Best Montreal Bagel Recipe (Step-by-Step, 1 hour) (2024)

FAQs

What makes Montreal bagels so good? ›

Compared to a “New York style bagel”, what makes the Montréal bagel the far superior is that, not only is each single bagel is made by hand, but they are poached in honey water before being baked in a wood-fire burning oven. This cooking process gives the bagel its distinctive chewiness, golden color and crust.

One of the most important steps in making bagels. is boiling before baking. Baking the dough right away gives a bagel with a matte. finish and an open interior structure. Boiling the bagel pre gelatinizes the crust.

Montreal bagels tend to be smaller, thinner, sweeter and less salty than their New York City counterparts. Both are boiled, but Montreal employs wood-burning ovens for baking, while New York utilizes burlap planks. Many NYC loyalists tout the local tap water as the secret ingredient.

The Montreal bagel has a calorie range of 120-220. This means it is definitely healthier than other versions of a bagel. Some people, when eating the New York style bagel scoop out the interiors and just eat the crust.

Its very small bagels are made in a wood-burning oven and sweetened with honey. They do not need to be toasted if they are eaten within four hours of being purchased (why anyone would wait that long is beyond me). After four hours, Montreal bagels join the ranks of need-to-be-toasted bagels.

In order for the bagels to develop that well-browned exterior and slightly dense chewy texture, they must be boiled briefly before baking. This works because the boiling water sets the exterior crust before it hits the oven, preventing the bagels from rising very much, while further developing that browned exterior.

Bagel dough rises fast and if you let the pre-shaped ropes hang out too long, they'll start developing giant air bubbles inside which you'll want to collapse in the next step.

If you don't boil your bagels, you'll be baking round bread. There's more to a bagel than the shape. The boiling sets the crust of the bagel to get the signature thin crunchy crust. It also affects the texture of the bread inside.

Montreal style bagels are boiled in honey and water, resulting in a sweeter taste. They are, however, cooked in wood-fired ovens giving them a deeper and crunchier crust. They are thinner and smaller than a New York style bagel while being doughy and dense.

What city has the best bagels in the world? ›

New York stands tall as the nation's bagel empire for the second year in a row. The Bagel Apple brings home the gold in bagel Popularity, with locals and tourists alike seeking out the city's most iconic breakfast food.

Popular mythology tells us that the soft water that trickles down from the Catskills in upstate New York has a profound effect on the softness of the bagels. Since there are less minerals (magnesium and calcium, for example) in this water, the gluten proteins don't tense up and make the bagels too tough to chew.

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. Maple syrup – It activates the yeast and gives the bagels a hint of sweetness.

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.

However, Montreal bagels are boiled in honey water, giving them a slightly sweeter taste than bagels that are made in New York. One more big difference between New York style bagels and Montreal bagels is that the New York style is much more popular than that of Montreal's.

Aside from our famous bagels and poutine, Montreal is best known for hosting the World's Fair in 1967, followed by the first Olympics ever held in Canada during the summer of 1976; for Mount Royal Park (affectionately known by locals as "the mountain"), designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (the same man responsible for ...

The standard combination of toppings on an everything bagel is as follows: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion, garlic, and salt. Some may add in black sesame and cracked pepper, too. The result is a supremely flavorful bite, a complex nutty flavor, and an exquisite extra crunch (and usually a ton of crumbs.)