Master the Art of Making Bagels at Home

'Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish,' is the combo we're craving

Montreal bagels. Photos: Linda Xiao

Several years ago, D.C.-area resident and baking aficionado Cathy Barrow had been craving bagels and she wanted to make them herself. Though she had dabbled in bagel-making, she hadn’t landed on a recipe that would become her go-to.

Then, in 2016, the Washington Post printed a recipe that ensured she’d be making her own bagels for the foreseeable future. “I discovered the power of high-gluten flour, and from that recipe, I went on to find more than a dozen additional bagel recipes that led me to months of experimenting in the kitchen,” she writes in her book, Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish, coming out mid-March. “Eventually, I had the bagel with the chew, the density, the tang, the consistency, and the yield that I wanted.”

You may know Cathy from her books, Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry, Pie Squared, or, When Pies Fly. We’re recommending you add this one to the repertoire.

We’re in a bagel renaissance, one that comes on the heels of the pandemic bread baking revival that continues as people branch beyond no-knead loaves. When we need our bagel fix, we can hit up a location of Black Seed Bagels, or a newly formed bagel CSA, or even visit one of “The 50 best bagels in America” closest to us — but making bagels at home isn’t as hard as it might seem.

“It’s easy to get into bagels,” says Barrow. It’s five ingredients and a standing mixer, which means “there’s literally no way to mess up.”

Bagels, Cathy tells us, have always been a part of her life, delivered to Toledo, Ohio, by way of Boston by her Grandmother Bea. “As she exited the plane. . . our eyes would be trained on the round, striped hatbox tied together with wide, white, white ribbon, stuffed to the brim with bagels from my mother’s favorite Brookline bakery,” she writes. On the way home, her mother would pry open the box, “and the mountain of bagels would fill the car with a wonderful yeasty aroma. I gazed at the tiny poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flakes of onion, beads of garlic. . . “ They were, she says, “the bagels by which I evaluate any others.”

While she’s not giving away the New York-style bagel — you should buy the book for that one and the rest of her recipes — she has shared with us her Montreal bagel as well as the Schmear Master Recipe and Veggie Cheese.

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The Montreal Bagel

Makes: 6

For the bagels

• 3 tablespoons cornmeal, for dusting

• 360 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour

• 175 grams (3/4 cup) water

• 42 grams (2 tablespoons) light clover or wildflower honey

• 15 grams (2 tablespoons) neutral oil, like canola

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

For the topping

• 71 grams (1/2 cup) sesame seeds

For the water bath

• 3 quart (2.8 liters) water

• 85 grams (1/4 cup) light clover or wildflower honey

America’s neighbors to the north make a very different bagel. Montreal bagels are smaller, flatter, there is no tight exterior crust, and the interior crumb is more cakey than chewy. They tend to be craggy, uneven, and a little homely, and are most often thickly covered with sesame seeds on both the top and bottom. They do not require an overnight rise, so this is the bagel to make when you wake up craving a freshly baked bagel for brunch. Montreal bagels are always boiled in sweetened water and baked in a wood oven. Sadly, few of us have a wood-fired oven at home, so this recipe is my best approximation. I think they are ideal for bagel sandwiches and a sweet, tender addition to a bagel brunch at which many people will rhapsodize with stories of trips to St-Viateur and Fairmount bagel bakeries.

Instructions

1. To make the bagels, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scatter the cornmeal evenly across the paper. Set aside.

2. Place the bowl of a stand mixer on a kitchen scale and tare the weight to zero. Measure in the flour, water, honey, oil, salt, and yeast. Place the bowl back on the stand mixer and fit it with the dough hook. On low speed, mix the ingredients together until there are no dry patches of flour showing.

3. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium. Mix until the sides of the bowl are nearly clean, 2 to 3 minutes. The dough may seem dry. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate evenly.

4. Uncover the bowl, turn the mixer speed to medium, and let it run for 5 full minutes, until the dough is smooth and satiny and the sides of the bowl are clean.

5. Scrape the dough onto a clean, unfloured work surface and give it five or six kneads. Divide the dough into six equal pieces, each weighing about 97 grams (3 3/8 ounces). Shape the bagels and stretch the center hole with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands. These will be rougher looking than New York bagels, uneven and bumpy. One at a time, form and place the bagels on the prepared baking sheet. Cover the baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap that has been lightly coated with cooking spray and set in a cool place to rise until slightly puffed, about 1 hour.

