New York Style Bagels

My favorite store-bought bagels come from Masada Bakery in Norcross, GA. Until recently I could count on finding six-packs of their delicious bagels in the frozen aisle of my local Kroger. For whatever reason, though, they've been out of stock for about two months. Depending on where you live in Atlanta you might be able to support local delis like Goldberg's or a national chain like Einstein's. The closest option to us is Emerald City Bagels, but at $2 per bagel and long lines I have opted to settle for store-bought. With extra time on my hands, and determined to make the most of these social distancing days, I decided to make homemade bagels.

I researched and narrowed my options down to two recipes (from Epicurious and The Sophisticated Gourmet). The Epicurious recipe included more ingredients, additional steps, and a narrative description that overall swayed me to believe that their recipe was worth the extra effort. Elements in particular that stood out included the addition of barley malt syrup, the emphasis on higher protein bread flour, and the "slow fermentation" process achieved via overnight refrigeration.

The Epicurious recipe breaks down into three big parts: making the dough (easy-peasy with a stand mixer); rolling out the bagels; and boiling and baking the bagels. Step one took less than 15 minutes of preparation, but extended out to an 75 minutes including time for the dough to rise; step two took less than 10 minutes of preparation, but extended out to 12 + hours to allow for overnight refrigeration; the third step took ~ 15 minutes of preparation (boiling the bagels and adding an egg wash & sesame) but extended to ~ 90 minutes including time for proofing prior to boiling and then the time for baking.

And the results? A perfectly baked and wonderfully chewy bagel. I've always heard that fresh bagels don't need to be toasted and that was 100% true. The recipe said to let them cool for 30 minutes, but we dove in at 15. Yum yum yum, nosh nosh nosh.

Considerations for the future: using a kitchen scale and weighing out the .40 oz recommended, I ended up with 7 bagels. That's not a lot of finished product relative to the amount of time required (nearly 24 hours from start to finish). Next time (and yes, there will be a next time) I'll either make a double-batch or I'll give The Sophisticated Gourmet recipe a go (since it doesn't call for the overnight refrigeration).

Additional notes: I whipped up a jalapeño schmear (8 oz of room temperature cream cheese, 1 seeded & diced jalapeño, and ~ 1/8 tsp salt folded together) to top.