Overnight New York Style Bagels

These New York style bagels are perfectly chewy & are cold proved overnight for extra flavour. They make great sandwiches & are super easy to prepare!

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Here’s how to make a batch of bakery quality New York style bagels at home! We’re making these as authentic as possible, which includes the use of barley malt extract in the dough & the all important boiling process before baking that gives New York bagels their distinctive crust & chewy texture.

To give our bagels extra flavour, we’re going to be giving them a long, cold prove in the fridge before baking them. This gives them a more developed flavour & also means that we don’t need to keep an eye on them as they prove. These bagels can also be boiled & baked straight from the fridge which is a win in my eyes!

Homemade New York style bagels make fantastic sandwiches, whether they’re filled with cream cheese & smoked salmon, bacon, egg & cheese or pastrami, mustard & pickles. If you’ve got a favourite bagel filling, we’d love to hear about it in the comments at the bottom of this page…

For more recipes, take a look at our ever growing collection of bread recipes! There’s buns, rolls, sourdough, pizza doughs, doughnuts & lots more…

What You’ll Need

• Flour – When making New York style bagels, it’s key to use a strong white bread flour with a protein content of at least 14% as this is what gives bagels their chewy texture.
• Malt Extract – Malt extract syrup is what gives New York style bagels their authentic flavour. We’re using this in the bagel dough & in the boiling liquid. Malt extract is available in some supermarkets or online.
• Yeast – I find that cold proved doughs work best with dried active yeast (the type that needs activating first) as appose to instant yeast.
• Salt – A good sea salt works best when making bread doughs. I tend to use Maldon salt.
• Bicarbonate Of Soda – Added to the boiling liquid. This gives the bagels a deeper colour once baked.
• Toppings – You can top your bagels with pretty much whatever you like! I used poppy seeds, sesame seeds & a homemade everything bagel seasoning.
• Semolina – New York style bagels are often baked on top of a light sprinkling of semolina or cornmeal to stop them sticking to the baking paper. This also adds some extra texture but is entirely optional.

How To Make Overnight New York Bagels

These New York style bagels are made with an overnight dough for extra flavour! Here we mix the dough, give it a quick rest then shape & prove in the fridge overnight. The long cold prove gives these bagels a more complex flavour & means that we can shape them the day before & cook straight out of the fridge.

Overnight bagel doughs are a bit different to regular bread dough as in it doesn’t need to double in size before shaping. In fact it only needs a very short rest after being mixed. We’re talking 10 minutes or so! It just needs enough time to relax the gluten so that it’s easy to shape. Then once shaped, we give the bagels a day in the fridge to ferment. It’s a super easy way to make bagels & you don’t have to keep an eye on them!

1. Bagel Dough

To make our bagel dough, first we stir water (warmed to 38°c/100°f) with dried active yeast then leave to go frothy. Then we add the yeast & water to the bowl of a stand mixer along with strong white bread flour, sea salt & malt extract syrup. This gets mixed on a medium-low speed until we get a smooth dough that passes the windowpane test. This will take around 10 minutes on a medium-low speed.

Once mixed, we cover the dough with a tea towel then let it rest for 10 minutes before shaping.

The Windowpane Test

The best way to assess the gluten development in your dough is by using the windowpane test. Here, you take a small piece of dough & stretch it between your fingers. If it stretches thin enough so that you are able to see through it, enough gluten has been developed. If it tears, more kneading is required.

2. Shaping

We shape our bagels in 2 stages. First, we divide the dough into 130 gram pieces, shape into balls then leave to bench rest for 5 minutes, covered in a damp tea towel. This relaxes the gluten, making it easier to shape the dough.

Then to shape the balls of dough into bagels, we use a thumb & index finger to pinch/poke a hole through the middle then we gently widen the hole so that it’s around an inch wide. Once shaped, we place each bagel onto its’ own square of greased parchment paper (this prevents the dough sticking).

3. Cold Prove

Once shaped, we let our bagels sit at room temperature for 30 minutes then chill them in the fridge for 18-24 hours. Make sure to loosely cover the bagels with some oiled clingfilm, to prevent a skin forming.

You’ll be able to tell when your bagels are proved as they will have increased in volume & they’ll be lots of tiny bubbles in the dough. You could also perform the “float test” which is where we place a bagel into a bowl of room temperature water. If it floats, it’s ready to boil & bake.

If you’re kitchen is especially warm, it would be best to go with a 15 minute room temperature rest instead of a 30 minute one. On the other hand, if your kitchen is cold, it would be best to extend the room temperature rest by 15 minutes or so. The temperature of my kitchen tends to be around 25°c/78°f.

4. Boiling & Topping

The next day, we need to preheat an oven to 220°c/428°f. We also need to line a large baking tray with baking parchment & top with a light layer of semolina, which we’ll be cooking our bagels on.

To prepare our boiling liquid we pour 2 litres of water into a large saucepan, add in 2 tbsp of malt extract & 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) then set over a high heat & bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to melt the syrup. Once the water is boiling, we turn the heat down slightly so that it’s at a constant but gentle boil.

Next, we carefully add 2 or 3 bagels into the water (depending on the size of your pan) then boil for 1 minute on each side. Then we use a slotted spoon to lift each bagel out of the water & onto a wire rack set over a tray so that they can drain momentarily. The boiled bagels should now be topped with seeds whilst they’re still tacky then we place them onto the semolina dusted baking tray & repeat with the remaining un boiled bagels.

Bagel Boiling Workflow

Here’s my workflow for boiling & topping bagels before baking them! Here I boil a couple of bagels at a time, drain them on a wire rack then top them with seeds (or whatever topping you like!) whilst they’re still tacky. If you let the bagels dry out too much, the seeds won’t stick!

1. Line a large tray with baking parchment then sprinkle with semolina. Set this aside for now.
2. Next, get your boiling water on the stove & bring to the boil. Then in the meantime, set a wire cooling rack onto a baking tray & set to one side.
3. Once your water is boiling, add in 2 or 3 bagels (depending on how big your pan is) then boil for 1 minute on each side.
4. Use a slotted spoon to lift the bagels out of the water & onto the cooling rack.
5. Whilst the bagels are draining, add 2 or 3 more bagels into the boiling water.
6. Top the boiled bagels with seeds/bagel seasoning whilst the next batch is boiling then transfer to the semolina dusted baking tray.
7. Repeat this process until all of your bagels are boiled then bake.

5. Baking

Once all of our bagels are boiled & topped, we bake them for 14-16 minutes until they are a deep golden brown then let them cool on the tray. Don’t worry if the crust seems too crisp when the bagels come out of the oven as they will soften as it cools.

Tips & Tricks

• For an authentic New York style bagel flavour, use malt extract syrup in the dough & the boiling water.
• Prove the dough overnight in the fridge to give your bagels a more developed flavour. Make sure to cover them with clingfilm to stop a skin forming.
• Homemade bagels are best served the same day as they were made so serve them fresh or toast them instead!
• Use a big saucepan to boil your bagels in. The water will increase in volume when we add the bicarbonate of soda in so it’s important to use a big enough pan so that it doesn’t over flow.
• Make sure that your water is at a constant boil before adding in the bagels. If the water isn’t hot enough the bagels could collapse & the crust won’t develop properly.
• Top your bagels almost straight after boiling (they should be tacky) so that the toppings stick properly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Equipment Used

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• Stand Mixer
• Thermapen Food Probe
• Malt Extract Syrup

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