Bread Machine Bagel Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How is bagel dough different from bread dough? ›

Both bagels and bread contain yeast, flour, water, and sugar. However, many bagel recipes use barley malt syrup, a grain-based sweetener, instead of granulated sugar. Bagels also generally contain less water and more flour compared to other bread types, which is why bagels are denser than typical slices of bread.

It sets the outer layer of the dough, giving the bagel its distinctive chewiness. The boiling process gelatinizes the starches on the surface, creating a glossy, crackly crust during baking. Additionally, boiling gives the bagel its characteristic dense interior while maintaining a tender crumb.

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!

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.

A New York–style bagel is always boiled in water that has had barley malt added, which gives a bagel its signature taste, texture, and leathery skin.

Fiber can help keep blood sugar levels in check and is good for the digestive system. However, not all bagels contain all-grain flour; Some are made with refined flour, which reduces the amount of fiber and nutrients in them and makes them more nutritious than white bread.

The longer the boiling time, the harder the crust and the denser the bagels become. However, Panera went a different route with its bagels, opting to steam them with a steam-injection oven rather than boil them. Steaming is an easier option in Panera's kitchen.

Add honey and baking soda to boiling water in a large pot. This will help give the bagels a nice sheen and golden brown color when out of the oven. Add a few bagels at a time to the pot, making sure they're not crowded.

Unlike the traditional boiling method, Janelle says Einstein has steam injection ovens that simulate the boiling process. “They're steamed for, I'd say, about 30 seconds,” Janelle said.

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.

What makes bagels so chewy? ›

Bread Flour: You'll want to use bread flour to get the chewy, dense texture of a classic bagel. All-purpose flour has a lower percentage of protein which means that it will produce a much softer texture. You need the higher protein content from the bread flour which creates more gluten and a more elastic dough.

Ingredients like malt syrup and high-gluten flour create a slightly sweet dough with an unmistakable chewiness. The overnight “curing” that rising bagel dough undergoes adds a very subtle tang that makes bagels stand out from regular bread.

The water bath is a crucial step when making bagels. The formed bagels need to be gently dropped into a pot of boiling water that has sugar and baking soda for about 1 minute per side.

1) A tight preshape = wrinkle-free bagels

One of the biggest issues bakers run into is a wrinkly bagel, and Molly says the best way to prevent this is to pay attention to your preshaping.

You will also need some brown sugar to add to the water for boiling the bagels. This helps give these bagels their characteristic crust and flavor. Honey or barley malt syrup may be substituted in equal amounts.

Ingredients like malt syrup and high-gluten flour create a slightly sweet dough with an unmistakable chewiness. The overnight “curing” that rising bagel dough undergoes adds a very subtle tang that makes bagels stand out from regular bread.

Yep. The thing about pizza dough is that it is actually very similar to bagel dough. It uses high gluten flour for that great stretchy quality, so you will get something that tastes like a bagel and not just round bread. And these days, terrific quality fresh pizza dough is readily available to everyone!

Bread dough has a higher moisture content than pizza dough. This is because bread dough uses more water-to-flour ratio. The oil in pizza dough is not included in the hydration calculation.