Bagels. So they’re not cake, but they are some kind of special anyway. I’ve been making bagels for about 15 years now, first following the recipe in the Tassajara Bread book, but more recently I have discovered the concept of the Montreal bagel, where sugar in the bread is replaced by honey, and the raw bagel is boiled (to get its chewy crust) in water which has honey and a little baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) in it. They’re so good, you’ll want to beg borrow or steal for them – but you don’t have to because I’m going to tell you how to make them.

I saw (and ate) a truly awesome “Montreal Meat” bagel on Granville Is, Vancouver, during a recent trip to Canada. I think the honey water is the secret to the bread’s flavour! They also had the best gas fired bagel oven ever…

And here is that bagel – piled with corned beef, huge fat pickle on the side – mustard… YUM! Nice view too.

Montreal bagels

ingredients

for the sponge

250mL warm water
60g honey
300g plain flour
1 7g sachet yeast
2 eggs, lightly beaten

for the final mix

1 tsp salt
60mL sunflower oil
450g plain flour

for boiling the bagels

about 2 litres of water
60g honey
1/2 tsp baking soda

mixing

To make the sponge, combine all of the ingredients and beat well for about 3 minutes using the K fitting of an electric mixer (or a whisk if you are working without a mixer). Set aside in a warm place until bubbles form.

Tip the remaining ingredients into the mixture and, using a dough hook mix until a dough forms, then continue mixing until the dough forms a smooth ball which feels soft like your skin (about 10 minutes). You can also knead the dough by hand, but it will take a little longer. If the dough is sticky, add a little more flour, but this shouldn’t be necessary.

Place the ball of dough into a large greased bowl (canola spray works well), and cover it with plastic wrap or a clean plastic bag, and then with a teatowel. Set aside in a warm place to rise for about 50 minutes, or until doubled in size.  Punch the air out of the dough and let rise again for about 20 minutes.

While the dough is rising, prepare the honey water for boiling the bagels. Combine all of the ingredients in a large saucepan over heat. Set aside.

After the second rise, punch the dough down again and form into a loaf shape. Divide this in two, and form loaf shapes again. Divide in half again – this gives you four pieces. Roll these out into longer log shapes, and divide each log into three even pieces, making 12 pieces in all.

Take each piece of dough and roll out into a sausage shape about 2.5cm in diameter and 25cm long. Bring the edges together to form a ring, overlapping the last 2.5cm of the ends and pinching them together as shown in the video below:

Once you have shaped all the bagels, bring the honey water back to the boil, and boil each bagel for 10 seconds, before removing to a tray lined with a baking sheet. Remember to leave the bagels plenty of room to rise and spread. Sprinkle the wet bagels with sesame seeds (the seeds only stick when the bagel is wet).

Let the bagels rise again for about 20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.

Bake the Montreal bagels for about 20 minutes, until golden. When they are properly cooked. the bagels will sound hollow when you tap their bases.

They keep for up to a week in the fridge, though they are best toasted after the first day or two.

Enjoy!xxx