The One Tool You Need To Make Perfectly Shaped Bagels At Home

The nutty flavor of a batch of homemade sesame bagels is unmatched. However, whipping up a baker's dozen takes time and effort. One way to make the job easier is to use a doughnut cutter to shape your dough. This trick forms perfect rings every time, guaranteeing that all your bagels look identical and cook through at the same rate.

The classic way to shape bagels is to form your dough into a ball and make a hole through the center with a floured finger. Then you twirl it gently with the same finger to widen the hole without knocking out the air. This technique creates bagels that are seam-free, smooth, and free from cracks. Once the bagels are shaped, they're simmered in a water bath (containing sugar and bicarbonate of soda) for a minute so that they can develop a glossy, chewy crust before baking.

Using a doughnut cutter makes much lighter work of this job because you don't have to shape each bagel individually. Simply roll your risen dough out and use your cutter to make as many uniform rounds as you can in one go. Some doughnut cutters have a handle at the top that you can hold onto when pressing down. However, others look similar to regular cookie cutters — just press down once, remove, and pick out the circle of dough in the center. 

When bagels are placed in a water bath, they instantly puff and swell up, which can cause the hole in the middle to become smaller and result in a baked good that looks more like a ball than a ring. If you're concerned that your doughnut cutter has produced bagels with small holes, you can twirl them with your finger to widen their circumference before lowering them into your water bath.

While any scraps of dough can be re-rolled to make more bagels, bear in mind that repeating the rolling process will knock some of the air out resulting in a denser crumb. Avoid leaving excess dough around each circle and you'll eliminate the need to re-roll. Alternatively, boil up the smaller rounds you've collected from the middle of each circle to make mini bagel bites (just adjust the boil and bake time accordingly to account for their smaller size).

You can use a doughnut cutter to make quicker three-ingredient bagels, too. This time-saving bagel recipe, which is made with Greek yogurt, baking soda, and flour, doesn't need to proof or require boiling before baking. All you need to do is make a shaggy dough, roll it out, and cut it into rings prior to oven baking or air frying. Useful substitutes for a doughnut cutter include a small cup and a soda cap if you haven't got one on hand.