel and tastes like a bagel is a perfect bagel in my book. As to the second question, I didn’t really mind the salt, but it is prominent. Next time, I may cut it down to one tablespoon.
And that’s pretty much that. My only other thought is that next time, I may divide the dough differently and make larger bagels (these were pretty small, though that’s how bagels are supposed to be). Otherwise, I feel like the luckiest man on earth because in my freezer right now are all of the bagels we didn’t eat that morning (we each had two). I have bagels, good bagels, in L.A. Maybe I’ll sell them on the black market.
Everyone else: if you live in a place that doesn’t have good bagels, look no further. This recipe is a godsend.
Recipe: Everything Bagels from Scratch
Summary: Adapted from Chow.com.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups tepid water (105 F) plus 1 tablespoon for the egg wash
- 1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 4 cups bread flour
- 2 teaspoons malt powder
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt (that’s salty! Cut it down to 1 tablespoon if you’re worried)
- 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 large egg white
- 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
- 2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon dried onions
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Mix together the tepid water and yeast in a measuring cup with a fork; set aside. In the bowl of a Kitchen-Aid mixer with the dough hook attached, combine the flour, malt powder, salt and sugar. Add the yeast mixture, scraping out any dissolved bits.
- Mix on low speed, about 2 minutes. Then increase the speed to medium low and continue mixing until the dough is “stiff, smooth, and elastic” about 9 minutes more. (If the dough gets stuck on the hook, mash it back to the bottom of the bowl.) The dough should be stiff.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl, turning to coat it in the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rise for 20 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 425. Fill a large, wide pan (I used a Dutch Oven) with water, bringing to a boil over high heat. Set a wire rack over a pan to collect the boiled bagels. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper for baking the bagels. Mix together the egg white and the tablespoon of water for the eggwash. Combine the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onions, onion powder and garlic powder in a separate bowl.
- Turn the risen dough on to a dry surface. Divide into 12 equal pieces, about 3 ounces each (you can use a scale to measure, I didn’t). (While you work, keep the dough you’re not handling covered with a damp towel to prevent drying). Roll each piece into a 9-inch rope, lightly moisten the ends with water, overlap the ends by 1 inch and press to join so you’ve created a bagel. The hole at the center should be quarter-sized. Cover the shaped bagels with a damp towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
- Then, boil the bagels 3 or 4 at a time, letting them bob around for 30 seconds on each side until they look shriveled. Then remove to the rack and finish the rest of the bagels.
- Place the bagels on the parchment-lined cookie sheet, brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle with the everything bagel spices. Pop into the oven and bake for 25 minutes until they’re a “deep caramel color” and have formed a crust on the bottom and top.
- The hardest part: let them cool for 30 minutes before eating. Good luck.
Preparation time: 2 hour(s)
Cooking time: 30 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12
My rating
That must have been so satisfying!!
Bagels are totally on my list of unfinished business. I haven’t made them since culinary school. I’m just waiting for the weather in Atlanta to cool down.
Sound’s simple enough, why do all of the “NY Style” bagel places in Texas, Virginia, Florida and everyplace else I’ve lived outside of NY have it wrong?
where does one purchase malt powder?
You can get it from King Arthur Flour (Non-Diastatic Malt Powder) where you can also pick up some super high gluten flour if you want.
Neither are strictly necessary, but I figure if you are going through the trouble to make your own bagels then you might as well go all out.
I bought mine at the grocery store (Gelson’s)… it’s near the condensed milk and is mostly marketed for making malted milk shakes.
I’ve got everything on hand to make these, except Malt Powder. What is it?
It’s what you use to make malteds. I used Carnation brand which worked great!
Thanks. I’ll look for it tonight and hopefully make these bagels tomorrow.
Malt powder must be a NY thing. Tried every major grocery store in town, then tried Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods an hour away. Nobody carries it! At least the people at Whole Foods knew what it was and said they’re asked for it all the time, but don’t carry it anyway.