6. About 15 minutes before the rise is over, place a pizza stone, Baking Steel, or inverted baking sheet on the oven’s center rack and set the oven to 400°F,

7. To prepare the topping, pour the seeds, if using, into a pie pan or another shallow dish.

8. To make the water bath, add the water and honey to a 5-quart (4.7 liter) or larger pot and bring it to a hard boil. Place a 9x13 inch (23x33 centimeter) piece of parchment on a pizza peel, large cutting board, or a baking sheet flipped over. (You need to be able to easily slide the bagel-laden parchment paper from this surface into the oven.)

9. The bagels will have risen to only about 50 percent more than their starting size. Gently lift one at a time, brushing away any excess cornmeal, and drop it into the boiling water. Repeat with another one or two bagels only if they fit into the pot without crowding. Using a slotted spoon or spider, flip the bagels over and over in the water until very slightly puffed, about 60 seconds and no more than 90 seconds.

10. Transfer each bagel to the pan of seeds, using a chopstick to flip the bagel so the seeds stick to both sides, then move it to the parchment paper on the pizza peel. Repeat with the remaining bagels; six bagels will fit snugly on the parchment paper without touching.

11. Slide the parchment paper with the bagels directly onto the hot surface in the oven and bake until lightly golden brown and shiny, 16 to 20 minutes. To remove the bagels from the oven, slide the parchment right onto the peel. Transfer on their paper to a wire rack to cool.

12. As tempting as it is to grab the hot bagels immediately, allow them to cool slightly before eating. Eat within 4 hours or store.

Reprinted from Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish by Cathy Barrow with permission from Chronicle Books, 2022. Photographs by Linda Xiao.

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Schmear Master Recipe

Makes 9 ounces (255 grams)

Ingredients

• 8 ounces (225 grams) full-fat cream cheese, softened

• 2 tablespoons sour cream or creme fraiche

• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

At the breakfast table, it’s perfectly acceptable to serve up a rectangular brick of Philadelphia cream cheese in its original form. It has the same familiarity as a cylinder of canned cranberry sauce on the Thanksgiving table. A bagel brunch, though, deserves a schmear, which is different from that block of cream cheese. It is more spreadable and creamy, and is the vehicle for flavorful additions.

Instructions

1. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, and lemon juice, increasing the speed as the ingredients combine, until fluffy, lightened, and spreadable, just 1 to 2 minutes. Alternatively, use a medium mixing bowl anda. stiff spoon to combine and then stir and whip vigorously to aerate and lighten the mixture.

2. Pack the schmear into a ramekin or two, cover, and chill until ready to serve. It will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator.

Veggie Cheese

Photo: Linda Xiao

Makes 10 ounces (280 grams)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion

• 1 Schmear Master recipe

• 2 tablespoons finely diced carrot

• 2 tablespoons finely diced celery

• 1 tablespoon finely diced red bell pepper

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh garlic

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Vegetable-spiked cream cheese is difficult to balance — it requires a thoughtful combination of crunch, seasoning, and herbs in every bite. This recipe gives you a little bit of all three.

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, cover the red onion with cold water. Set aside for 10 minutes. Strain and dry the onions on a cloth towel.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the schmear, red onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper, chives, dill, parsley, garlic, and pepper using a stiff spatula. Stir until thoroughly combined.

3. Pack the veggie cheese into a ramekin or two, cover, and chill until ready to serve. It will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator.

Reprinted from Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish by Cathy Barrow with permission from Chronicle Books, 2022. Photographs by Linda Xiao.

The Montreal Bagel + Schmears

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Photo: Linda Xiao

Cathy Barrow is an award-winning author and cook. She has written four cookbooks, Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry, Pie Squared, When Pies Fly, and her newest: Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish. Cathy won an IACP award for best single-subject cookbook for Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry and was nominated for a James Beard Award in the Baking category for Pie Squared. She writes a monthly food column for the Washington Post Food section and has been published by the New York Times, Serious Eats, FOOD52, The Local Palate, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, NPR, and National Geographic.