homemade sourdough bagels – Twice as Tasty

I have to admit that bagels rarely go stale at my house. Even when I bake a full-dozen batch of Sourdough Bagels, we eat them before the week’s end as breakfast and lunch sandwiches. But after a disappointing snack of store-bought bagel chips, I had to turn some of my next sourdough bagel batch into a homemade version, which I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. They are so delicious that I might have to start making double batches of bagels just so I can have the dense rolls and crispy chips on hand.

Sourdough bagel chips are just as easy to make as Twice-Baked Sourdough Pita Chips and just as irresistible as a crunchy snack. Along with the recipe in my column, I offer plenty of topping ideas, for both the original boiled bagels and the second baking into chips. Of course, I recommend making the bagels yourself with a sourdough starter, but you can bake store-bought bagels into chips in the same way.
Learn to make Parmesan Sourdough Bagel Chips

Sourdough bagels are a multistep process, as you can see in this week’s long recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. But that’s bagels in general, whether you make them with active dry or wild yeast. If you want dense, chewy bagels, you need to boil and then bake the dough.

I learned when I first started making sourdough bagels that many commercial bakeries steam rather than boiling, which creates soft, fluffy bagels that seem more like hamburger buns. Immersing the dough in boiling water causes its starches to gel and form a firm crust over a dense interior after baking. This step is particularly important with long-ferment sourdough, which becomes so stretchy and acidic that it wants to rise—and then potentially deflate—if it goes straight into the oven.

Over years of making sourdough bagels, I’ve adjusted my technique to minimize tools and active time and consistently created the classic bagel shape. So the recipe in this week’s column is really Sourdough Bagels 2.0.
Learn to make Sourdough Bagels