Crisp, chewy, and fluffy New York style sourdough bagels will take your everyday bagel up a notch or two.
New York Style Sourdough Bagels
We’re carrying on this week with our love of all things sourdough. And, if you adore sourdough (or bagels, for that matter) as much as we do, you need this recipe in your life.
Like most naturally leavened breads, sourdough bagels take more time to make, but are 100% worth the effort. They are crisp on the outside, chewy and fluffy on the inside, and full of flavour. Combined with roasted garlic labneh, these sourdough bagels will impress any bagel and cream cheese lover, we promise!
How to make New York style sourdough bagels
The most important ingredient for this recipe is an active sourdough starter. Starter (wild yeast) replaces traditional dry yeast for this recipe and, when combined with a long proofing time, adds boatloads of flavour to your traditional bagel.
If you don’t have a starter or are new to the process, be sure to visit this post to learn all about making and keeping your very own sourdough starter. Other than having an active starter, there are only 4 other ingredients you’ll need to make these sourdough bagels at home (not including your toppings):
- Unbleached Bread or All-Purpose Flour
- Cold Water
- Fine Salt
- Malt or Maple Syrup
Like any New York style bagel, this recipe involves poaching the bagel dough before baking – poaching gives these bagels their chewy texture and super soft crust. We share exactly how to do this in the recipe card below.
How much longer do sourdough bagels take to make?
Standard bagel recipes typically take roughly 3 hours to make from start to finish. However, if you want to make this sourdough variation, you’ll need to give yourself a generous 26 hours. The key with any sourdough is a long proofing time (12-24 hours); this allows the dough to ferment slowly and develop that classic sourdough flavour.
Shaping Sourdough Bagel Dough
There are several different ways to shape bagel dough, however, this simple 3-step method is our favourite:
- Flatten a small ball of bagel dough into a disc and use your fingertips to roll it into an 8″ log shape.
- Wrap the log around your three middle fingers and bring the ends together to overlap by about 2″. The seam should be on the inside of your palm.
- Using the palm of your hand, gently roll the seam side on a clean work surface until the ends are joined together.
Consider your bagels shaped!
Labneh – and why you want it on your sourdough bagel
If you’re looking for something new, or a slightly healthier spread for your bagel, we highly recommend giving homemade labneh a try! Made with tangy plain yogurt, combined with New York style sourdough bagels, labneh will set you on the path to flavour country!
Like any cream cheese, you can add fresh herbs, honey, or roasted garlic (our favourite) to personalize your labneh. We have a great recipe for roasted garlic labneh, however, if that’s not your thing, we also have a recipe for sumac labneh. Feel free to experiment with your favorite flavours!
If you made our New York style sourdough bagels, we’d love to hear all about it! Tag us on instagram at @baked_theblog and #bakedtheblog. We’d also love to hear from you in the comments below.
Happy Baking!
Looking for more recipes like this one?
If you love bagels or sourdough bread, why not check out some of our other recipes in these categories:
Everyday No-Knead Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Crackers with Homemade Za’atar
Recipe
New York Style Sourdough Bagels
Description
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- Stand mixer
- Whisk
- Mixing bowl
- Tea towel
- baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Large pot
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 1 cup active sourdough starter
- 1 ¼ cups cold water
- 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup, or maple syrup
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons fine salt
- Flour, or semolina for proofing
For Boiling
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
Day 1
- In the bowl of a stand mixer* fitted with a paddle attachment, mix your bubbly, active starter with the water and maple syrup until well-combined. Alternatively, mix in a standard large bowl with a fork or whisk.
- Add in the flour and salt and transition to a dough hook. Knead on medium until the dough is smooth and somewhat pliable, about 6-7 minutes. Alternatively, knead the dough by hand on a countertop until smooth and pliable.
- Shape into a ball (return to bowl, if applicable) and cover bowl with a towel. Rest 20 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces for large bagels or 10 equal pieces for smaller ones. Shape each piece into a small ball by tucking the corners underneath, cupping the dough, and rolling it in a circular fashion on a clean, flour-free countertop. This helps to create surface tension and a skin on the ball.
- Cover dough balls and rest another 15 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle generously with flour or semolina. Note: If you make 10 bagels, you will need to use 2 baking sheets.
Shape The Bagels (Two Options)
Option 1
- Flatten the ball of dough into a disc and use your fingertips to roll into a log about 8 inches (20 cm) long.
- Wrap the log around your three middle fingers with the ends overlapping by 2 inches (5 cm) on the inside of your hand.
- Roll gently, palm down, until the ends are joined together. This will create a larger hole in the centre of the bagel.
Option 2
- Poke a hole with your finger directly through the centre of the dough ball.
- Insert both index fingers into the hole and roll fingers around each other to stretch out the centre (like a barrel roll) until it’s about the size of a walnut. This will create a smaller bagel hole, but is much faster and more efficient to do.
- Place on the lined baking sheet and repeat with the rest of the bagels. This is a fun step to do with kids 3 years old or older.
