Overnight New York Style Bagels
These bagels are chewy, crusty and properly dense New York Style Bagels. The overnight rise creates the perfect texture and flavor – and you’ll have fresh, hot bagels for breakfast or brunch less than an hour after getting out of bed.
What is a true New York Style Bagel?
I promise you if you follow this recipe correctly you can make a good bagel at home. I mean, there are loads of really bad bagels in the world and life is just too short to eat a bad bagel.
Like a really great loaf of Rye Bread there’s nothing like a true New York style bagel.
A good New York Style Bagel (really, is there any other kind?) must have a nicely dense and chewy texture with a toothsome crust.
To get that characteristic chewiness we’ve got to develop some really strong gluten in the dough.
If you’ve got a sourdough starter, you can make Homemade Sourdough Bagels .
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Bread Flour – Bagels should have a very chewy crumb from a strong gluten network in the dough. High protein bread flour develops plenty of gluten.
- Yeast – I prefer instant yeast to rapid rise yeast for a slightly slower rise. A slow overnight rise gives more time for flavor to develop.
- Barley Malt Syrup – Adds a traditional slightly sweet note to the dough. You can substitute honey or a combination or honey and molasses for the barley malt syrup.
- Toppings – Leave the bagels plain or use your favorite seed for topping. You can mix seeds with salt to make your own “everything” bagel topping”. See the recipe card for details.
- Baking Soda & Sugar – For boiling the bagels. The boiling process creates the specific shiny and chewy bagel crust.
How to make New York style Bagels
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Use a cupped hand to form the a piece of dough into a smooth ball.
- Poke your finger all the way through the center of the ball to make a hole.
- Twirl the dough around your fingers to widen the center hole.
- Set the bagel onto the baking sheet and continue with the rest of the dough.
- Cover the pan and place the bagels in the refrigerator overnight.
- If you want to make the bagels the same day set them aside at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Bring a pot of water with baking soda and sugar to a boil. Preheat the oven.
- Boil the bagels a few at a time, flipping them every thirty seconds. Boil each batch for 2 minutes.
- Transfer the bagels to a rack to drain while you finish boiling the rest of the bagels.
- Brush the boiled bagels with egg white.
- Sprinkle seeds or bagel topping if desired.
- Bake until the bagels are golden brown.
Recipe Tips
- Allow the sponge to rest for 30 minutes before mixing the dough. During that rest the water has time to hydrate the flour and gives us a head start on gluten develop.
- To make the bagels the same day, skip the overnight rise in the refrigerator.
- Bagels are best the day they are baked. For longer term storage slice the bagels about 3/4 the way through and pack them into freezer bags.
- Previously frozen bagels are best if toasted before serving.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a 5-star review.
Overnight Bagel Recipe
Chewy, crusty and properly dense, New York style bagels. They rise overnight so you can have fresh bagels for breakfast or brunch. All they need is a schmear of cream cheese.
bagels
Ingredients
- 16 oz warm water (2 cups (about 100°F))
- ¼ oz instant yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
- 25 oz bread flour (5 cups, divided, see note)
- 1 ½ oz barley malt syrup ( 2 tablespoons, see note)
- 1 tablespoon table salt
- 2 oz granulated sugar (¼ cup (for boiling))
- 2 teaspoons baking soda (for boiling)
- 1 egg white (whisked lightly)
- Topping (Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds or coarse sea salt)
Instructions
- In a bowl for a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl combine 16 oz warm water, ¼ oz instant yeast and 3 cups (15 oz) of the flour . Mix to form a thick batter. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30-60 minutes.
- Add 1 ½ oz barley malt syrup and 1 tablespoon table salt. If using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook. Add the remaining flour and mix to combine. Knead 5 minutes on medium/low speed. If working by hand, stir in as much of the flour as you can, then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in the remaining flour. Knead 5 minutes. Form the dough into a smooth ball.
- Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat the dough. Cover the bowl and set aside to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper lightly sprinkled with flour or sprinkle the pan generously with cornmeal. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Divide the dough into 10 even pieces. Use a cupped hand to roll each piece into a smooth, tight ball.
- To form a bagel, poke your finger all the way through the center of a ball to make a hole. Use two fingers to gently widen the hole. Continue gently stretching to form the bagel or twirl the dough around your fingers to widen the center hole (see photos). The hole should be 1 – 1 ½" wide.
