These double chocolate chip bagels are a lightly sweetened, yeasted bagel studded with both white and milk chocolate chips. Perfect for any morning that you need a sweet start.
Chocolate chip bagels, true yeasted bagels are kind of hard to find a recipe for. I had been thinking of making a sweet bagel recipe, and I always do a little research to see how common it is, etc. Many chocolate chip bagel recipes are not true bagels as they don’t use yeast! That’s fine if you want to make or enjoy them that way, but it’s not really a bagel. So I set out to create the best chocolate chip bagels.
Where do you start? Obviously, adding more chocolate. So instead of just standard chocolate chips I added white chocolate too. Now, if you aren’t into white chocolate feel free to omit them. Personally, I love them and I really enjoy milk and white chocolate together!
Baking Tips & Notes
Making bagels with chocolate chips is decidedly a little bit more difficult than regular bagels. The chocolate chips are not going to want to stay in the dough as much as you would like. Shaping them is a little more difficult. Some will come out when you’re boiling the bagels, but trust the process. It will work.
I found pinching dough over chocolate chips that looks like they might pop off when I was shaping individual bagels helped keep them right under the surface and helped create a little more tension in the dough. I sort of let go of making perfectly shaped bagels and was fine with “good enough”. We aren’t trying to win a beauty contest with them, just make some tasty chocolate chip bagels. Tasty can be a little misshapen!
I would NOT use chopped chocolate bar in this recipe. Chocolate chips are designed to hold their shape when heat is introduced, while chocolate bars are not. While it’s baking, it doesn’t matter but while boiling the bagels it does. Having chocolate chips helps keep most of the ones on the surface of the bagels hanging on. You will probably lose a few in the water but don’t fret.
Double Chocolate Chip Bagels Key Ingredients
- Chocolate Chips – I used equal amounts of semi-sweet and white chocolate chips. It’s completely up to you what combination (if any) and what kind of chocolate chips you use. Semi-sweet would be what’s in your standard chocolate chip bagels though.
- High Gluten Flour – Personally, I always keep high gluten flour from King Arthur on hand but I really love making bagels and do it often. I do recommend that flour for these because it does yield the best texture, but I also realize not everyone wants to be making several batches of bagels in a year or ordering specialty flours. If you don’t have/don’t want to purchase high gluten, bread flour is totally fine. I would purchase King Arthur if you can find it because they do have a good protein level in their bread flour. I would NOT substitute all purpose in this recipe. It will work but your bagels are just not going to have that signature chew.
- Non-Diastatic Malt – This is another specialty ingredient that if you’re serious about making bagels at home that will help produce bagels that are much more like your local bagel shop. It mainly adds flavor and sweetness, so if you don’t have this I’d add an equal amount of brown sugar or honey. If you do purchase, make sure to get NON diastatic and not diastatic malt as that is a different ingredient serving a different purpose.
If you’d like to try some savory bagel baking, I’d recommend these: NY Style Bagels, Pretzel Bagels, Pesto Parmesan Bagels.
Ingredients
- 480 g High gluten or bread flour 4 cups
- 7 g Instant yeast 2¼ tsp
- 36 g Granulated sugar 3 tbsp
- 6 g Sea salt 1 tsp
- 8 g Non-Diastatic malt powder 1 tbsp
- 300 g Warm water ~95-105°F
- 50 g Milk or semi sweet chocolate chips ~¼ cup
- 50 g White chocolate chips ~¼ cup
Water Bath
- 8 cups Water
- 16 g Non-Diastatic malt powder 2 tbsp
- 12 g Dark brown sugar 1 tbsp
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with dough hook attached, add flour, sugar, salt, yeast, non-diastatic malt, and water.
- Mix on low until a dough comes together and allow the dough to continue kneading until smooth and elastic (10-20 minutes).
- Remove the dough from the bowl and shape into a ball.
- Lightly grease your mixing bowl, and place your dough ball back in the bowl.
- Cover your bowl and allow your dough to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
- When dough has sufficiently proofed, punch down the dough and place on your workspace.
- Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place a silpat mat or parchment on a baking sheet and set aside.
- Press down the dough into a flattened shape and add your chocolate chips in an even layer over the surface.
- Roll or fold up the dough and knead for a few minutes until the chocolate chips have dispersed throughout the dough as best as possible.
- Divide your dough into 8 equal portions.
- Shape each portion of dough into a ball. Press your finger through the center, creating a hole.
- Stretch the bagel so the center hole is larger. It's helpful to stretch the hole much larger than it normally would be as the hole will shrink while the dough relaxes. Place on your baking sheet.
- Repeat with all the remaining dough portions.
- Cover your baking sheet with a tea towel and prepare your water bath.
- Bring your water to a boil and add the brown sugar and non-diastatic malt, whisking them into the water.
- Depending on the size of your pot, add 1-4 bagels at a time, boiling on the first side for 30 seconds, then flipping and letting them boil another 30 seconds.
- Remove from the water with a spider or slotted spoon and place back on your baking sheet.
- Repeat until all bagels have been boiled.
- Place your baking sheet on the center rack of your oven and bake for about 15-19 minutes. Your bagels should be a rich golden color when they are ready.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a baking sheet. Let your bagels cool before cutting and toasting.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days. Enjoy!