Shaping complete
- Cover the shaped bagels with a towel, let them proof at room temperature for 2.5 to 4.5 hours, or until puffy. This could take more time, depending on the temperature in your house.
- Take a test bagel and place it in cold water. If it floats, they’re done proofing. Dry the test bagel off and return to the baking sheet. If it sinks, it still needs to proof longer.
- Once proofed, cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate 12 to 24 hours.
Day 2
- Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Place toppings on flat plates, so they are ready to go.
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and add the baking soda and brown sugar.
- Remove the bagels from the fridge and gently place them, a couple at a time, into the water.
- Boil for 15 to 20 seconds on each side.
- Remove boiled bagels with a slotted spoon to get rid of most of the water.
- Shake off excess water and immediately dip the top of bagel into desired toppings.
- Set back on the baking sheet.
- Repeat this process with the remaining bagels.
- Place the baking sheet into the center of the oven and turn it down to 400°F (200°C).
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden on top.
- Cool on a wire rack until ready to serve.
BKA says
I decided to play around with the toppings and used huevos con chorizo and shredded cheese to top one set of bagels. The other set I made prosciutto, basil and Parmesan/ Pecorino Romano with a truffle sprinkle. Brunch-meal styled bagels with the best bagel recipe you gave us. Thank You Thank You
A says
I’ve made this recipe several times now and it’s terrific! I have 10 lovely sesame seed bagels cooling right now. Thanks for the great recipe!
Irv Nachamkin says
I’ve tried a number of different recipes and this one is one of the best. I used a mix of bread flour, all purpose flour and rye flour in the recipe, great flavor and texture!
Donna says
I love the way you changed the recipe to mark off what done.
This is our go to recipe at home for bagels
Birdie says
These are my go-to bagel recipe. I make them almost every week. I swap the barley malt syrup for an equal amount of maple or 20g honey. And today I discovered that if you overproof your bagels, just sling them in the oven as is for 20ish minutes… you have sandwich rolls! I forgot mine were proofing and let them go for like 12 hours. They were too soft to boil without collapsing, so I just baked them off to see what would happen. Amazing sammich rolls or dinner rolls for a big bowl of brothy soup.
Silasioak says
I’ve probably made these a dozen times now, and they’re fantastic! Definitely important to let them proof long enough – the one time I got impatient and they still weren’t floating I went ahead and baked them, and they tasted fine, but the texture was so chewy and impossible to spread anything onto!
Mindy says
Did you recipe change ingredients from gram measurements for to cups/tbsp? I tried the recipe with these ratios and my dough looks a lot different than it has in the past, much darker. Do you have the old gram measurements available still?
Thanks,
Mindy
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Mindy, they’re both here, but you have to click the pink ‘Metric’ label above the ingredient list. For any sourdough recipes we recommend using metric only, but this is an older recipe and some readers prefer to see the cup measurements.
A Winter says
Thank you for the tip regarding when the bagels have proofed enough to boil & bake! I often struggle with knowing when bagels are proofed, especially if I make different sized bagels. The float test worked perfectly for me!
Em says
Hi there,
I love your bagel recipe and have used it to make bagels I actually sell to my neighbours! I’m wondering about scaling up production, and fridge space. Ideally I’d like to bulk proof my dough the day before, and then leave it in the fridge over night- and shape and final proof it the next day. Have you ever experimented with this? The current method you describe is to portion and shape first and then fully proof on trays at Room temp and over night in the fridge.
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Em, unfortunately we’ve never tried that method – you might have to test this out yourself and see how it goes!
Mercedes says
This recipe deserves 10 stars. I’ve made it twice over the past several years (I’m very sporadic with my sourdough making lol) and each time the bagels came out perfect. Absolutely delicious, perfect texture, crumb, toasting, even got some little blisters on the surface, which is very sought after in the bread making club lol
I will always come back to this recipe whenever I’m craving a proper bagel!!!
Silas says
Hi! Thanks for the incredible recipe, I’ve made it dozens of times now and I think my bagels are the best in town!
Question – I’d love to ramp up production but I’m wondering how well the dough freezes and at what stage I should freeze it. I’m thinking before shaping, but maybe before separating them into individual balls? Have you experimented with this? Thanks!!!
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Silas, while we haven’t tried freezing the bagel dough in particular, with any other sourdough I freeze after the first prove. Then thaw, shape, and prove again as usual. Since this recipe doesn’t do an initial bulk ferment, I would freeze after kneading but before shaping as you mention. Then thaw and shape as usual (best to thaw in the fridge to avoid over-proving around the edges).
Mary says
Hi Alexandra,
I am going to make this recipe today, and am wondering if I can use Barley Malt Syrup in the boiling water instead of Brown Sugar. In a recipe I use that uses yeast instead of sourdough, I just the BMS, and the taste and crispiness are perfect.
I’ll come back and rate the recipe after I bake them tomorrow morning,
Thanks!
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Mary, syrup should be perfectly fine to use. I’ve made these with honey, sugar, date syrup – all have worked well. Good luck!