How bagels are made
A bagel is boiled before it is baked, and that dunk in hot water is what gives it a chewy, shiny crust.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 34
- raw sources
- 13
- steps from the ground
- 9
The short version
Bagel dough is among the stiffest of any bread, kneaded from high-gluten flour with barely half its weight in water. Rings of dough rest in the cold for hours, get boiled for a minute or two, and then go into a hot oven. The boil sets the outside before the bake, which makes a chewy crust and dense crumb.
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Knead a stiff dough
Bread flour, water, salt and yeast are kneaded together with a little malt or other sweetener. The dough carries only about half its weight in water, so it is a tough job for a mixer.
50 to 57% hydration
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Form it into rings
A machine cuts the dough into pieces and rolls each one into a ring with a hole in the middle. Work on the first commercially viable bagel machine began in 1958 and eventually replaced hand rolling.
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Rest the rings in the cold
Shaped rings sit for at least twelve hours at fridge temperature. A slow cold rise builds flavor and a better crust.
at least 12 hours at 4 to 10 °C
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Boil each ring
The rings are dropped into hot water, sometimes with baking soda, malt syrup or honey added. The dunk gelatinizes the surface starch, which is the secret of the shiny, chewy skin.
60 to 90 seconds
Goes in -
Bake it hot
Boiled rings go into the oven, often with seeds or salt on top. Heat sets the crust and browns it.
175 to 315 °C
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Cool, slice or freeze
Bagels can be sliced and bagged fresh or frozen. Frozen ones keep for up to six months.
Worth repeating
- A steam bagel skips the boil and is baked in an oven that injects steam, which gives a softer, fluffier result closer to a finger roll.
- Harry Lender and his son Murray pioneered automated production of frozen bagels in the 1960s, and Murray invented pre-slicing the bagel.
- Bagel dough is among the stiffest bread doughs, with hydration of only about 50 to 57 percent.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and bagel starts as these 13 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How bagels are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/bagel