When You Live In A Bagel Desert...
There aren't any good bagels on Vancouver Island, and as bagel enthusiasts jonesing for a good carby vehicle for flavor, we made our own!
New York Style Boiled Bagels
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love bagels. My sweet, sweet friends have even had bagels waiting for me when I’ve flown to NYC and my MIL gives us Bagel Works gift cards every time we make it home to Manchester, VT. The PNW is a bit of a bagel desert, especially on Vancouver Island. There are a couuuuuple places, but it’s just not the same. So, my husband and I decided to make our own! And yes, they’re boiled.
Notes:
This is the recipe we used by Sophisticated Gourmet! For copyright purposes, I unfortunately cannot copy and paste the steps here. But for the “jump to print” option, I’m pasting the link here.
We’ve made them a handful of times now and even shared them with our neighbors. (We are doing this as we make them this morning).
Our biggest swap is that before we proved the dough, we cut and shaped it into little spheres instead of after. This allows for a more shapely bagel vs. a scraggly thing. Once the dough balls were proved, we simply poked holes with flour and slightly shaped them. They were then ready to boil and flavor.
We also swapped out white bread flour for whole wheat as that’s what was available in our local grocer when we got it.
For boiling, we chose to do 30 seconds on each side, so about a minute in total for each bagel.
The flavors we’ve made are cinnamon/sugar/cardamom, everything, plain, rosemary and salt, lavender and honey.
Once baked, we’ve made egg and cheese sandwiches, paired them with lox and pickled red onion, or simply with a classic schmear.
A little peek at our process this morning
Ingredients copied for convenience!
2 teaspoons / 6 g active dry yeast
4 ½ teaspoons / 19 g granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups / 300 ml warm water (you may need ± ¼ cup /60 ml more)
3 ½ cups / 440 g bread flour or high gluten flour (you may need up to 1/2 cup / 60g for kneading)
1 ½ teaspoons / 6 g salt
Optional Toppings
Bon Appétit!
Did you make them? Have you added your own flavors? Let me know in the comments!
x, Brooke