You can use a stand mixer to make bagels, but be careful, as the dough is so tough that it can wear out your stand mixer’s motor. In culinary school, we used the KitchenAid Commercial models, and they seemed to work well. But most people don’t have that kind of commercial kitchen hardware at home. And I would just hate for anyone to burn out their stand mixer motor at home! As such, this recipe involves a small quantity of bagel dough that is kneaded by hand. The end result is worth the effort.
This recipe will walk you through the steps with the ingredients, as well as the methods for resting your circular pieces of bagel dough before they are boiled and baked. I have included an everything bagel seasoning to coat the bagels, but you can add whatever bagel seasonings you like.
This recipe is intended for roughly 6-7 bagels. Note that you should ideally plan on mixing and shaping the bagels into circles roughly 24hrs before you intend to boil and bake them.
Everything Bagels
You can use a stand mixer to make bagels, but be careful, as the dough is so tough that it can wear out your stand mixer’s motor. In culinary school, we used the KitchenAid Commercial models, and they seemed to work well. But most people don’t have that kind of commercial kitchen hardware at home. And I would just hate for anyone to burn out their stand mixer motor at home! As such, this recipe involves a small quantity of bagel dough that is kneaded by hand. The end result is worth the effort. This recipe will walk you through the steps with the ingredients, as well as the methods for resting your circular pieces of bagel dough before they are boiled and baked. I have included an everything bagel seasoning to coat the bagels, but you can add whatever bagel seasonings you like. This recipe is intended for roughly 6-7 bagels. Note that you should ideally plan on mixing and shaping the bagels into circles roughly 24hrs before you intend to boil and bake them.
Ingredients
For the Bagels:
- 1 cup water (warmed to 105F)
- ½ packet Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast (or a brand that works for you)
- 1.5 Tbsp + ¼ cup barley malt extract (or barley malt syrup)
- 3 cups + 2 Tbsp bread flour (room temperature)
- 2 tsp + 1.5 Tbsp kosher salt
- ¼ cup sunflower seed oil
- 1.5 Tbsp baking soda
For the Everything Bagel Seasoning:
- 3 Tbsp cup poppy seeds
- 3 Tbsp black sesame seeds
- 3 Tbsp white sesame seeds
- 3 Tbsp dried dehydrated onion flakes
- 3 Tbsp dried dehydrated garlic
- 3 Tbsp caraway seeds
- 3 Tbsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Warm the water to 105F and add the ½ packet of Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast and then 1.5 Tbsp barley malt extract.
- Stir the contents together to fully incorporate, and wait for roughly 3 minutes.
- Place the 3 cups + 2 Tbsp of bread flour and the 2 tsp kosher salt in a large mixing bowl and create an impression in the center of the flour and salt.
- Pour the yeasted water into the impression in the flour and salt.
- Use a wooden spatula to stir the mixture together for roughly 3 minutes.
- If the dough isn’t wet enough, add another Tablespoon of warm water.
- Lightly flour a clean work surface.
- Turn the dough out onto the floured surface.
- Knead the dough by hand for a full 10-15 minutes, or until the dough surface has become smooth and the texture of the dough ball has tightened.
- If the dough ball is too sticky, include a bit more flour and continue to knead for a few more minutes.
- Lightly oil a large bowl.
- Place dough ball in the oiled bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap to allow the dough to rise.
- Allow the dough to rise for roughly 2 hours, or until the dough ball has roughly doubled in size.
- While the dough is rising, clean off your work surface.
- After the dough has risen a first time, turn the dough ball out onto your clean work surface and gently push the dough down by about 40%, spreading it out slightly across the work surface.
- Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into 6 evenly-sized pieces.
- Pull up the corners of each piece of dough and twist them together, forming each piece of dough into the shape of a ball.
- Place each dough ball seam-side down, and roll them gently against the work surface to accentuate their round shape.
- When the balls have been rounded out, cover them with plastic wrap to rest for another 10 minutes.
- Lightly oil a piece of parchment paper on a sheet tray with sunflower oil.
- When the dough balls have rested for an additional 10 minutes, take your first dough ball and roll it out with your hands into a uniformly-sized tube or “snake” that is roughly 8-9” long.
- Very lightly dampen the two ends of the tube with a tiny bit of water.
- Wrap the tube around four fingers on one hand and use your other hand to connect the ends of the tube together, forming a circle with the dough.
- Place the wrapped circle of dough onto your clean, un-floured work surface, and gently roll the two ends together until they become attached and are uniform in thickness.
- Carefully roll the remainder of the bagel to make the circle as uniform in thickness as possible.
- Place the bagel on the lightly oiled piece of parchment paper on a sheet tray, and repeat the shaping process for the remaining bagels.
- When all six bagels are arranged on the oiled sheet tray, gently brush the outsides of the bagels with a light coating of sunflower oil.
- Cover sheet tray with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 24 hours.
- When your bagels have rested for 24 hours, get a large wide pot filled with boiling water.
- *You want at least 4” of boiling water.
- Preheat oven to 440F.
- Add the ¼ cup malted barley extract and 1.5 Tbsp kosher salt and 1.5 Tbsp baking soda to the boiling water and stir to combine.
- To test if your bagels are ready to boil, take one of them and place it gently on top of a bowl filled with room temperature water.
- If the bagel floats, it is ready to be boiled.
- If the bagel does not float in the water, remove from the water, dry the bagel off gently, and allow the bagels to rest at room temperature for an additional 30-45 minutes before checking again if they float.
- Once the bagels float, they are ready to be boiled.
- Prepare a big plate filled with a mixture of the everything bagel seasoning.
- Boil the bagels 1-2 at a time, flipping them after the first minute or so. They should be done boiling after roughly 2 minutes total in the liquid.
- Remove from the liquid and allow to drain on a wire rack for a minute.
- Coat the boiled bagel in the everything bagel seasoning and return to the wire rack while you finish boiling and seasoning the remaining bagels.
- Place the seasoned bagels on a piece of oiled parchment paper on a sheet tray.
- Bake at 440F for roughly 18-22 minutes. Watch out for the seasonings, as they are likely to taste bitter if they get too dark.
- Remove cooked bagels from the oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before serving.
Notes
You can find barley malt extract or syrup online. You can also find it in some healthy-eating stores.