Welcome to Bon Appétit Bake Club, a community of curious bakers. Each month senior test kitchen editors Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic share a must-make recipe and dive deep on why it works. Come bake and learn with us—ask questions, share pics, listen to our podcast, and lots more here. And don't forget to join the Bake Club Group chat over on Substack.
Making homemade bagels might sound like a big project, but the results are well worth the effort. With nothing more than a handful of staple pantry ingredients, you can make a dozen delightfully chewy bagels that rival the most viral of New York bagel shops. The alchemy of the perfect bagel all comes down to a two-pronged cooking process: once in boiling water and once in the oven. This dual approach gives the bagels their signature chew, tanned sheen, and pleasantly dense (but not tough) interior. This homemade bagel recipe uses baking soda in place of the typical lye, and forgoes the need for specialty sweeteners like barley malt syrup. These swaps truly make this recipe pantry-friendly, and the end result does not suffer in the least. In fact, when tasted side by side against bagels made with these ingredients, the bagel dough performed just as well, if not better. They still had a chewy texture, shiny exterior (without the need for an egg wash), and a crisp shell that gave way to a plush interior. We like to serve the bagels lightly toasted with a thin spread of cream cheese and keep our leftovers in zip-top bags on the counter.
And for a little bit of fun: You can top these bagels with just about anything you like. Right before they hit the oven, sprinkle them with whatever toppings you want. Some of our favorites are furikake, sesame seeds, raw sugar with a touch of gochugaru, and finely grated Parmesan. You could even use thinly sliced jalapeño, cheddar, or big flakes of sea salt if you’re feeling crazy. Just make sure to work quickly, as the residual water slicked on the boiled bagels is what glues the toppings onto them.
