Bagels are a part of my identity. For most of my life, I can’t remember going a week without eating a bagel, most of the time, several bagels. If you don’t know what a bagel is, it’s a bread-like dough that’s shaped in a circle with a hole in the middle. Then it’s boiled and baked. The result: heaven.

Bagels can be made with many different kinds of flavorings and topped with almost anything. Bagels topped with sesame seeds to bagels made with blueberries. My favorite way to eat a bagel is, fresh out of the oven with lox (smoked salmon), cream cheese, tomato, and cucumber. If you’ve never had a bagel that way, you ought to try it immediately.

I have yet to find a good bagel in my area, so I decided to make my own. They turned out really good for my first attempt. The smell coming from the oven was intoxicating. The bagel tasted much closer to a real New York bagel than any of the bagels that I’ve tried here. Here is how to make these delicious New York bagels.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons dry yeast / 6 grams dry yeast
• 4 ½ teaspoons sugar / 19 grams sugar
• 1 ¼ cups warm water / 300 ml warm water (or as much needed for the dough to be the right texture, it could be less than this amount)
• 3 ½ cups flour / 440 grams flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt / 6 grams salt
• Toppings such as sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Method

• In a large bowl, pour in the sugar, yeast, and ½ cup (120ml) warm water. Only mix it after letting it sit for 5 minutes.

• Mix in the flour and salt.
• Slowly pour in the warm water. Use as much as needed until the dough is slightly firm. You may want to use your hands to knead the dough.

• Cover the ball of dough with some oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a cloth.

• Let it rise for 1 hour.
• Once it’s risen for one hour, punch the dough and let it rise for 10 more minutes.
• Cut the dough into 8 equal sections.

• Take a section of the dough and roll it into a ball. Then stick two fingers into the middle of the ball to shape a ring. Do the same with the remaining 7 sections of dough.

• Put all the rings onto an oiled baking rack.
• Cover the rings with a moist towel. Let them rest for 10 minutes.

• Preheat the oven to 425F (220C).
• Put a large pot of water to boil. Once it’s boiling, put in a few rings. Let them boil on each side for 1-2 minutes. The longer you boil the bagel, the chewier it’s going to be.
• Put the boiled rings back onto the oiled baking rack.

• Add your desired toppings.

• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Once they are ready, take them out of the oven and enjoy. I love eating a fresh hot bagel straight out of the oven. So delicious! 

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What is your favorite thing to put on a bagel?