- Place the bagel on the prepared sheet pan and continue to form the remaining bagels. The dough will probably spring back a bit so you can go back and re-stretch them once you're done forming all the bagels. Cover the pan with lighly oiled plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 15 minutes then place the pan in the refrigerator overnight.
- In the morning, take the pan out of the refrigerator. The bagels should be noticeably fuller. Leave the tray out until the bagels come to room temperature, about 1 – 1 ½ hours. The time will vary based on the temperature in the room and how much the dough rose in the refrigerator. Once the dough comes to room temperature the bagels are ready to boil.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 °F. In a large pot combine 1 gallon of water with 2 oz granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons baking soda and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to keep the water at a rolling simmer. Set a cooling rack over a clean sheet pan and place it next to the stove.
- Lift a bagel off the sheet pan and lower it into the boiling water, bottom side down. Depending on the size of your pot, you can boil 3-4 bagels at a time. Boil the bagels for 30 seconds then flip them. Boil the other side for 30 seconds. Repeat the process again for a total of 2 minutes boiling time. Remove the boiled bagels from the water and set them on the cooling rack to drain.
- Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and generously sprinkle with cornmeal (or flour). Place 5 of the boiled bagels on each sheet pan. You could fit them all on one pan but they may rise enough to stick together as they bake. I like all the sides to be crusty so I leave plenty of room between them.
- Brush the bagels with egg white. You can leave the bagels plain or add the topping of your choice. To make "everything" bagels combine a tablespoon of each of sesame seeds, poppy seeds & salt with a 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder and onion powder. Adjust toppings to your taste.
- Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
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Notes
If measuring the flour by volume use the “dip & sweep” method. That is, dip the measuring cup into the flour bin, overfill it, then sweep away the excess.
You can use 1 tablespoon molasses plus 1 tablespoon of honey instead of barley syrup.
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @eileen.bakingsense or tag #bakingsense!
I had the same issue as another reviewer in that my bagels never really rose. They tasted great and had a nice texture, but they were flat. Not sure where I went wrong – I followed the recipe exactly. The dough was very stretchy when I shaped the bagels, but when I took them out of the fridge the next morning, they had spread out and the dough seemed very wet. Any suggestions on what I could do differently next time? I’d definitely like to try again!
Hi Kristi, Did the bagels not rise at all, or did they spread out and not up? Did the dough feel airy the next day, or dense? You can see in the photo that my bagels did rise out as well, almost touching the next day and the center hole is smaller. But they do puff up in the oven. Make sure to flour the pan so the bagels don’t stick. If the dough is sticking to the pan that could cause the bagels to deflate as you lift them off the pan to put them in the boiling water.
They didn’t seem to rise much, but the little bit they did they seemed to rise out and not up. And I’d say the dough was more airy than dense the next day. I’ll try flouring the pan next time as you suggested. Thanks for the quick response!
Any idea what the difference in boiling/baking time would be for making mini bagels with the recipe?
Hi Michelle. I think the boiling time might be about the same. But the baking time would probably be shorter. I would start checking them at 10 minutes. Of course it depends how “mini” they are.
Just came across this recipe and am so excited to try it out. We don’t have any bagel shops where I live other than Panera so we constantly are craving bagels! Where would I find barley malt syrup at the grocery store? Thanks!
Hi Ashley. In my grocery I find barley malt syrup In the baking aisle. You can also find it on line at amazon.
Would this recipe work for the rolling out method instead of the punched out method? I really want to incorporate ingredients into the dough.
What do you mean by the “rolling out” method? Do you mean rolling and cutting circles form the dough like donuts?
You cut the dough into individual sections and then instead of sticking your finger through it you rolling it out into a thin disc and roll it up into a log and then overlap the two ends
Oh, got it. I did these bagels with both methods to see if it was true that “rolling” makes a chewier texture. The texture of the bagels was just about the same with either shaping method. I find poking the finger through method a little easier. But you can do it either way.
Eileen, my family loved these!! They came out perfect! Thank you for your post I’m so glad I found them. I made 3 that night and 9 the next day and you are right I love the over night but the ones we had that day they were still good!! Thank you again
Thanks, Melaney! If you ever get into sourdough baking (or maybe your already do?) try my Sourdough Bagels for a real treat.