The "Hole" Truth About Homemade Bagels

Old-time bagel bakers say that if your jaw doesn’t feel a little sore after eating a bagel, it’s not a real bagel.

Making traditional bagels from scratch is a multi-day process that involves using only a few fresh ingredients, aging the dough, boiling the bagels, hand-seeding them and then baking them on wet, burlap-wrapped boards, flipping them until they reach perfection. As a result, not many truly homemade bagel shops exist in Colorado. While some shops and restaurants may advertise “fresh baked bagels,” Connie Mazza, owner of Village Bagel in Edwards, warns that they’re often frozen bagels simply baked in an oven, without going through the boiling process.

“It’s an abbreviated freshly baked bagel,” Mazza jokes. “There’s a wide range of quality when it comes to bagels and what you can find out there,” explains Scott Cassidy, owner of Backstreet Bagel Company in Montrose. “Finding traditional, homemade bagels in the Western United States is kind of unique. We’re doing it authentically — the way they do in the Northeast.”

THE PROCESS STARTS WITH SIMPLICITY

In addition to water, traditional bagel bakers use four main ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and sugar, or in Village Bagel’s case, malt and molasses in place of sugar. Bakers choose unbleached flour with live cultures, as opposed to bleached flour, which kills any enzymes and amino acids in favor of extending shelf life.

“Using unbleached flour results in a fresher, tastier and healthier product,” Cassidy says.

Then, some bakers hand-roll bagels, so no two look exactly alike. “We try to control for it, but because we’re human, there’s some variation,” Mazza says. “Some have a slightly larger ring, and sometimes the bagel puffs up so you hardly see the hole.”

Others use machines to roll the dough. Either way, all are weighed, so puffy, little hole or big, open hole, customers get the same amount of bagel.

Unlike donuts, there is no “bagel hole,” like a donut hole, to bake; the bakers or machines form rolls of dough into a circular shape.

THEN IT TAKES TIME

Aging, or cold proofing, the bagel allows the gluten enzymes in the dough to rise to the surface to ultimately create a nice, crunchy crust when it bakes. Because bagel dough is stiff, aging it for 24 to 72 hours is necessary to obtain the proper crunch, texture and flavor. As the bagels sit in a refrigerator, flavors intermingle.

“It’s like magic,” Mazza says. “That cold proof is where the bagel comes alive. Without it, you wouldn’t get the proper crunchy crust or flavor.”

AND IT BOILS DOWN TO …

Boiling bagels after they cold proof is another hallmark of homemade, traditional bagels. Boiling draws out even more of the natural flavors by reactivating the yeast and sugars.

Village Bagel bakers treat their water with baked baking soda (a complex process used in pretzel factories), which alkalizes the water and adds flavor. They might also add sugar, molasses, malt and/or salt to the water for additional flavor. The boiling process also rehydrates the bagel, adds a shine and helps generate a crunchy outside and chewy inside.

BAKING IT TO PERFECTION

The last major step involves baking the bagels on burlap soaked in water, which covers wood or aluminum baking boards. The wet burlap promotes steaming, providing a soft, chewy bagel on the inside and texture on the outside. After the bagels bake on one side, they’re flipped for an even crunch.

AND FLAVORING

Bakers hand-seed bagels, dunking them on both sides in a large pan filled to the brim with seeds. Then, they press the seeds in. This contrasts with machines, which mechanically sprinkle a sparser amount of seeds on the bagels.

While traditional flavors tend to revolve around plain, salt, garlic or “everything” bagels, bakers offer a plethora of different flavors, from cinnamon raisin or onion to chocolate chip or cranberry. Local bakers also craft their own specialties.

Charcoal bagels have become a cult classic at Village Bagel, due to the unique color and charcoal’s reputation of absorbing toxins within the body. Adding charcoal powder results in a jet-black bagel without affecting the flavor and also adds moisture, so they stay fresher longer than other homemade bagels.

Meanwhile, Backstreet Bagel Company’s nod to Colorado comes in the form of green chile and jalapeño cheddar bagels.

No matter what the flavor, local bakers thrive on making customers happy by providing a truly fresh and traditional bagel — something that’s hard to come by west of the Mississippi.

WHY DO BAGELS

HAVE HOLES?

Holes in bagels date back hundreds of years to central and Eastern Europe, when piling bagels high on a stick made them easier to transport and display for street vendors. The hole also promotes even baking of the thick dough, as well as confirmation that it’s baked thoroughly. Some sources also assert that bagels symbolized the never-ending circle of life and death and protected people from the evil eye; bagels were commonly given to women in labor in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe, particularly among Jewish people.

Originally published in the Winter 2021-22 issue of Spoke+Blossom.