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How to Make the Ultimate Bagel
It’s in the boiling and the malt
The quintessential—and elusive—bagel has a crackly exterior and a chewy interior. Shiny and caramel-colored, it tastes yeasty, the tiniest bit sour, and an even tinier bit sweet. The contrast in texture and the subtle sweet-sour flavor, when combined, define what it is to be a bagel. The ultimate bagel doesn’t need toasting to be delicious.
Many bagels are just the bland, bloated stepchildren of their dense, chewy ancestors. According to Ed Levine, the New York food maven and founder of Serious Eats, bagels once topped out at 3 or 4 ounces, while most sold today weigh as much as 6 or 7 ounces. “Bagels have suffered from bagel elephantiasis over the last 20 years,” says Levine. “It’s big, big, bigger, biggest. You’ve got to get the [2.5- to 3-ounce] minis.”
Even H&H, New York’s famed Upper West Side bagel bakery, has fallen prey to the Starbucking of bagels, adding girth and diluting flavor. Levine lists H&H’s flaws as too big, too sweet, and not chewy enough. “A bagel should be like a pizza crust at best: It should be chew that gives way to tender bread dough.”
What Not to Do
Traditionally, malt gives bagels their sweet hint. But these days, most recipes bolster malt’s subtle flavor or replace the ingredient altogether with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. The resulting saccharine taste pleases modern palates that are accustomed to consuming sugary cereals, pastries, and coffee drinks.
Soft and fluffy, mild and pale, the rolls with holes in most of the country are bagels in shape only. Last December, I tasted my way through the best the Bay Area has to offer. I found hints of that addictive bagel flavor at Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels in Palo Alto, and strengthened my jaw on the chewy interiors from House of Bagels on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. I even slummed it at Noah’s, a Bay Area chain with decent coffee but innocuous, puffy bagels.
What ever happened to the authentic bagel? I called Israel Rind, Brooklyn native and owner of Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels, to find out. Mr. Rind explained that nowadays most bagelries—including many in New York—steam their bagels instead of boiling them. Boiling is more labor intensive, but it’s what gives bagels their crackly crust and shine. Eliminate the process, and you remove that bagel texture. “A lot of places will give you a bagel that looks like a bagel but is not made like a bagel,” says Rind, who boils his. “It’s like trying to make wine in three weeks.”
When Ed Levine craves a bagel, he hits Absolute Bagels, also on the Upper West Side, or one of the other establishments on the list he compiled for the New York Times on the most authentic bagels in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Levine calls the bagels at Absolute “near perfection: a bagel that is crunchy, not too dense or sweet, and just chewy enough.” Absolute owner Samak Thongkrieng explains that “malt is not so sweet like sugar; the taste is more mellow.”
Those of us who can’t drop into a shop like Absolute are left with only memories and dreams of the crackly, chewy bagels we grew up on, or tasted while passing through NYC. Having faced this cheerless fact, I turned to my oven.
Melissa Wagenberg Lasher is a food and travel writer living in San Francisco. An ex–New Yorker, she has embraced Bay Area food culture—learning to distinguish between clementines and satsumas, discovering which fig trees lend themselves to thievery. Until now, she stubbornly imported bagels.
I used to work at a bagelry, and I wanted to add this quick word of advice:
bagels topped w/ kosher salt are awesome, but impossible to keep longer than 1 day. The salt leeches moisture from the bagels and they become rock-hard. So, if you're making a batch and planning on freezing some for later (don't forget to split them first!) you should eat salt bagels the day they are made, & save the poppy & sesame.
I always assumed the water bagels get boiled in had to contain lye, baking soda, or some other alkali salt (like the alkali solutions used for pretzel baking). Is this not the case?
Wow. Rolls with holes. That's exactly the way I have been describing most bagels sold today, especially in Manhattan. This article says it all about what's wrong with the modern bagel. I have one of those bagel guillotines that easily slice bagels in 2. Well, I haven't been able to use it on most bagels because they are way to puffy and won't fit into the device.
this has been on my to-do list for the longest time. all the bagel joints within walking distance of my apartment went to total shit - giant, softball size dough puffs - and i strenuously object to getting on the subway to go get a bagel. so i guess homemade is the way to go. i'll have to make myself some scallion cream cheese, too.
