Why bagels are worth a slow Saturday morning

Shop-bought bagels are soft, sweet and, frankly, a bit disappointing. A proper bagel is dense but tender, with a glossy, faintly blistered crust and a chew that makes you sit up. The secret is the boiling: a minute or two in simmering water sets the crust before the oven ever sees it, which is why the inside stays springy while the outside turns mahogany. It is a job of two halves — a short spell of shaping on Friday evening or first thing Saturday, then a rest in the fridge overnight, so the actual breakfast work takes less than half an hour. Best of all, you already have everything you need in the cupboard.

The dough, and why the flour matters

You want strong white bread flour, not plain. A 500g bag gives you eight generous bagels, which is about right for two people across a weekend with a couple left over for Monday. You will also need:

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 1 x 7g sachet fast-action yeast
• 10g fine salt
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 300ml warm water — blood temperature, no hotter
• 1 tbsp honey or barley malt extract (optional, but it deepens the flavour and helps the crust colour evenly)

Stir everything together in a large bowl, then knead on a lightly floured worktop for ten minutes. The dough starts rough and shaggy and ends smooth, elastic and only slightly tacky. If it still sticks to your hand after five minutes, dust in a little more flour a teaspoon at a time; if it feels tight and dry, wet your palm and knead that in instead. Cover and leave for an hour, until roughly doubled.

Shaping without the fuss

Knock the dough back, tip it onto the worktop and cut it into eight even pieces. A rough weight of 100g each is a useful guide — a digital scale saves a lot of arguing later. Roll each piece into a tight ball, cover the lot with a clean tea towel and let them relax for fifteen minutes. This rest matters: skip it and the dough will spring back like a rubber band as you roll.

Next, roll each ball into a rope about 22cm long, slightly tapered at the ends. Wrap the rope around your hand, overlapping the ends by about 3cm, and roll the join on the worktop until it seals. You now have a ring with a hole roughly the width of two fingers; the hole will close up a little as the bagel proves and bakes, so don't be shy with it. Sit the shaped bagels on a tray lined with baking parchment and lightly oiled, cover with cling film and put them in the fridge overnight. They will rise slowly and develop a lovely, faintly sour depth.

The boil that makes a bagel a bagel

Next morning, heat the oven to 220°C conventional (200°C fan, gas mark 7) and bring a wide pan of water to a gentle simmer. Add a tablespoon of malt extract, honey or, failing both, a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda — the last gives that unmistakable bronzed crust. Do not let the water boil hard; a rolling boil will dent and wrinkle the bagels.

Lift the bagels out of the fridge and slide two or three at a time into the water. They will sink, then float. Cook for one minute, turn them with a slotted spoon, and cook for another minute. Lift them out, drain briefly on a rack, and place on a baking tray dusted with semolina or polenta to stop them sticking. If you fancy seeds, scatter them over the wet, boiled surface now — they will adhere without any need for egg wash.

Baking and knowing when they are done

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, turning the tray halfway. The bagels should come out deep golden, almost chestnut, with a few darker blisters across the top. If they are pale after 20 minutes, give them another three or four; underbaked bagels are chewy in the wrong way, heavy and doughy in the middle. Cool them on a wire rack for at least twenty minutes before cutting. A hot bagel tears rather than slices, and the steam inside will make the crumb gummy.

The test: tap the base of a bagel with your knuckles. It should sound hollow and feel light for its size. If it thuds, back in it goes.

What to put on them

Plain, they are excellent split and toasted, but a weekend breakfast deserves a little more. The classic pairing is full-fat cream cheese, a few folds of smoked salmon, a squeeze of lemon, some capers and a shaving of red onion. Elsewhere, a softly fried egg with a runny yolk and a grind of black pepper is hard to beat, and a slick of butter and Marmite suits a grey morning perfectly. In summer, sliced tomato, flaky salt and torn basil turn a bagel into something almost Italian; in autumn, cream cheese with a spoonful of honey and a scattering of toasted walnuts feels exactly right.

Anything left over keeps for two days in a paper bag, or freeze them on the day of baking and refresh in a hot oven for six minutes. Split them first, though — a frozen whole bagel takes an age to thaw and never quite recovers. Make a batch this weekend and the whole house will smell of bread by half past nine.