NY-style Bagels & Caramelized Onion Schmear

For all you non-bakers out there mark my words: you can do this.

I'm very into cooking yet I've always felt a certain aversion towards baking. To some of you that might sound surprising because they are exceedingly similar activities right? WRONG. Taking the same approach to baking as I do to cooking has resulted in more frustration than I could possible convey, and all of that frustration can be 100% ascribed to my stubbornly undying nonchalance.

By now you might have noticed that I'm not a very precise person. Often these recipes call for "a bunch" or "a glass" or "a mountain" of an ingredient, and while some part of that is laziness from my side (sorry not sorry), the reason we can be so delightfully unspecific is because often it just doesn't matter. If you like the ingredient that goes in, it's not gonna hurt nobody to put in a little more. If you cook a lot your sense of limitations here get developed (e.g. in the case of parmesan there are none) and over time you just don't have to be all that precise.

Baking is not like cooking. Baking is like chemistry. You don't add baking soda because you like the taste of baking soda, baking soda magically does something to whatever you're baking that will make it better. Somehow. And before you've fully mastered the chemistry behind these products there is no room for experimentation. None.

Having all that said: this was very easy, even I managed.

Ingredients #

For 8 bagels:

• 6g active dry yeast
• 19g granulated sugar
• 300ml warm water
• 440g flour
• 6g salt
• Baking soda
• Honey
• Sesame seeds (black and white)
• Flaky salt
• Fennel seeds
• Chili flakes

To schmear:

• 200gr plain cream cheese
• Butter
• 2 yellow onions
• Smoked paprika
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper

• Anything else you'd like as a topping of course, complete artistic freedom!

Method #

1. Add half of your warm water together with the yeast and the sugar in a small bowl. Stir to combine and let sit for a few minutes until it’s gotten a bit foamy.

2. To a large bowl add your flour and salt, make a well in the middle and add your watery-yeasty-sugary mix. Pour the remainder of your warm(ish) water into the bowl and start mixing it allz together with a wooden spoon or spatula.

3. When the dough starts coming together turn it out onto a floured working surface and take a deep breath because SURPRISE: we’re doing a workout today! You’re gonna want to knead the dough for about 15-20 minutes, adding more flour to it as you go along. In the beginning my dough was very sticky so don’t worry about adding “too much” flour, there’s basically no such thing. Once you’ve actually kneaded the dough for 15-20 minutes you’ll have guaranteed yourself lovely chewy bagels, as well as biceps.

4. Place the dough into a bowl, wrap it in plastic foil and let it sit for an hour or two so that it can double in size. Once your dough has proofed, start by heating up your oven to 220 Celsius and put your largest pot with water on the stove. To your pot add a teaspoon of baking soda and about two tablespoons of honey, and start bringing this to a boil. Also prepare a baking sheet with baking paper for your bagels to go on later.

5. While your water and oven heat up, punch your dough down to get rid of most of the air in it and divide it into 8 equal(ish) dough balls. On your work surface without adding flour to it, start rolling a dough ball by cupping the palm of your hand and moving it with the dough ball over the surface in a circular motion. This way the dough will pull into itself and start forming a perfect ball shape. I realize this instruction could most likely benefit from a picture but hey, my hands were cupped rolling balls of dough, no time.

6. When you’ve formed 8 beautiful balls let them rest for a few minutes, while prepping your bagel toppings. I found it easiest to jump dump a big bunch of the toppings onto a plate and then dunk the bagel in there before baking. I made three versions: one plain sesame, one black sesame, and one improvised everything bagel with both sesame seeds, some flaky salt, chili flakes and fennel seeds. I surely did not measure quantities here so just use your best judgement.

7. Now it’s time to shape your bagels! There’s different ways to do this, but pragmatic as I am I found poking a whole in the middle of your dough ball and stretching it out a little using your index fingers to be the easiest way to go.

8. Once all bagels are formed they’re gonna take a brief bath in your boiling water before being topped and baked in the oven. Add as many bagels to the boiling water as your pan will fit, in my case I could do two at the time. They’ll float pretty much immediately, boil them for a minute, then flip them around and boil for another minute on the other side.

9. Once done, dunk the bagels onto one of the plates with topping and place it on the baking sheet while finishing the others. Then bake the bagels for 20-25 minutes in the oven, or until beautifully golden.

10. While your bagels are baking, slice your onions in rings or half rings and add them to a pan with a little bit of butter. Slowly caramelize your onions over medium heat. Once your onions have completely softened and darkened after about 20 minutes, take them off the heat and let them cool a little bit. In a small bowl combine your cream cheese with a teaspoon each of smoked paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. Add your caramelized onions to the mix together with some black pepper and add salt to taste.

Diggggggg-IN!

Making these was weirdly empowering! It’s most certainly baking, but not at all fussy, and I mean your house will smell like freshly baked bread. That you made. How awesome.