Homemade Chewy Bagels
Make classic chewy homemade bagels with bread flour, malt, proper shaping, a boiling step, and your favorite toppings.
Ingredients
- 500 g bread flour
- 275 g water
- 7 g instant yeast
- 20 g barley malt syrup or honey
- 10 g salt
- large pot water (for boiling)
- 1 tbsp barley malt syrup or honey (for boiling)
- 1 tsp baking soda (optional, for browning)
- sesame seeds
- poppy seeds
- everything seasoning
Instructions
- Mix dough ingredients.
- Knead 8-10 minutes until very smooth and strong. Dough should be noticeably firmer than sandwich bread dough.
- Cover and rise approximately 60 minutes until somewhat puffy. It does not need to dramatically double.
- Divide into 8 equal pieces, approximately 100 g each.
- Shape into tight balls. Rest 10 minutes.
- Poke hole through center. Stretch hole to approximately 1 1/2-2 inches.
- Place on parchment. Cover and rest approximately 20-30 minutes.
- OPTIONAL BETTER-FLAVOR METHOD: Refrigerate shaped bagels overnight.
- Preheat oven 425F.
- Bring wide pot of water to gentle boil. Add malt/honey.
- Boil bagels 30-60 seconds per side. Longer boiling = chewier/thicker crust.
- Drain. Apply toppings while wet.
- Bake approximately 20-25 minutes until deeply golden.
- Cool before slicing.
Nutrition
Chef's Notes
CHEF'S NOTES: - This is intentionally a stiff dough - firmer than sandwich bread. - The boiling step is what creates the shiny, chewy crust. Don't skip it. - Longer boiling = chewier, thicker crust. Shorter = thinner crust. - Do NOT use excessive baking soda like a pretzel bath - these are bagels. - Optional overnight cold proof develops better flavor. TROUBLESHOOTING: - Why boil bagels? The boil gelatinizes surface starches for the shiny, chewy crust. - Why are my bagels flat? Over-proofed, or dough was too wet. - Can I cold-proof bagels overnight? Yes - refrigerate shaped bagels, boil and bake next day. STORAGE: Room temperature 1-2 days. Best toasted. Freezes well - slice before freezing. SCALING: 0.5x = 4 bagels, 1x = 8, 1.5x = 12, 2x = 16. Rise and boil times do not scale. ALLERGENS: Contains wheat. May contain sesame, poppy depending on toppings. NUTRITION NOTE: Calculated per bagel (1/8 of recipe, no toppings) using standard USDA nutrition values. Boiling liquid not included.