New York Style Bagels

A white bowl with bagels, each topped with sesame seeds or poppy seeds or flaky salt, arranged in a pile.

Print Recipe

4.77 from 46 votes

Freshly baked, chewy, glossy and authentic bagels are less than an hour away with this easy steam oven recipe.

Prep Time5

Cook Time20

proving time30

Total Time55

Course: Breads, Breakfast, lunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bagels, steam oven bagels

Servings:

Calories: 213kcal

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups water lukewarm; increase quantity as needed to get the right dough consistency
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
3 1/2 cups unbleached white bread flour plus extra for kneading
1 ½ tsp salt
sesame seeds or poppy seeds, flaky salt, caraway seeds, onion flakes or garlic flakes, for topping
1 egg white only, lightly beaten, to stick on toppings

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Method
Put water in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the sugar and yeast over the top. Leave for 5 minutes until the yeast is beginning to bubble, then add the flour and salt. Mix well with a dough hook until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl and is smooth and elastic – about 5-7 minutes. If it’s looking too dry, add just enough extra water for it to come together in a single clean ball.
Put the bowl into your steam oven and set the oven to 38⁰C/100⁰F (if you have variable humidity settings, use 100%). Prove the dough for 30 minutes, by which time it should have roughly doubled in size. Remove the dough from the oven and turn it out onto a flour-dusted bench.
Set the oven to 100⁰C/212⁰F, steam setting (100% humidity). Line a couple of baking trays with silicone paper and set aside.
Gently press and knead the dough to knock it down, then divide into 8 equal portions.
Roll each portion into a ball, then use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke a hole in the middle of each dough ball. Gently stretch and pull each piece of dough until the hole is about 5cm/2” in diameter, then put them onto the lined trays – I like to put 4 on each tray, allowing plenty of room for spreading.
When all your bagels are shaped, put the trays into the oven and steam for 6 minutes. Remove from the oven and change the setting to 200⁰C/392⁰F, combination steam setting. If you have variable humidity settings, use 50-60% (if not, don't worry! Just select the combi steam setting and the correct temperature, and the oven will work out the humidity for you).
While the oven heats, add your preferred toppings to the bagels by brushing each one with a little beaten egg white then sprinkling over seeds, salt or flakes. Or create ‘everything’ bagels by throwing a bit of all the toppings on.
Return the bagels to the preheated oven and cook until they are golden brown, shiny and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom – about 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly then eat with whatever fillings you like.

Notes

These chewy, dense bagels sit squarely in the New York style bagel camp, as opposed to the Canadian/Montreal style bagels which are smaller, sweeter and use a dough enriched with eggs.

This method calls for a stand mixer and dough hook attachment but you can certainly make the dough by hand if you like. Just mix with a spoon until it starts to come together, then turn it out and knead for 5-10 minutes by hand until it’s smooth and elastic before proceeding with the rest of the steps.

Nutrition