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If you love bagels and have had to cut them from your low sodium diet, you are going to love this recipe. With the same chewy texture as a store-bought bagel and the flexibility to choose your own toppings, this recipe is bound to be a staple in your house like it is mine.
As I mentioned in my last post for Everything Bagel Seasoning, I am starting a short series on bagels. The seasoning was the first recipe, and this recipe is the second. It will take a little bit of work to get that chewy texture that we love about bagels, but it is totally worth it. I am going to walk you through some tips and techniques before I get to the actual recipe, but if you have questions while making these bagels, leave me a comment or shoot me a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
So you start by making a dough like you do for most homemade bread doughs. I have more instructions about how to do this in my Favorite White Bread recipe. A quick recap is that you will start with yeast and sugar in warm water. Then you will add the powdered milk and slowly stir in the flour. Once the dough is firm enough to handle, you will knead the dough, working in more of the flour until the dough is smooth and elastic. Then you let the dough rise until it has doubled in size (check out the recipe below for full detail).
Once you are ready to shape the bagels, you will divide the dough into eight equal size chunks (yes I weigh out my portions because I am a little obsessive like that, and no you don’t have to).
Then you will smooth the chunks into uniform balls. To do this, take a chunk of dough and loosely roll it against a flat surface (see pic below).
See how pretty they are?!
Then you take a dough ball and – with a little flour on your hands – pinch a hole in the center of the dough. Stretch the hole slowly until the hole is roughly two to three times the size that you will want it to be. The bagel will rise considerably and as a result the hole will shrink.
As you are finished shaping the bagels, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Cover and let rise for about 10 minutes while you bring a large pot of water to boil. Once the water is boiling, carefully place as many bagels in the water as you are comfortable with. The bagels will grow a lot while they are boiling, so be really careful not to overcrowd the pan. You only have to boil them for about 1-2 minutes per side. The longer you boil them, the more they will rise and the chewier they will become. Place them back on the baking sheet while you boil the rest of the bagels.
Once the bagels are boiled, you have three options – bake them immediately (plain bagels), top them with an egg wash and bake them (also plain but with a glossy top), or top them with an egg wash and then sprinkle with toppings of your choice. Our favorite is the Everything Bagel Seasoning or dried onion flakes, but get creative! then it is just a matter of baking them
Homemade Bagels
SODIUM COUNT: 13 mg sodium per bagel; 106.5 mg sodium in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Ingredients
Scale
Bagels:
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 ¼ cups warm water (about 110°F to 115°F)
- ¼ cup powder milk
- 3–4 cups bread flour*
Optional** Egg Wash:
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp water
Optional** Toppings:
- Everything Bagel Seasoning
- Dried minced onions
- Dried minced garlic
- Poppy seeds
- Sesame seeds
- Herbs of your choice
Instructions
Mix the bagels:
- Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water in a large bowl. Let rest for a few minutes until the yeast begins to foam.
- Stir in the powder milk.
- Add the flour about ¾ cup at a time until the dough is firm enough to knead (roughly 2.5-3 cups). Once you can handle the dough, begin to knead it, adding the remaining flour as needed. Knead the dough for 5-8 minutes (you can use a large stand mixer with a dough hook for this). The dough should be smooth and elastic when you are finished.
- Place the dough into a clean, oiled bowl. Put the bowl in a warm place and let rise until the dough has doubled in size (about 60-90 minutes).
- Punch the dough down and let rest for 10 minutes.
Shape the bagels:
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Divide the dough into eight chunks. Shape each chunk into a smooth ball by rolling the ball in a circular motion against your work surface (see photo in blog post).
- Pick up a dough ball and press a hole into the center. Stretch the hole until it is roughly 2-3 times as large as you would like it to be when the bagel is cooked (see photo in blog post). Place the bagel on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with each piece of dough.
- Once all the bagels are shaped, cover with a light towel and let rise for 10 minutes. While the bagels are rising, bring a large pot of water to a boil and preheat the oven to 425°F.
Cook the Bagels:
- Begin by boiling the bagels. Boil as many at a time as you are comfortable with. Do not overcrowd the pan, as the bagels will rise a lot when they boil.
- Place the bagels in the boiling water and boil for 1-2 minutes per side. The longer you boil, the more they will rise and the chewier they become. Remove the bagels from the water and place back on the prepared baking sheet while you boil the rest of the bagels.
- To make the egg wash, whisk the egg and water together in a small bowl. If using, brush on bagels and add optional toppings.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 8 servings (1 bagel per serving)
Sodium: 13.3 mg, Calories: 215.4, Total Fat: 0.6 g, Saturated Fat: 0.1 g, Cholesterol: 0.0 mg, Carbohydrates: 44.7 g, Fiber: 1.7 g, Sugar: 2.8 g, Protein: 6.8 g.
* You can use all purpose flour if that is what you have on hand. I also tested with a combination of all-purpose flour + 1/3 cup gluten, and that worked well too. I prefer using bread flour or the all-purpose flour + gluten because the bagels tend to be a bit chewier, but they were still delicious with all-purpose flour.
** Optional egg wash and toppings are not included in the nutritional information.
These bagels are best when eaten fresh, but they do hold up okay when frozen. The texture will change a bit if you freeze them, but it has worked okay for us.
Adapted fromSophisticated Gourmet‘s recipe for New York Style Bagels.
