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The Bakery 100 · make it at home

Wood-fired-style sesame bagels

Overnight, 1 hr hands-on · 10 bagels

Montreal-style: small, dense, sweet, boiled in honey water and baked very hot until crusty, rolled thick in seeds.

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The real one

You need

• 500 g bread flour (4 cups)
• 7 g instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 45 g honey (2 tbsp)
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 220 ml warm water (just under 1 cup)
• For boiling: 3 liters water and 120 g honey (1/3 cup)
• 200 g sesame seeds (1 1/3 cups)

How to make it

1. Dough (15 min): Knead flour, yeast, salt, egg, honey, oil and water 10 minutes into a firm, smooth dough. It should be stiffer than bread dough.
2. Shape (20 min): Divide into 10 pieces. Roll each into a 25 cm rope, wrap it around your hand so the ends overlap under your palm, and roll the join on the counter to seal.
3. Cold rest (overnight): Set on a lined tray, cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. Boil (15 min): Heat the oven as hot as it goes, 260C (500F), with a stone or heavy tray. Bring the water and honey to a simmer. Boil the bagels a minute a side.
5. Seed (5 min): Lift them straight from the water into a deep dish of sesame seeds and turn to coat thickly.
6. Bake (15 min): Bake on the hot stone 12 to 15 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and blistered. Eat warm.

Tips

• Honey in the water gives the shine and slight sweetness.
• For New York style, skip the egg, boil in plain water with a spoon of malt and make them bigger.

Chef Amazing's own home version of bagel, in our words; not any bakery's recipe.