No matter where you are in the world, you can probably find a bagel. However, even despite living in New York City, it can still be a struggle to find a really exceptional bagel. It’s possible (likely) that I am just a huge pain in the ass, but I think that if you choose a bagel shop at random you’re probably going to get a dense, flavorless ring with the texture of packing peanuts. The bagels you can buy in grocery stores are essentially just rings of compressed Wonder Bread. As soon as I became familiar with sourdough bread-making, and through much trial and error, I created a bagel recipe that combined all of my favorite parts of a high-quality bagel into the ultimate create-a-player. I usually make a batch of these every couple months and keep them in my freezer so they’re ready for those hungover weekend mornings when I just need something crunchy and doughy to remind me that life is worth living.

The bagel is a simple bread with a rich history. The Poles are credited with its invention in the 16th century and they quickly became vastly popular within Jewish communities all across eastern Europe. In the late 19th century they arrived with Jewish immigrants to the United States and became a symbol of Jewish heritage before evolving into a breakfast food beloved by all. These days bagels are a staple of delis, cafes, and can even be found in grocery stores, all with vastly differing quality.

Bagels became not only a staple in the US, but can be found anywhere across the globe. In my travels I’ve eaten Belgian bagels in Bruges, Guatemalan bagels in San Marcos, even authentic Polish bagels in London. None of the aforementioned could hold a candle to the bagels from the greater NYC area, but that wasn’t the point. I knew the bagel I ordered from a cafe in San Marcos la Laguna, en Espanol con Queso Creama, wasn’t going to rival the fluffy, doughy bagels I grew up eating in New Jersey; but something about seeing a bagel on a menu when I had been eating Guatemalan food for weeks was compelling. A bagel feels like a reminder of home, it feels like a comfortable and leisurely start to the day, it feels like being hungover on your buddy’s couch drinking a Gatorade and recapping the debauchery from the night before.

There is one exception, where a unique out-of-NYC style bagel carves its own niche in the scene, and that is Montreal. The Canadian cousin of NY-style bagels has an extra bit of sweetness, which comes through both in flavor and in its caramelized crunch. What these bagels lack is the fluffy, airy inside that I love so much and instead has a denser, bread-ier texture. To me if it’s not fat and fluffy it can’t be a high-quality bagel, though some Montreal bagel shops are churning out a respectable product. It’s not my favorite style, but I’ve been know to enjoy a Montreal bagel or two when I’m on the wrong side of the border. It’s a ‘when in Rome’ situation for me, I’m never craving a Montreal bagel from NYC.

I consider myself blessed that my early experience of bagels growing up in New Jersey was at the infamous Alfa Bagels. Whether it’s everything toasted with veggie cream cheese or Taylor Ham, egg & cheese on a sesame, my lifetime stats are triple-digits when it comes to Alfa bagels consumed. The bagels here are a pillow: big, fluffy, fat bagels that puff up so much in the oven the hole in the middle gets crowded and ends up looking like a fat dude’s bellybutton. I have yet to find, in NYC or elsewhere, a bagel that can compete with a light and fluffy fresh Alfa Bagel. I doubt I ever will.

My Jewish, Long Island-native girlfriend will spit on the floor when you tell her that the best bagels come from New Jersey. However, when she brought me to her go-to bagel shop, unsurprisingly they had an exceptional product. What differentiated them from the NJ bagels I grew up on was a darker, crunchy crust shielding the doughy center. I found that NYC bagels sometimes also had this crunch, but often also had a dense and lackluster center. It seems the folks at this shop out on Long Island mastered their craft when it comes to crust development while keeping the inside airy. To be clear I would still take an Alfa bagel any day of the week, but this opened my eyes to how lovely a crusty bagel can be when done right.

For my at home recipe, I combined all my favorite qualities from the bagels I’ve enjoyed. In my opinion a bagel should be fluffy, not dense, and have the right balance of chew and crust. To begin I make a sourdough bagel, because I love the crust and flavor that sourdough provides. Like with any sourdough byproduct, the longer it ferments the stronger the taste. I keep these bagels mild by only doing a 10-12 hour rise overnight on the counter and one-hour proof before cooking. If you’ve read this far you know we want a fat and fluffy bagel, so make sure your starter is strong and ready when you make your dough. I’ll put an example timeline from feeding to kneading below.

The ripe sourdough starter helps us out to achieve the crunchy outside of a Long Island bagel with the fluffy, airy center of a New Jersey bagel. We can also optimize our hydration level, boil time, and baking time for these factors. I boil my bagels 45 seconds a side, which I have found gives it a nice chew without being too tough to bite into. I also add a couple tablespoons of honey to both the dough and the water bath, to get a little Montreal sweetness in our bagels and help the outside to caramelize a bit in the oven. The touch of sweetness combined with the sourdough twang creates a really magical flavor.

If you want to be extra and really impress your brunch guests, you can make your own cream cheese. Nobody will fault you if you just have a couple of tubs of Temp Tee on the table, but making your own product means you can control the texture and flavor. You can even mix in scallions, cheddar, veggies and make your own flavored cream cheese. For this ideally you’d find non-homogenized whole milk, but regular whole milk will work as long as it is not ultra-pasteurized. Again this is totally optional for a great bagel experience, but I personally love the control that making this from scratch provides, and you can really impress by recreating a bagel shop favorite or making your own custom take on cream cheese.

