When I texted my best friend Sam that this weekend’s project was bagels, she enthusiastically replied, “OMG I *FUGGIN* LUV BAGELS.”
Same, sis. So here’s a super simple New York style bagel recipe from my man, Joshua Weissman. He pulls through in every single recipe I’ve tried of his so far, and we Stan. This recipe is by weight, rather than by volume so you will probs need a scale. If you don’t have a scale, I highly encourage you to get one! Baking is a precise art.
Here’s a pic of my loaded bagel for breakfast this AM: cream cheese, salmon, thinly sliced shallots, and capers with a splash of fresh lemon juice. Contrary to popular belief, my food doesn’t sit very long for pics before I take a bite out of it lol.
Ingredients
500 g bread flour (higher protein content = chewier texture)
10 g instant yeast
23 g white sugar
320 ml warm water
6 g salt
1 egg + splash of milk/water for the egg wash
Instructions
- Bloom yeast in warm water and feed it sugar. Leave for 10 minutes until visibly foamy.
- In a large bowl, mix flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture. Combine until a shaggy texture, then start kneading. I found that with this dough, I couldn’t get away with just kneading in the bowl so I transferred to a work surface and went to town until the dough was smooth. That took about 10 minutes or so.
- Wash the same large bowl (we wash as we cook/bake around these here parts because dishes SUCK), and PAM it. Or just coat with some non-offensive oil (e.g. light olive oil). Form the dough into a little boule, and transfer it to the bowl.
- Cover dough with a damp kitchen towel and let rise for about an hour or until double in size.
- Read summer romance novel du jour whilst dough is getting yeastified.
- Punch dough down and divide into two halves, then divide those halves into four equal pieces. You should have 8 pieces of future bagel goodness. Pinch each piece into itself, and form a mini-boule/ball. Make sure you work the seam side down. Place the balls onto the sheet pan you’re planning to bake them on and let proof for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F and start boiling some water in a large 6 qt Dutch oven or something similar. Bring water to a gentle boil.
- With your thumb and pointer finger, punch a hole through each widdle bagel boule. Then, using both of your pointer finger, make the hole bigger. Eyeballit.
- Using a spatula, carefully scoop each bagel-wannabe into the boiling water, and boil on each side for 1-2 minutes each. I went with Josh’s suggestion of 1 minute each side so it’s slightly less chewy, if you feel me. Drain each bagel and transfer to a different sheet pan.
- Clean off that OG sheet pan and lightly coat with oil. Transfer the bagels to this pan and apply egg wash on top.
- Here’s the fun part: go HAM on top of your bagel with toppings. I used TJ’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning, low-moisture mozzarella cheese, and some pizza-flavored Toscano cheese. They all turned out FABULOUS.
- Bake in 425°F for 20 minutes and enjoy!
Bagels. Reminds me of nostalgic times waiting in line for a chicken salad on an everything bagel at Bodo’s in Charlottesville, or a New York Leo at Proper Bagel in Nashville. Times I took for granted. But meh, pandemic.
As always, stay safe out there and mask up, fam.
-Mimi 🙂
