Montreal-Style Bagels

Homemade Poppyseed Bagels
Molly Watson
Prep: 2 hrs
Cook: 15 mins
Total: 2 hrs 15 mins
Servings: 18 servings

Montreal-style bagels differ from New York-style bagels in several important ways: ​

  • First and foremost, the dough has both eggs and honey in it.
  • Second, the water they are boiled in is sweetened with honey.
  • Third, they are baked in a wood-burning oven. (Learn more about them here.)

This recipe is made with the home kitchen in mind and assumes that you have no wood-burning oven in which to bake these sweet and chewy delights―the result is pretty darn close to the real thing, though, and certainly worthy of some cream cheese and gravlax.

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packages) dry active yeast

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 large egg yolk

  • 1 cup honey, divided

  • 1/4 cup canola oil, or other neutral-flavored oil

  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

  • 5 cups bread flour

  • 1/2 to 1 cup poppy seeds, or sesame seeds, optional

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Dissolve yeast in water in a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

  3. Whisk in egg and egg yolk.

  4. Stir in 1/2 cup of honey, along with oil and salt.

  5. Stir in 1 cup of flour at a time until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. If using a stand mixer, use a dough hook to knead. If working by hand, turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface to knead, adding more flour, if necessary, to keep dough from sticking too much. However you knead it, dough should become firmly elastic. When a thick piece is pinched, it should have a texture quite similar to your earlobe.

  6. Cover and let sit until doubled in size, about an hour. (Note: You can chill dough overnight at this point.)

  7. Preheat an oven to 475 F. Set one of the oven racks on the bottom rung and move any other cooking racks out of the way. If you have a pizza stone or baking stone, put it on the bottom rack.

  8. Fill a large pot with about 12 cups of water. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of honey to the pot and bring to a boil.

  9. While everything heats up, punch down dough, turn onto a lightly floured work surface, and divide into 18 pieces. Let sit for about 15 minutes.

  10. Roll out each piece to 8 to 10 inches long.

  11. Bring the two ends of a piece together and pinch and twist them, rolling that section of the circle between your hands to be sure it is fully sealed.

  12. Set aside on a clean kitchen towel while making remaining pieces into circles.

  13. Set up two lightly oiled baking sheets or, if you're using a pizza stone, two baking sheet-sized pieces of parchment paper that will fit on a pizza peel or on top of upside-down baking sheets (to ease paper directly onto pizza stone).

  14. Put poppy seeds and/or sesame seeds in a wide bowl or rimmed plate.

  15. When water is boiling, drop 3 bagels in. After about 10 seconds, use a slotted spoon to gently nudge them and make sure they aren't sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cook until they float to the surface.

  16. Let them cook about 1 more minute before using a slotted spoon to transfer back to the clean towel.

  17. Dip both sides of each in the seeds and set on the baking sheet or parchment paper.

  18. Repeat with remaining bagels.

  19. When one baking sheet or parchment paper is full, transfer it to the oven and bake until bagels are well browned about 15 minutes.

  20. Transfer to a cooling rack and repeat with remaining bagels.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
236 Calories
5g Fat
44g Carbs
6g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 18
Amount per serving
Calories 236
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 5g 6%
Saturated Fat 1g 3%
Cholesterol 31mg 10%
Sodium 70mg 3%
Total Carbohydrate 44g 16%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Total Sugars 16g
Protein 6g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 12mg 1%
Iron 1mg 3%
Potassium 66mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Recipe Tags: