Warm, toasted, freshly baked New York Style Bagels with a good smear of cream cheese and a cup of hot coffee in the morning sets the tone for kickstarting an awesome day!
The pandemic and lockdown has me baking breads, bagels, pretzels like never before. I have made these bagels countless times during these last few months and we love it each time. Nothing quite like a freshly baked and toasted warm bagel with a blog of cream cheese and a cup of coffee!
These New York Style Bagels are very easy and fun to make, require only a few ingredients, and are Vegan.
A huge shoutout to Joshua Weismann whose recipe inspired me to try making these bagels. I have since made it many times and have made some minor changes to the recipe. I have more or less kept the ingredient quantity the same and hence the quantity is in grams/milliliters.
New York Style Bagels
Ingredients
- 500 grams Bread flour (about 4 cups)
- 23 grams Sugar (about 2 tablespoons)
- 10 grams Instant yeast (about 2 ¼ teaspoon)
- 320 milliliter Water warmed to about 105 degrees Farenhiet
- 6 grams Salt (about 1 ½ teaspoons)
- 1.5 tablespoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Oil
- 1 teaspoon Milk (use vegan milk for vegan version)
- 1 teaspoon Butter (use vegan butter) for vegan version)
Toppings (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Green chillies, cut diagonally in pieces
- 1 teaspoon Poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon Cheese
- 1 teaspoon Sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon Everything but bagel seasoning
Instructions
- Take the warm water, add sugar and yeast to it. Mix. Cover and let it sit for 10 minutes. The yeast mixture will rise and become frothy.
- Add salt to the bread flour, mix. Pour the yeast mixture over the flour and mix it well. Knead the dough either using a stand mixer or hands for 10 minutes. After the kneading is done, the dough will become tacky, though won't be much sticky.
- Brush a bowl with oil, place dough in it and turn it around such that the dough is covered with a thin layer of oil. Cover the bowl and put it aside for an hour for proving.
- Once the dough is proved, dust the work surface with flour and put the dough on it. Knead it once and form a ball. Divide it into 8 equal pieces.
- Make a smooth ball from each of these 8 pieces and put it on a tray lined with parchment paper. You can make a smooth ball either using the surface or hands. Pull the sides and tuck to the bottom of the ball. Cover it. Leave it for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, flatten each of the balls gently, put it back on the tray and using a cake decorating nozzle or any sharp object (as shown in the picture), drill a hole in the middle. If you don't have a nozzle, you can also dip your index finger and thumb in flour and make a hole right in the center of the dough disc.
- Cut parchment paper into 8 pieces – one for each bagel. Lightly brush some oil on each of these pieces.Heat about 3 quarts of water in a wide-bottomed vessel. Add 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 ½ tablespoon baking soda. Bring it to a boil. Once the water has boiled, turn the heat down to bring the water to simmer. Add each of the bagels one by one in the water. Boil it on each side for 1 minute and then turn it around gently with a slotted spoon. Once boiled on the other side, gently remove the bagels on the oiled parchment paper piece. Place these bagels on an oven-safe baking sheet/baking tray. Brush the bagels with some milk.
- You can leave the bagels plain or add the toppings that you like. Some of the popular toppings include sesame seeds, dehydrated onions, shredded cheese, pickled green chilies etc.
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the tray of bagels in the oven for 20 minutes. Once the bagels are out of the oven, gently brush them with butter. This step is optional.Enjoy warm bagels right out of the oven!
Notes
- In case you do not have bread flour, you can try using all-purpose flour or maida. In case if you are using all-purpose flour, please reduce the quantity of water a bit when preparing the dough as bread flour absorbs more water compared to the all-purpose flour. Please note, I have not made bagels using all-purpose flour yet, but this substitution should work.
- The poaching or water-bath with baking soda step is very crucial to the bagel. It gives the bagel it’s distinct taste as well as it helps form a chewy layer on top while maintaining the softness inside. Don’t skip this step.
Can the bread flour be substituted with any other flour?
In case you do not have bread flour, you can try using all-purpose flour or maida. In case if you are using all-purpose flour, please reduce the quantity of water a bit when preparing the dough as bread flour absorbs more water compared to the all-purpose flour.
What all toppings go well with the New York Style Bagels?
These toppings are the various seeds, cheese etc. that go on top of the bagel prior to baking. The classic one is the plain one. Other popular toppings are: Cheese (for Asiago bagel), cheese & jalapeno slices (yummyy – my most favorite topping), black or white sesame seeds, the popular’Everything but bagel’ seasoning – which is a mix of various seeds, garlic powder etc., dehydrated onion. The possibilities are endless.
How to eat New York Style Bagels?
The classic combination is Bagels topped with cream cheese. The bagel is diagonally cut and toasted, a nice blob of cream cheese is smeared on top and eaten as a breakfast with a cup of coffee.
Another way to eat a bagel is by making a sandwich out of it by adding salad greens and veggies.
Alternatively, smearing a bagel with regular hummus or beetroot hummus, or butter.
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