Vegan Bagel Recipe (soft & crispy) (2024)

FAQs

What makes a bagel vegan? ›

There's nothing quite like the dense, toothy texture of bagels. In their most basic form, bagels are vegan, made from just flour, water, yeast, and salt. But other non-vegan ingredients—including dairy, honey, and eggs, along with less easily identifiable animal products—commonly appear in commercially produced bagels.

If your dough is too wet, it'll create large holes in the crumb of the dough and your bagels will be more like French bread, with a fluffy interior (see top photo). When too much flour is kneaded in, bagels become dense, hard and tough, instead of crisp and chewy.

Swapping in ½ cup of whole-wheat flour for ½ cup of the bread flour will make the bagels slightly less chewy but will also give them a boost of flavor.

Bread flour is the essential ingredient to creating that distinct chewy bite we all crave in a bagel. Its high protein content creates a stiff dough that holds its shape while baking and develops more gluten for more chew.

Bagels. Vegan bagels include everything, plain, blueberry, and sesame varieties. While Panera doesn't offer a dairy-free cream cheese spread, you don't have to eat your bagel plain! You may be able to snag some avocado or hummus to round out your brekkie handheld.

Regular bagels are vegan, but some types may include extra flavors, additives, or fillings that are animal-derived and thus not vegan. These include honey, eggs, or dairy in the dough, as well as cheese, meats, or fish in the fillings.

Bread flour – Because of its high protein content, bread flour makes these homemade bagels delightfully chewy. This recipe also works with all-purpose flour, they're just a bit less chewy than bagels made with bread flour.

Whether your bagels are store-bought or frozen, your toaster, oven, microwave and air fryer can help get them soft again.

STORING IN A PAPER BAG AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

Opt for a paper bag if you plan to enjoy your bagels within a couple of days. You can simply leave the paper bag out on the counter or put it in the pantry—just make sure it is rolled or folded tightly. This method is more ideal for keeping bagels fresh overnight.

Baking soda makes the water more alkaline, giving the bagels a pretzel-like quality that contributes to their chewiness. Just one teaspoon helps the bagels develop a shiny, dark-brown exterior as they bake. One thing to keep in mind: Keep the water bath at a constant simmer.

How to tell if bagels are underproofed? ›

An underdeveloped dough will produce bagels with a poor rise, fewer blisters, and a rougher sort of topography that may look like webbing, or like fingers stretching across the crust. In extreme cases, the dough will have a cottage cheese–like texture, while the finished bagels will be lumpy and pale.

What Sets Apart a New York Bagel? The main difference between a New York bagel vs. a regular bagel is a strange step in the cooking process. Traditional New York style bagels are submerged in boiling water for a couple of minutes before they're baked.

According to popular mythology, the uniquely superb texture of the New York bagel has to do with New York City's water — specifically, its low concentrations of calcium and magnesium, which make it softer.

For a soft, fluffy bagel, preheat your oven to 350°F, either run the stale bagel under hot water until the outside is damp or soak it briefly in a bowl of hot water, then place the bagel directly on the wire rack in the oven and heat it for five minutes.

You know those bagels that are very shiny and almost a bit thick on top? Well those bagels may have a light egg wash applied. Sometimes bakers like to add an egg wash after boiling the bagels, before adding the toppings and before baking. It's totally unnecessary, but definitely can happen.

Normally, bagel dough does not contain eggs. Egg bagels do actually get their special name from the addition of eggs to the mix before baking! They often also contain a bit of sugar and yellowing coloring.

Enzymes. Although the enzymes used in bread seem to generally be fungal-based, there are several non-vegan enzymes used in commercial bread production. This includes one such ingredient called phospholipase, an enzyme derived from pig pancreatic tissue.

Yes… unless the bagel is an egg bagel and in that case it is not. Bagels, like pizza dough or most breads are basically made up of flour, water, salt, sugar(if honey used/not vegan) and yeast.