NY Style Bagels

I don’t know where you live, but have you ever lived if you haven’t had real NY style bagels? I think the answer may be no. You might have a fantastic bagel shop in your town. But how do you know how they rank unless you have eaten the gold standard? Maybe ignorance (in the kindest sense of the word) is bliss. I present you the only bagel recipe you’ll need, NY style bagels.

I’m not a New Yorker, but I do live next door in Connecticut. I also have family members who live in the city. I grew up being sent H&H bagels for Christmas morning and honestly I may have looked forward to the salt bagels more than the presents. Maybe not but today? 100%. New Yorkers will tell you their bagels and pizza are superior because of their water. I don’t know if that’s the case but they are delicious, the perfect amount of chew. You don’t want a bagel that’s too soft, or too bready. It needs to have that crust and a dense interior.

What are NY Style Bagels?

NY style bagels are not the first or only kind of bagels in the world. There are many types made around the world with similarities but also with key differences. Montreal style bagels are thinner, poached in honey water and wood-fired. Chicago style are often sourdough, but otherwise similar to NY. Bialys are a Polish baked good that looks similar to a bagel, but only has a center divot (no hole) and is not boiled. Bagels are also popular in middle eastern countries with the Jerusalem bagel being one of the most popular. It is thinner, more oval shaped and often sweeter than our traditional bagel.

NY Style bagels get that signature chew, shine and flavor by a few things but one is the use of barley malt (or non-diastatic malt powder). Boiling the bagels gelatinizes the starches and kills the yeast preventing much additional rise in the oven. The barley malt adds a tiny bit of sweetness, and helps with the Maillard reaction which is when your baked goods get that beautiful browning on the exterior. Without boiling the bagels, you essentially just have bread shaped like a bagel. It might have a crust immediately leaving the oven but will end up quite soft. No good for a bagel.

Baking Tips

Don’t confuse diastatic malt for non-diastatic malt. They are different ingredients with different functions. Diastatic (what we DON’T want) is made from barley as well but the enzymes within the barley are still active, which helps boost rise. Non-diastatic malt does NOT have active enzymes, and does not help with rise but enhances flavor. It helps create the signature flavor of NY style bagels. It also helps with browning.

Boil in small batches and set a timer. I like to boil the bagels in batches of 3 or 4. You don’t want to crowd them but this also makes it easier to know which bagels went in first, middle and last and flip them right when they need to be. How long you boil bagels for will have an effect on their crust. Personally I find about 30-45 seconds on each side is the sweet spot.

I would recommend cutting your parchment into squares and placing each bagel on it’s own square. The dough tends to stick to the parchment after the long cold proof, so you can easily transfer these to the water with the paper on them, and peel it off once it’s wet without deflating the bagel. Also, semolina flour/cornmeal could be sprinkled on the parchment to help with this as well.

My recipe calls for an overnight cold proof. Do you have to do this? On this recipe, yes. If you would like a non-overnight recipe, I have recipes on this site, see Spicy Garlic & Onion Bagels, Pretzel Bagels that don’t require this step. However, after comparing a batch that has been cold proofed to one that hasn’t.. if you want that real NY style bagels appearance, and you have to do the cold proof. Otherwise, you just don’t have the same crust or chew.

When your bagels are proofing, make sure the pan is covered well. I would not recommend aluminum foil. My favorite way to cover things like bagels or cookie dough is this pan set: Half sheet pan with lid.

Another benefit of the cold proof is that you can have bagels first thing in the morning. The kneading, first proof, and shaping is done the day before, just boil and bake! But, if you don’t want to wait, leave the bagels at room temperature, covered for about 20 minutes before boiling and baking.

This recipe makes 8 large bakery size ny style bagels, but if you want smaller bagels you could divide the dough into 10-12 portions instead of 8. They can be made plain or topped with almost anything your heart desires.

Also, these bagels will be hard when they come out of the oven, but soften as they cool off. It’s best to wait until they have completely cooled before enjoying.

NY Style Bagels Key Ingredients

• High Gluten Flour – Bread flour is great but there are even higher protein flours like this High Gluten Flour from King Arthur which has 14% protein vs their bread flour which has 12.7%. Regular bread flour will work perfectly if you don’t want to spring for such a specialized flour though. This recipe is really not the recipe to substitute all purpose flour. If there is any recipe I say get the higher protein flour for, it’s this one. The texture of the bagel is one of the main differentiators that will make or break your NY bagel experience.
• Non Diastatic Malt Powder – You want to make sure you get NON diastatic malt powder, and not diastatic malt powder which has a different function. I personally get mine from King Arthur but you can find it on Amazon and specialty food stores.

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