I love everything bagels. In fact, my breakfast every Thursday morning before I saw my shrink, Lady Edith, was an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese, capers, red onion, and smoked salmon. I was in bagel heaven. Yet, one thing always irked me, though: The bottom half of my bagel was bereft of any seasoning–no poppy seeds, granulated garlic, dried onion, or regular and black sesame seeds. How silly, I thought.
I knew I could make my own bagels, but I thought it would be much easier to bake a loaf of bread with the Everything Bagel seasoning in the loaf and on top.
Now, you might be thinking, “This isn’t a true no-knead loaf.” And indeed, it’s not just a mix-and-forget-it bread, no. I’ve integrated the stretch-and-fold technique I first discovered while reading the Tartine cookbook. It’s a simple move (see step 4) that adds real integrity and strength to the dough. And it takes all of 60 seconds over 2 hours. That’s right. Sixty seconds is the only difference between this and the no-knead bread Jim Lahey made famous. By the way, there are two unsung heroes–both women–in the history of no-knead bread: Suzanne Dunaway and Doris Grant. Why is it always women who never get the credit they deserve? Food for thought.
What role does butter play in this bread recipe?
To be honest, I added butter to this Everything Bagel bread because it’s what my aunts do when making Portuguese bread. It’s a tradition for me. As to what butter does for bread dough, it gives it a bit of richness and flavor.
I developed this recipe using American butter. American butter contains 80% fat while European butter starts at 82% fat. And as we all know, fat equals flavor. If you can get your hands on any European butter–wonderful. Some of my favorites are Kerrygold, Échiré, and Plugrá. There are some American butters that are similar to European butters, such as Organic Valley European-Style Cultured Butter. If not, don’t sweat it. Either way, the bread will be richer and more supple than your ordinary loaf.
What can I top this No-Knead Everything Bagel Bread with?
I say go to town. To riff on everything bagels, try:
- Butter and sea salt
- Cream cheese and all its variations
- Smoked salmon
- Lox
- Red onion
- Capers
- Fried egg, bacon, and cheese
- Mascarpone and avocado
- Cream cheese and cucumber
- Corned beef and sauerkraut
- Pastrami and Swiss cheese
- Poached egg and avocado
- Ham and cheese
- ….you get the idea
No-Knead Everything Bagel Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour, plus more for the bowl and work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, (NOTE: Some Everything Bagel seasonings contain salt. Taste yours. If it's salty omit this salt.)
- 1/4 cup Everything Bagel seasoning*, plus more for topping
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (98°F to 104°F | 37°C to 40°C)
- 2 tablespoons (1 oz) unsalted butter, softened
Instructions
Mix the dough
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, salt, if using (see NOTE above; if using our homemade version you will not need salt), and Everything Bagel seasoning.
- Add the water and mix to form a sticky dough. Plop in the softened butter and mix to incorporate. The easiest way is to squish the dough between your fingers.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside to rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Stretch and Fold
- Wet your fingers with water. Grab one side of the dough and stretch and fold it up over onto itself. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees. Repeat three more times until each side of the dough has been stretched and folded. This is your first folding set. Re-cover with plastic wrap. Rest the dough 30 minutes.
- Repeat 4 more sets of the stretch-and-fold technique, letting the dough rest for 30 minutes after each set, for a total of 2 hours.
- After the last stretch-and-fold, let the dough rest, covered, until it's pillowy, about 1 hour.
Shape the dough
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently stretch it out a bit being mindful not to deflate it. Fold the bottom third up and onto the center. Repeat on the left, right, and top.
Tighten the dough
- Flip the dough over, so it's seam-side down. Cup your hands around the loaf and gently drag it from the upper left to the lower right of the work surface while rotating the loaf. Do this several times to assure a tight skin.
Refrigerate the dough
- Generously flour a kitchen towel (not terrycloth which will cause the dough to stick) and line the bowl with it. Gently flip the dough into the bowl so it's smooth-side down and seam-side up. Fold the towel over the loaf. You can also use a large banneton, if you wish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.
Preheat the oven and Dutch oven
- Place a Dutch oven, or any large pot with a tight-fitting lid, in the oven and crank the heat to 450°F (232°C).
Slash the loaf
- Cut a large piece of parchment paper to use as a sling for the bread.
- When the oven is up to temperature, carefully remove the pot and set aside the lid.