Finally found Malt Powder at Harris Teeter in the Virginia ‘burbs of DC. They had it shelved with the powdered non-dairy creamers.
Ohhhh yes. This is happening.
DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN….. Thanks for this recipe!!! My daughters have begun to CRAVE bagels (Noah’s, specifically) but this would be a great and fun thing to do with them.
Can’t wait to try them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE your enthusiasm!
Rose Levy Beranbaum has a great bagel recipe in her “Bread Bible.” Have you checked that book out yet? (You may have and I missed the post(s).) I love this book and make the bagels from it once in awhile.
How funny, I just made bagels this past week for the first time myself. I used the whole wheat bagel recipe from King Arthur flour’s web site, which includes an overnight rest in the refrigerator. Even using a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour (didn’t have bread flour) and substituting molasses for malt (a suggested alternative I found online somewhere) they were delicious, crisp and chewy on the outside and tender and flavorful on the inside. Next time I’ll get the proper ingredients and do it right, but no one should feel they can’t attempt this with what they have on hand. It’s still better than what you can get in most shops around here.
I have a friend who makes excellent bagels. She doesn’t used the malt powder and uses one egg in the batter and they taste fabulous. I think the egg makes them a bit more chewy. She makes small ones, slices them in half, toasts them, and makes hors d’ouvres out of them. So good.
In Istanbul, bagels are only available at one – just ONE – cafe called Tribeca, coincidentally . There are Turkish “bagels” called simits, but they are definitely not the same thing. I’ll have to save this recipe for a good bagel-making afternoon. Thanks!
I must try! Also, curious as to why the recipe is not called “Godsend Bagels.”
Adam, I’m going to say you did it first with your (everything) bagel bombs because I hadn’t encountered a fully commercialized version before, but… your vision of the donut-hole bagel has finally arrived here in New York (!), or at least this is the first place I’ve seen it marketed. http://www.bantambagels.com/
I just came across this recipe- thank you thank you thank you! I’m from Long Island and moved to the Bay Area a few months ago, and I am going crazy without good bagels. One question- I’d like to make these for breakfast tomorrow but don’t want to do all the work in the morning. Is it possible to make the dough today and then refrigerate it overnight at some point in the process? If not, I think I want a good bagel badly enough to wake up early on Saturday. Thank you!
Adam,
I’m planning on making these this weekend when my family comes to visit. I’m having trouble finding Malt Powder in Charlotte, NC. From looking at Deb’s recipe, it sounds like she used a non-diastatic malt powder or a barley syrup. It sounds like you used Malted Milk Powder….do you know the difference or are they all the same? I saw Malted Milk Powder at the store, but hesitated to buy it, thinking it is different…please help!
I used malted milk powder and it worked great. It’s just for flavor, really. Good luck!
Adam, thank you! I made these this weekend, but my dough was off. I think it was too dense? I had to add more than 1 1/2 cups of water, since that was not coming together in my stand mixer. Yikes! Maybe my flour was old? (as in over 2 years probably). Anyways, even with the dense bagels, the flavor was incredible (I used 1 T salt but sprinkled some Maldon flakes on before baking). Our guests raved about them! The crust on them was perfect. Thanks for posting this recipe!
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look nice ;)
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Place the bagels on the parchment-lined cookie sheet
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I’ve been eyeing this recipe since you posted it last year, and I think the first thing I make with my brand spankin’ new stand mixer is going to be these bagels! I can’t wait :D.
I’ve made these about six times in the last month – perfect every time and so easy compared to the Peter Reinhart overnight recipe. Malt powder is ubiquitous in homebrew stores – much more reliable than scouring the grocery store.
I just made these and they turned out great. I put everything in the bread machine and ran the dough cycle. I put the dough in the fridge overnight because I didn’t have time to finish on day 1. I found it easier to poke a hole through the dough with my thumb and then twirl the dough on my finger, rather than rolling it out. Next time I will probable reduce the salt by 2 teaspoons.