Bagels

A bagel is a yeast bread product shaped into a ring (approximately the size of a fist) and then boiled in water and baked.  Bagels traditionally have a brown crispy exterior and a chewy, dense interior.  Bagels have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in the United States and Canada.

Bagels are traditionally made by:

• mixing and kneading the ingredients
• forming the dough into a traditional ring shape
• proofing the formed bagels for up to 12 hours
• boiling the bagels in water that may contain additives such as baking soda, lye, honey or barley malt syrup
• baking

This unique and unusual production method gives the bagels their distinctive taste, texture and glossy appearance. 

Recently, a new variation of bagel has been developed which is called the “steam bagel”.  During this process there is no boiling involved.  Instead the bagel is baked in an oven that has a steam injection system built in.  The steam injection process requires less time and labor and the bagels never need to be removed from their boards or pans. 

A typical Bagel equipment production line would consist of the following equipment: