Guess who is going to NYC Super Bowl weekend? Woot Woot! I don’t know if I’m more excited for the football festivities or the street food. This is the first time I’ve ever been to the city when it hasn’t been Christmas time, so what is there to do when you can’t go see the big tree or pretend to know how to ice skate? I’m the worst girl when it comes to shopping, and I’ve gotten lost in Times Square way too many times to be amped about the big lights and billboards. Guess that leaves me with food.
Who am I kidding, that’s all I do in the city anyways. Last year my mission was to find the best ramen, this year my mission (other than getting a picture with the Lomabardi trophy) is finding the crim-dela-crim of pizza and bagels (if you have any suggestions, hook me up!).
I’ve been searching for mom-and-pop pizza shops for the last few days, and somehow ended up looking at homemade bagel recipes. I can’t be the only one who gets lost on the Internet. I looked at a few, read the reviews, and found that some recipes called for honey, while others did not, and some required the dough to rest overnight, while others only an hour. I decided to use this New York-Style Bagel Recipe from The Sophisticated Gourmet. Turns out this recipe (as well as many others I found) originated from Ultimate Bread, so apparently it’s a credible cookbook that just may be added to my collection.
I followed this recipe to a T. I’m not the best baker and definitely an inexperienced bread baker, so I didn’t want to miss a thing. The recipe was a little lengthy, but overall simple. I broke down each step with how long it took me/what I would have done differently. Refer to Sophisticated Gourmet’s recipe for pictures of the process, because as you will see – I’m not the best when it comes to dough. In fact, everyone in baking class was impressed with how horrible I was at rolling dough balls. These were actually fun to make (and didn’t need to rest overnight), so call your best friend, put on The Office, pour a glass of wine, and stay up late to make New York-Style Bagels 🙂
These bagels require pantry ingredients (salt, sugar, bread flour, active dry yeast, and water), so they were verrry inexpensive to make.
You can jazz these up any way you’d like. I used what I had on hand: kosher salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar & cinnamon. Next time I’ll experience with blueberries, rosemary, and maybe dried onion!
The dough did not have to sit over night, but by the time the entire proofing process ended, it was well over 90 minutes. I broke it down here:
1. Activating the yeast – 5 minutes
add the yeast & sugar to the water and let it activate (takes 5 minutes)
2. Mixing the dough – 3 minutes
your dough will look a little crazy at first, don’t panic (i did). also, i had to use about 1/4 c. more water than what the recipe called for.
3. Kneading the dough – 10 minutes
ahhh, much better
4. Letting it rise – 1 hour
You want this to rise in a warm place, i like to heat my oven to the lowest temp, turn it off, then let it rise in there!
5. Punching down/relaxing – 10 minutes
instead of covering with a damp towel, spray cooking spray on plastic wrap because this
6. Shaping the dough – 10 minutes
i think next time i will use a scale for this part because my judgement was off. way off. try and keep these covered with a damp towel (or oiled plastic wrap). if they develop a crust, just invert the dough and form your ball. keep all the rolled balls covered too!
7. Relaxing – 10 minutes
after you’re done shaping, keep em’ covered! think of them as taking a nap. i’ve read that people rolled the dough balls into logs, then wrapped them around their hands to shape…so unnecessary. just use your finger!
8. Boiling – 5-8 minutes
mine got ugly at this step, but it’s okay, things get ugly…
9. Topping/baking – 15-20 minutes
…before they get good. don’t forget to brush with egg wash before dipping, and if you have any cornmeal on hand, dip the bottoms to ensure they won’t stick to the pan. If not, make sure the pan is brushed good with oil.
As you can see the process is a little lengthy, but wellll worth the end results. Invite friends over, lay out a topping station, supply some wine, and host a bagel party!
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Wow these bagels look fantastic. Nice work.
Thanks!
Love this recipe! Pinning & sharing on Facebook later today 🙂
It’s such an easy recipe! Thank you!
I haven’t made bagels in years. These look delicious. Will have to try the recipe.
Wow these bagels look phenomenal! Who can resist a toasted bagel with cream cheese in the morning 🙂
Exactly! Thank you 🙂
Wow, these look great! I can’t wait to try myself!
I made bagels for the first time today, inspired by YOU! Thank you! I made 4 everything bagels using about 2 tsp each of: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried onions & garlic granules, and some salt. Then I made 4 cinnamon crunch bagels using about 3 Tbsp demerara sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. My vegan egg wash consisted of 2-3 Tbsp warm water & 1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer. I used whole wheat pastry flour. I removed 2 Tbsp of it and replaced it with 2 Tbsp gluten flour.
Welcome to the bagel club! It’s a lot of work, but so so worth it. Glad you tried it out and your bagels sound awesome 🙂