"Those of us who can’t drop into a shop like Absolute are left with only memories and dreams of the crackly, chewy bagels we grew up on, or tasted while passing through NYC." Not so! Come to Montreal and experience bagels the way they are meant to be. Fairmount and Saint-Viateur Bagels boil their dough in water (with a bit of honey) and bake them in sixty year-old wood ovens. The best!
Re: Salt, and bagels keeping. With or without salt, good day-old bagels aren't going to be that great. They're really best the first day.
Re: Alkaline water. At the bakery/café where I work, we do add baking soda to the water. It makes for a better, glossier crust.
Lastly, find a bagel recipe that starts with a sponge. Whilst malt is important to flavor, a sponge or poolish imparts strength and flavor to the final product. A poolish is a batter, usually most of the water for the dough, an equal part (in weight) or flour, and some yeast that sits and develops for an hour (or two or three). It develops some acidity that give the dough more complexity and protease, an enzyme that denatures protein, thrives in a wet environment and makes the dough easier to handle and shape.
I have made bagels once or twice, with mixed results. They didn't really bake evenly. But the ones that came out right were fantastic. This has inspired me to try again.
A word of caution, though. If the water is boiling vigorously, the bagel will be deflated and bizarre when it comes out of the pot. I would recommend just the barest boil/highest simmer you can manage. Also, you'll want to use the widest pan you can boil water in -- easier to get them in and out.
I'm from Montreal (now living in SF) and make a point of bringing back bags of bagels from St-Viateur or Fairmount whenever I travel home. When I lived in NYC, H&H were a decent stand-in, but nowhere near the "doesn't need to be toasted" excellence of Montreal bagels.
I've yet to find Montreal-style bagels in SF, but will definitely check out House of Bagels. If anyone else has a close-to-Montreal perfection bagel joint to suggest, please do tell.
Sonny's Bagels in South Orange, NJ still does it the right way.
Oh my gosh! I just made these and they are fabulous! I cut the salt back to two teaspoons and added some brown sugar to the water before I boiled them. They came out just dark enough, crunchy.crackly on the outside and tender chewy inside. And the recipe couldn't be easier. No more store bought second rate bagels for us!
Rather than the rope technique, I say roll the divided dough in a circular motion with your palm and fingers, as you would for a pizza dough ball or a dinner roll. Poke your finger through the center of the ball, insert your other index finger and stretch/rotate it out. This reduces the awkward lumps or tails.
Montreal style bagels are hard to beat. I've been living in Toronto for about a year now and I still can't find a decent substitute. I also stayed in Baltimore for 4 months and no luck there either. American style bagels are thick, doughy and not very flavorful most of the time. I wish someone would open up a decent bagel place. They say the secret is in the water and that it makes all the difference which is why it can't be duplicated. Any thoughts?
thank you all for the wonderful advice. I haven't even tried to make bagels yet but now i have some wisdom *wink* thanks y'all.
hey trswoman. i feel your pain. i drive from grimsby ontario all the way into toronto for bagels. the best place by far is bagel world. if you go north on bathurst and a left on wilson. bagel world will be on your right in the strip mall. i drove around toronto one day in search of the best i could find and bagel world is the place. not to mention unbelievable pastries and breads. give it a try.
Agreed - Bagel World with Kivas (Bathurst and Steeles) as a close second!
Does anyone know how to modify a bagel recipe to make the bagels hard? My dogs love bagels, but I want to make them harder, so they will last longer and have other benefits of chews for dogs. I'm sure I could mix in beef or chicken stock or boullion and maybe bacon or liver to give them extra flavor too.
New York Bagels that are baked in the most authentic scenario are second to none.
What is it that makes them taste the way they do?
Water boiling method ? The water that nyc gets. Humidity. Attitude? Experience Air Altitude? Everybody has their own argument but the truth is noone can pin point the
Exact recipe. The fact just remains that New York Bagels are second to none! That is why I get my bagels delivered overnight fresh.
www.bestnewyorkbagel.com