East Coast Style Bagels

This recipe delivers delicious, fresh bagels without fail. It involves an overnight rise in the refrigerator, so plan on mixing up the dough the night before you want to eat them! It’s based on The Best Recipe Cookbook with a few adjustments to ingredient proportions and preparation.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 8 bagels

Ingredients

650 grams bread flour
340 grams warm water
2 tsp salt
1½ tsp dry active yeast
1 tbsp barley malt syrup
1 white of an egg for wash (see note for vegan alternative)
1 tbsp water for wash
3 tbsp cornmeal for dusting pan
1 tsp baking soda

Instructions

Night Before Baking Bagels

Mix together dry ingredients in large bowl
In separate container, stir barley malt syrup into warm water. When dissolved, add liquid to dry ingredients.
Combine to create dough, and knead for 10 minutes. The dough will be very dry, and it will be difficult to combine all the dry ingredients into the dough. Keep kneading, and after about 5 minutes all of the ingredients will come together. At the end of kneading, the dough will be firm but smooth.
Cover dough with an inverted bowl, and let it rest for about 20 minutes
Dust a rimmed baking pan with cornmeal
Divide the dough into eight equal sized balls. Cover with a damp dishtowel or plastic wrap, and let rest for 5 minutes.
Roll each ball into a “rope” long enough to wrap around the palm of your hand. Take care to roll the rope from the center out to ensure that the ends of each rope are no more narrow than the middle.
Wrap the rope around your hand, pinching the ends to make a ring. Roll the place where ends are joined back and forth a couple of times on the counter top to seal the joint.
Place each of the bagels on the cornmeal-dusted rimmed baking sheet
Cover the baking pan with plastic wrap, place in refrigerator, and let rise overnight

The Next Morning

Remove the bagels from the refrigerator, and let rest 20 minutes
While the bagels are resting, preheat oven to 450ºF / 230 ºC
Fill large pot with water and bring to a boil on the stove
Make the egg wash for the bagels by combining the white of one egg with 1 tablespoon of water (see NOTE below for vegan version)
Once the water boils (and the bagels have been out of the fridge for at least 20 minutes), add the baking soda to the boiling water.
Gently place 3 or 4 bagels into the boiling water. (You will cook the bagels in 2-3 batches.) Wait 30 seconds, flip the bagels, and boil them for another 30 seconds.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the bagels from the water and let them drain on a cooling rack. Repeat the boiling process with the remaining batch(es).
After bagels have cooled, brush each gently with the egg wash. If topping the bagels (e.g., with sesame seeds), now is the time to do it. (The egg wash will help make the topping stick to the bagels.)
Gently place the bagels on a clean rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Slide the rimmed baking sheet into the hot oven, and cook until golden brown, about 16-18 minutes. Be sure to rotate the pan halfway through the bake.
When bagels are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool on a rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.
NOTE: For a vegan version, substitute a mix of 2T of plant-based milk and 2 tsp of maple syrup for the egg wash.