A bagel is not the breakfast of champions, it is the breakfast of someone who is not yet done being horizontal. Nobody is splitting the atom with a bagel in their belly and cream cheese in the corners of their mouth, it’s a speed bump to set the pace for the rest of the day. There is something comforting about savoring a fresh bagel knowing that the day ahead is going to go at a manageable speed.

If you’re feeling ambitious give this bagel recipe a try, I guarantee it’ll be leagues ahead of most of the bagel shops in your area and will thoroughly impress anyone who joined you for a slumber party. Start this dough, then go out and get drunk while it rises so you’re sufficiently hungover the next day to have your fresh-out-the-oven bagel be a truly transformative experience.

Sourdough Bagels

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Ingredients

Bagels
-100g Sourdough Starter
-500g Bread Flour
-250g Water (NYC Tap Preferred)
-40g Honey (or Sugar)
-10g Sea Salt
Water Bath
-20g Honey per 1,000g Water

Cream Cheese
Equipment: thermometer & cheese cloth or nut milk bag
-1 Half-Gallon Non-Homogenized* Whole Milk
-2/3 C White Vinegar
-Salt to Taste, at least 1 T
*—apparently raw milk is best for this, I personally have never found it and I think it’s illegal for some weird reason. Non-homogenized is the next best thing, then organic pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurized will not work, so spend a few minutes in the dairy isle to find the right thing.

Timeline

Here’s an example timeline for making these bagels, let’s say you want to pull them out of the oven at 9am. You can find more info on maintaining and feeding sourdough starter online, and eventually I will do a blog on it and link it here.

Day 1
12:00pm - feed starter
6-8:00pm - make dough
8-10:00pm - perform 3-5 stretch & folds every 30 minutes
Rest Overnight
Day 2
6:00am - divide and shape dough, let proof
7:30am - boil and top bagels
8:00am - put into hot oven for 40-60 minutes

Method

Bagels

1. Combine all ingredients except salt in a large bowl. Mix together until a stiff dough forms, then knead by hand for a few minutes. The dough does not need to be smooth and sturdy just yet.

2. Let rest for 30 minutes, then take dough and perform a series of stretch and folds. The dough should feel elastic now, that’s the gluten coming together. Perform as many stretch and folds as you can until the dough becomes tough. Let rest another 30 minutes.

3. Add salt. 2-4 more sets of stretch and folds, letting the dough relax for 30 minutes between each. Once done we are ready for the bulk rise.

4. Let dough rise, loosely covered, for 8-12 hours at room temp or 12-18 hours in the refrigerator. Note that the longer you let it rise, regardless of whether it is refrigerated, the more ‘sour’ your sourdough will taste.

5. One risen, divide dough into eight equal pieces. I use a food scale for accuracy here. Roll dough into a ball and stretch it onto itself so that a tight outer surface develops. Pinch your thumb and forefinger in the middle of the disk to create a hole, and work it open so thee hole is about the size of a quarter. Repeat with all eight pieces of dough.

6. Let rest on parchment paper and cover in lightly oiled saran wrap so nothing sticks. Let proof 60-90 minutes at room temp, you should see your little rings get a little more puffy.

7. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, prepare your water bath and get it to a rolling boil. Pour any desired seeds or toppings into a shallow bowl. Put one or two bagels in at a time, whatever will fit without crowding as we want to give them room to expand. Boil 45 seconds, then flip and boil 45 more seconds on the other side.

8. Place boiled bagels on a cooling rack or somewhere else they can drain. Let cool for a few seconds before dropping into your topping bowl* while still wet so things properly stick. Flip and coat the other side, and put onto a fresh piece or parchment paper on your baking tray.
   *chef’s note: if you are making salt bagels as one of your flavors, do not coat like you would sesame seeds, instead sprinkle on top of one side of the wet bagel.

9. Once all your bagels are boiled and topped, place in your hot oven for 40-60 minutes until desired darkness. I like to flip mine halfway through to make sure the seeds on the bottom do not burn. Let cool 10 minutes before cutting open to ensure you don’t mess with the texture.

Cream Cheese

1. Take you milk and dump it into a pot with the salt*, and light your burner. Give it a stir. You want to get your milk to around 200 degrees, so use a thermometer if you have one. If you don’t, just eyeball it. The pot should be smoking with small bubbles forming, but not at all boiling.

   *chef’s note: add about a tablespoon of salt, you will have another chance to salt your finished product so don’t overdo it here.

2. When the temp is right, add the vinegar, give it another stir, and kill the heat. Cover this and leave it alone for 20 minutes.

3. Take the top off of your pot and you should have a pot of yellowish whey with large curds in it. Remove the curds and put into your cheese cloth and strain out as much liquid as possible. DO NOT discard your whey.

4. Put the curds in the blender, add a few tablespoons of the whey. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides in between pulses. Add more whey until it’s the right consistency and able to blend smoothly. You can also add a little butter or cream and blend that in here as well.

5. Taste and add salt as needed. Here’s where you can play with this, add honey, garlic powder, chives, cheddar, jalapeño, whatever you’re feeling. My advice is to try to recreate your favorite bagel shop cream cheese, it’s easier than you think and way tastier.

Assembling and Serving

1. Cut your bagel open, and smother each side with your cream cheese creation. Goes without saying top with whatever you want, lox, tomato, onion, egg, it all plays here.

2. Sandwich the sides together and open your mouth up wide to take a bite. Listen to the crunch as your teeth sink into your bagel and seeds fall all over your plate.

3. Enjoy leisurely with a cup of coffee, and sink into a comfy couch. Take it easy today, you earned it.