February 21, 2021
Valentine’s Day this year landed right in the midst of Lunar New Year. In between enjoying all of my favorite fare during Lunar New Year, I also took a break to make some homemade heart shaped bagels in the spirit of Valentine’s Day. I just had to take the opportunity to make two of my favorite bagel flavors – everything seasoning and asiago cheese. My love for everything bagels go way back to my childhood growing up in Brooklyn. My mom would buy an everything bagel packed with a generous layer of cream cheese for me on my way to school. My older brother, Pete, on the other hand, was a bit more adventurous and would always ask for a cream cheese and grape jelly filled <insert a new flavor every other day> bagel warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds as his breakfast of choice. With our favorite bagels in hand, we went on our merry way to school without complaints. My love for bagels continued to grow as I grew older. In my teens, I continued to order a bagel for breakfast on my way to school. Sometimes, I even order a second bagel on my way home from school. My teenage years were also the years where I discovered my love for scallion cream cheese. Bagel Boy had opened up in Sheepshead Bay and I started seeing lines upon lines of people heading there. Out of curiosity, I stepped inside and saw a whole world of bagel and cream cheese selections. The scallion cream cheese and vegetable cream cheese both caught my eye and the rest is history. Bagel Boy and its endless combo of bagels and cream cheeses became my go-to spot for getting my fix of bagels whenever my cravings struck. My cravings for bagels continued way into my college years. During my college years, I discovered my love for asiago cheese bagels. They were one of the more popular bagel flavors served on café menus around Michigan campus. I would often swing by the undergraduate library on central campus to grab a bagel with a packet of cream cheese in between lectures. No matter how many bagels I ate, I never grew tired of them. I didn’t realize how much I missed the perfectly chewy New York style bagels or nostalgic crispy cheesy Ann Arbor asiago bagels until I moved to Ohio. Shortly after moving to Ohio, I started to miss the beloved foods I would get all the time back home and in college. Flash forward to ten years later and I am still finding ways to recreate all of the foods I loved. Bagels, being one of my absolute favorite foods in the world, was definitely on my list of priority foods I had to learn to recreate in my own kitchen. A couple months ago, I set out to recreate the beloved bagels I remember eating back in Brooklyn and Ann Arbor. When I thought back to those bagels, I remembered a few key characteristics. The bagels in Brooklyn mainly had a golden brown, crispy exterior, and an ultra-chewy dense interior. The asiago bagels in Ann Arbor were softer with a much fluffier interior than the ones in Brooklyn. In my journey to create the ideal bagel, I studied the components of a bagel. Bagels were typically made of a high gluten flour, yeast, salt, malt powder or syrup, and water. I wanted to recreate a bagel with a nice golden brown crispy exterior and a chewy yet fluffy interior. With my mind decided, I set out to test out different ratios of ingredients in my hopes of recreating my ideal bagel. For the flour component, I used bread flour as it had a fairly high protein content and was readily available at the local grocery store nearby. I already had plenty of active dry yeast and instant yeast stocked up (from my many months of pandemic baking). The only ingredient I needed to order to recreate my bagels was malt syrup. Malt syrup was necessary for two reasons. One, it added a distinct flavor to the bagel. Two, it helped the bagel achieve the golden brown crispy exterior when boiled in a malt-water mixture prior to baking. I spent a few weeks (spread out over the course of two months) testing out different variations of bagels until I got to the version I liked the most. When I landed on the ideal combination for the type of bagel I was looking for, I started playing around with topping the bagel with a homemade blend of everything seasoning featuring dried minced garlic, dried minced onion, poppy seeds, a blend of black and white sesame seeds, and some kosher salt. I also picked up a wedge of asiago cheese and grated it to use for topping my version of asiago cheese bagels. Adding asiago cheese alone onto the bagels was definitely not enough. Cheese pairs wonderfully with black pepper, so I added in some freshly cracked black pepper to the asiago cheese bagels for a little something extra. Kevin and I enjoyed bagels for a few solid weeks for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner during my testing phase. When Valentine’s Day weekend rolled around, I just had to make bagels one more time. This time, I also made a couple heart shaped versions to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We enjoyed the bagels alongside some (you guessed it) scallion cream cheese as we watched the return of Michigan basketball.
For the assorted bagels:
(makes 6 bagels)
· 3 cups bread flour
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 teaspoon instant yeast
· 1 cup water
· 2 teaspoons malt syrup
For boiling the bagels:
· 10 cups water
· ½ tablespoon kosher salt
· 2 tablespoons malt syrup
For the everything bagel topping:
· 2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
· 2 teaspoons dried minced onion
· 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
· 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
· 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the asiago pepper topping:
· 3 ounces asiago cheese, shredded
· 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· water for brushing onto bagels topped with everything seasoning
Directions:
1) Measure out all of the ingredients prior to starting. In a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, add the bread flour, kosher salt, instant yeast, water, and two teaspoons of malt syrup. Start on the lowest speed setting and begin mixing together all of the ingredients for about one minute. Once the dry and wet ingredients have been just incorporated, turn the speed up to a low speed (setting of 2) and let the mixer mix the dough for 8-9 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic after 8-9 minutes of mixing on low speed. Transfer the dough to a large bowl. Cover the dough with a large plate or sheet of plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm spot for an hour.
2) After an hour has passed, preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
3) By this point, the dough should have doubled in size. Transfer the dough to a working surface. Use a bench scraper to divide the dough into six equal portions. Roll each of the pieces into a smooth ball. To form the bagel shape, pinch a hole in the center of the dough ball. Stretch the hole out to about an inch in diameter. Roll the hollowed-out dough ball around all sides until smooth. Repeat with the rest of the bagels. (If making heart shaped bagels, form the rolled-out bagels into a heart by pressing down the top of the bagels, pinching down the interior top part of the bagels, and pinching down the exterior bottom of the bagels.)
4) Heat a large pot on a stovetop set on high heat. Fill the pot with ten cups of water. As the water is boiling, sprinkle half of the everything seasoning into three piles spread across one half of the parchment lined baking sheet. Reserve the other half for topping the bagels. Sprinkle half of the asiago cheese and black pepper into three piles on the other half of the parchment lined baking sheet. Reserve the other half for topping the bagels.
5) When the water begins to boil, add in the half tablespoon of kosher salt and two tablespoons of malt syrup. Use a large slotted spoon to transfer one bagel at a time into the malt-water mixture. Boil the bagel for 30 seconds. Flip the bagel over and boil for another 30 seconds. Transfer the boiled bagel to the baking sheet onto the top of one of the piles of seasoning. Work quickly to top the bagel with a third of the remaining seasoning. Continue this process of boiling the bagels and topping the bagels until all six bagels have been topped with the everything seasoning and asiago pepper. Brush some water onto the bagels topped with the everything seasoning to prevent the toppings from burning in the oven.
6) Transfer the baking sheet with the bagels into the oven set at 450°F. Bake the bagels until they develop a deep golden-brown color, about 20 minutes. Serve the bagels as they are or sliced and filled with your favorite cream cheese.
Takeaways: I found brushing some water onto the everything seasoning topped bagels prior to baking helped the seasoning from burning. If there are any leftover bagels, they can be packed into an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.