Lorraine Pascale’s bagels | Easy bread recipes (2024)

FAQs

What kind of flour is best for bagels? ›

Bread flour – Because of its high protein content, bread flour makes these homemade bagels delightfully chewy. This recipe also works with all-purpose flour, they're just a bit less chewy than bagels made with bread flour.

Baking soda makes the water more alkaline, giving the bagels a pretzel-like quality that contributes to their chewiness. Just one teaspoon helps the bagels develop a shiny, dark-brown exterior as they bake.

How long you boil a bagel greatly affects the crust and texture inside. A longer boil produces a thicker crust and very dense interior, while a shorter boil produces a thinner crust and softer interior. Sometimes lye or barley is added to water for flavor and to help the crust brown in the oven.

The boiling before baking step is crucial to get that firm, crisp crust and a chewy interior. Using a spider or spatula, gently place your bagels in simmering water (not a rolling boil) for twenty seconds and remove to a lightly oiled sheet pan.

Bagels are usually made from a stiff, dry dough, with hydrations in the range of 55 to 65% (compared to soft sandwich or crusty artisan breads, which are usually 65% hydration and higher). This helps give them their signature tight crumb structure and their chew.

A good bagel should have a thin, shiny, crackly crust spotted with the kind of microblisters that you can only get from proper boiling followed by a high-temperature bake. It's these little bubbles that add both surface area and crunch.

The main difference between typical bread loaves and bagels is the baking method. Most bread types are baked in an oven after the dough has risen, whereas bagels are boiled before being baked in an oven. Compared to other bread types, bagels typically have a chewier inner texture with a crunchy outer layer.

Bread Flour Substitute

You can always substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour one for one in any recipe that calls for it. Your bread might not raise quite as high or have quite as much chew, if you are using all-purpose flour, but it will still be delicious and homemade and all the good things.

But there's no boiling of the bagels baked by upstart Noah Alper, who opened Noah's New York Bagels almost two years ago. Steam is injected into Noah's oven to create fluffy, puffed-up bagels.

Noticing yellow spots on your bagel? This could be a sign of yellow mold growth. Consuming moldy food can lead to mold exposure and potential health issues. Mold thrives in environments where there's moisture and food, making bagels a perfect host.

Why do my homemade bagels go flat? ›

According to Molly, “If the bagels proof too much, they'll deflate in the water bath.” If you're keeping an eye on your dough, she advises pulling it a little too early rather than a little too late (and definitely before they double in size), as it's better to be underproofed.

If your dough is too wet, it'll create large holes in the crumb of the dough and your bagels will be more like French bread, with a fluffy interior (see top photo). When too much flour is kneaded in, bagels become dense, hard and tough, instead of crisp and chewy.

USE RIGHT TEMPERATURE

Bake the bread at high temperature, around 260/270°C, for the first 15 minutes of the baking process so that the crust and its beautiful golden color start developing quickly on the surface. Then lower the temperature to 150°C and continue the baking process for 15-20 minutes.

Black Seed's artisan bagels start with a naturally leavened, fermented, glutinous dough. They are then boiled in water with honey added for a touch of sweetness. Our bakers fire each batch of bagels by hand in a wood-burning oven, just long enough to achieve perfection in crispness, chew, density, and deliciousness.

The high protein content in bread flour is what allows the gluten to develop, to create a stiff dough that turns into chewy, well-shaped bagels. If you're going to the trouble of making bagels from scratch, you may as well use one of the primary ingredients required for the best texture!

Bread Flour

This comes in handy when baking yeasted breads because of the strong gluten content required to make the bread rise properly. Bread flour makes for a better volume and a chewier crumb with your bakes. Bread flour is best used for: artisan breads, yeast breads, bagels, pretzels, and pizza dough.

Bread Flour Substitute: AP Flour

All you'll need is some all-purpose flour. Simply replace the bread flour called for in your recipe with an equal amount of all-purpose flour, and proceed as usual.

“AP flour can be used in the making of rich or enriched breads such as soft rolls, or brioche,” says Chef Stephen, which are meant to be softer in nature, rather than crusty.