Bagel and Lox
New York on a plate: chewy, glossy bagels made from scratch, slicked with cream cheese and draped with silky lox, capers, red onion and dill.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Bagel and Lox, in 5 ideas
- The boil is what makes a bagel a bagel. A minute per side in malted water sets the shine and the chew.
- High-gluten flour and a stiff dough give the dense crumb. This is no place for a soft, bready roll.
- An overnight cold ferment builds the real. Bagel flavor that one-day doughs cannot fake.
- Lox is cured, not smoked. Silky and delicate, sliced thin enough to fold in soft ribbons.
- Assemble open-face and generously. A thin schmear is a missed opportunity, and capers are the salt pop that finishes it.
What you need
Ingredients
- 4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tbsp barley malt syrup, plus 1 tbsp for the boil
- 1 1/4 cups warm water
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 8 oz lox or nova salmon, thinly sliced
- 1/2 small red onion, shaved thin
- 2 tbsp capers, drained
- Fresh dill and lemon wedges, to serve
How to make it
Method
Mix the flour, yeast, salt, malt syrup and water into a stiff dough. Knead 10 minutes, until smooth and firm.
Divide into 8 balls. Rest 10 minutes, then poke a hole through the center of each and stretch into rings. Set on a parchment-lined tray, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Bring a wide pot of water to a boil with the extra malt syrup. Boil the bagels 1 minute per side; they will puff and gloss.
Lift onto a clean tray and bake at 425 °F (220 °C) for 20 to 25 minutes, until deep golden and hard-crusted. Cool on a rack.
Slice and lightly toast the bagels, or serve them just warm.
Spread generously with cream cheese. Drape the lox in soft folds over the top.
Finish with red onion, capers, dill and a squeeze of lemon. Serve at once, open-face.
Freeze leftover bagels sliced: they toast from frozen back to nearly fresh, and a stale bagel is the only bad bagel.