Homemade Bagels Recipe

The famous new york bagel appears to have gotten its start in poland sometime in the 1400s, and possibly earlier. Eastern european jews likely became associated with the bagel because it was one of the first breads they were allowed to bake and, eventually to sell commercially. As jews emigrated from the old country and landed in america, they brought along the bagel. By 1900, food writer joan nathan points out, there were at least 70 bagel bakeries on manhattan's lower east side. Despite their strong "Jewish food" Association, bagels don't have religious significance. But thanks to their circular shape, they are often served at lifecycle events, ranging from a bris and baby naming parties to shiva houses. Interestingly, in 17th century krakow, community records show they were even given as gifts to women who had just given birth. Few people attempt homemade bagels anymore, assuming they're tricky to make. But our simple recipe is a great starting point if you want to try your hand at crusty-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside bagels. While many recipes call for overnight proofing and specialty ingredients like diastatic malt, ours is straightforward, relatively quick to make (for yeast-risen bread, at least), and quite tasty. Prefer vegan bagels? You can omit the honey in the water bath--we baked bagels with and without it and didn't discern a big difference between batches. We tried 3 different shaping techniques and got good results with all three. The upshot? Choose whichever shaping method you find simplest. You'll find 3 options in the recipe instructions below. Most bagel recipes call for a short 1 to 2-minute water bath. Some call for a 7-minute simmer. We split the difference and simmered the bagels for 2 minutes per side, and got good results.