Easy-to-make chewy homemade bagels with a scattering of poppy seeds on the top. There’s a little wholemeal flour to give a nutty flavour and enable you to feel even more virtious.
It’s very hard to beat a good bagel; it’s even harder to find a good bagel. I’ve wanted to bake homemade bagels for many years. But I have a very long list of things I want to try.
Homemade Bagels with Poppy Seeds
I was finally spurred into action by A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate, who put a picture on Facebook and stated they really weren’t that hard to make. And she was absolutely right, they’re a lot easier than you might think. The difficulty comes in forming them into a good bagel shape, but I guess that might come with practice.
Dan’s recipe in Short and Sweet was enticingly titled simple bagels*, so that’s the one I went for. I made a few changes of course. If I can get hold of fresh yeast, I will. So that’s what I used. It seems to be that a lot of professional bakers use to much salt in their bread, so I reduced the amount.
As I’ve never made bagels before, I didn’t want to go totally off piste. But I did want to have at least some wholemeal flour in the bake. So I substituted 100g of the white flour for wholemeal. I also used a wooden spoon rather than a finger to shape the bagels and make the iconic hole in the middle.
I was just a little bit chuffed with the result. Not perfect in shape by any means. But they tasted fantastic and were much closer to the taste and texture of the bagels I’ve eaten both in New York and California.
This must have hit the zeitgeist, because I’ve never had so many comments on a Facebook post as these homemade bagels generated.
* The recipe I’ve linked to is different from the book in terms of quantities and I prefer the latter which uses less sugar, salt and yeast.
Chocolate Spread
As I said before, bagels are wonderful things and they lend themselves well to both savoury and sweet toppings. I have never, until now though tried them with chocolate spread. I tried one half with Atkins and Potts milk chocolate spread and the other half with the dark chocolate and gosh they were good!
So now I realise there is only one thing for it, I must make my own chocolate spread. Well it just so happens I have subsequently made both a raw chocolate spread and a roasted cashew nut chocolate spread. Both are totally scrumptious. But you now have two recipes to choose from.
Other Yeasted Bread Recipes You Might Like
- Malted wholemeal & rye loaf
- No-knead spelt cocoa bread
- Olive garlic spelt bread with halloumi
- Rye sourdough bread
- Spelt burger buns
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these homemade bagels, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Homemade Bagels. PIN IT.
Homemade Bagels – The Recipe
Homemade Bagels
Ingredients
- 400 g strong bread flour
- 100 g wholemeal flour
- 30 g (1oz) fresh yeast or 1 tsp dried yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 275 ml luke warm water
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 50 g soft brown sugar
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
Instructions
- Stir the yeast and sugar with a little of the water. Cover with a cloth or plastic bag and leave for ten minutes.
- Place the flours and salt in a bowl and add the yeast together with the remaining water and vinegar. Stir to form a dough then cover and leave for 10 minutes.
- Lightly oil a work surface and knead the dough for 10 seconds. Return to the bowl, cover and leave for ten minutes longer. Repeat twice more at 10-minute intervals, then return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave for an hour. Divide the dough into ten pieces. Shape each into a ball, cover with a cloth and leave for twenty minutes.
- Poke the handle of a wooden spoon through the middle of a dough ball and twirl it a few times to form a hole and flatten the ball into a rough bagel shape. Repeat with the remaining nine.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200℃ (400℉, Gas 6).
- Bring two litres of water to the boil in a large pan and add the sugar. Allow the water to simmer and drop in the bagels, one by one. Leave for five seconds, then flip over and poach for a further five seconds.
- Place the bagels on a lined or oiled tray, sprinkle the poppy seeds over the tops and bake for about 20 minutes. The bagles are done when they sound hollow if you tap them underneath. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
As I’ve had my eye on Dan’s bagel recipe for a very long time, I am submitting this to Bookmarked Recipes with Jac of Tinned Tomatoes.
Caroline says
They look great – it’s been far too long since I last made bagels – I’ll have to add them to the to-do list again ASAP. Love the idea of spreading them with chocolate spread. I have to confess that I am rather partial to the choccy philly spread on bread (with apologies for lowering the tone ;-))
Johanna GGG says
Your bagels look great – I have only made them once and keep telling myself it is not that hard to make them again but still I don’t. It is a shame as the home made ones are so much better than a lot around that taste like bread rolls with a hole in them. Look forward to seeing your chocolate spread creation
Katie says
Oh my! How much I miss proper bagels. They look sensational, especially with dark chocolate ganache. Heavenly!! You did am amazing job, they look perfect
Caroline - All That I'm Eating says
I am so jealous, I’ve always wanted to try making my own bagels!
Hannah says
Gorgeous looking bagels, there is nothing like homemade ones!
belleau kitchen says
simply stunning C… I’m so glad you posted these, they look like the real deal and I want one, or two, or three, now!
Susan says
Beautiful…I’d give them a 10.