A Little Bit of Everything Bagels

I love a bagel. My signature order for many years has been a twelve grain bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese. And, occasionally, I would switch to an everything bagel with plain cream cheese.

When I saw this recipe, I was intrigued by the title and by the beautiful colour of these bagels. It’s created through a mixture of all purpose flour, rye flour and barley malt syrup. I did not have barley syrup so I supplemented with molasses in both the dough and the water bath. For the dough, I used 1/2 the amount of barley malt syrup.

You add a delightful mix of garlic, onion, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and salt goes directly into the dough. This creates that everything bagel flavour that we all know and love.

Next, you boil the water and add enough barley malt syrup or molasses to create a deep amber colour. Putting in 2-3 at a time helps you move through the bagels faster, and after 30 seconds on each side these get topped with flaky salt (I used crunchy kosher salt) and baked until they are puffed, with a slight sheen. I love the snappy texture of the skin that forms to give these the classic bagel texture. They are chewy, seedy, perfectly salty and delicous.

Note: Claire stresses that it is important to ensure that the bagels have risen for at least 8 hours in the fridge. I didn’t do the float test before boiling, but if you are concerned it’s another great tip!

My favourite part of baking something delicious is sharing with friends and family. Had the opportunity to bring a bagel over to a lovely friend of mine in the neighborhood and she used it to make a beautiful egg sandwich for breakfast!

What do you like to put on your bagels?