- Turn the bread out from the bowl or banneton, onto the parchment paper. Brush or spritz the top of the loaf with water and sprinkle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of Everything Bagel seasoning. Use a sharp knife or razor blade to slash the top. (For a round boule, slash a square pattern; for a long loaf, slash once along the length of the loaf.)
Bake the bread
- Using the parchment sling, carefully lift the loaf then lower it into the Dutch oven, drop in an ice cube, cover, and slide the pot into the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F (204°C) and continue to bake, uncovered, until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 200°F (93°C) on an instant-read thermometer poked through the top, 20 to 25 minutes more. If the Everything Bagel seasoning is darkening too quickly, lightly cover the loaf with foil.
Cool the bread
- Remove the pot from the oven. Grab onto the parchment and lift the bread out of the pot. Transfer the bread to a rack to cool completely. Don't you dare think of slicing the loaf until it's totally cooled. (I'll let you get away with slightly warm.) A hot loaf will be unpleasantly gummy.
Notes
*Why is everything bagel seasoning so popular?
Everything bagels have been a staple since the 1980s and are known for their distinctive flavor, being covered in a mixture of salt, black and white sesame seeds, onions, and garlic. The affordable spice mixture has also taken off on its own, prepackaged and added to nearly anything you could imagine—cheese spread, avocado toast, pizza crust, even your bloody Mary. It’s a perfect mixture of salty, savory, and garlicky, and can be used on nearly anything.IN THE PICTURE: Challenger Bread Pan
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The revolutionary cast iron bread pan designed by bakers, for bakers. We crafted our pan to help you bake better bread every day! Bake bâtards, boules, demi-baguettes, and other loaves of almost any size. Made in the USA.
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
If you are new to baking, this delicious loaf of no-knead everything bagel bread is a really great place to start! That’s because you don’t need any special equipment such as a stand mixer or an actual Dutch oven (any heavy pot with a lid will do – even Pyrex), and you’ll learn two important bread baking techniques: the “stretch & fold” method of kneading which is commonly used with wet doughs, and also how to create a taut surface on your dough so that it splits open only where you score it.
I love the flavor that comes with an everything bagel, but I’m not always in the mood for the dense crumb that distinguishes a bagel from other breads. This loaf is the perfect substitute, and since the seasoning mix is added to the dough as well as the top, it’s abundantly full of flavor. Great for all kinds of sandwiches, and especially good toasted — I topped my latest piece with some ricotta and honey. YUM.
And for those of you who have been baking a lot of bread during the pandemic, as I have, this unique loaf will be a great addition to your repertoire!
Bagels have a wonderful crust – with a hint of crunch and a bit of a chew, while the insides are wonderfully moist and soft. For me, growing up in New Jersey, just outside of New York City, bagels are a food group all their own, and finding decent ones outside of the NY city metro area is a struggle. Now that I live in the Midwest, it’s nearly impossible to find a decent bagel, and making a bagel is a complex process. Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve been making bread each week for the family, and am always on the lookout for bread to add to the mix to change things up a bit. This loaf did that for us. This no-knead everything bagel bread recipe is a great way to experience the taste and textures of a bagel without all that hard work.
What I found interesting in this recipe was that there is a specific water temperature to create the dough. I will admit that this was a temp that seemed high to me as most recipes call for the non-precise lukewarm or room temp water. It really got the instant yeast that I used proofing quickly. I did spend a few minutes under the water tap playing around a bit with various levels of hot and cold, using my instant thermometer to get the water to that perfect temp, but the results speak for themselves. I’m going to try this temp for other bread recipes.
The folding process is quite simple to follow, and after the initial fold, all subsequent folds were finished by pulling the dough into a taut ball, tightening the outside before placing it back into the bowl to rest. I let the dough cold-proof in a floured, oval banneton for about 14 hours in the fridge overnight. The next morning, it was quite puffy and passed the poke test.
I use a Romertopf clay oven for baking bread as I prefer the batard shape over a boule (you get more uniform slices per loaf.) Before baking, I brushed off any loose flour, then used a water bottle to give the dough a few good spritzes of water, added the final 2 tablespoons of bagel seasoning to the top and sides of the loaf, gave it a quick slash across the top with the lame and popped it into the oven. During the final bake, (top removed) I checked the dough after 15 minutes, as oven temps vary. The dough was at 185°F, and at 20 minutes, it was 203°F, so I took it out, removed it from the clay pot, and let rest on a rack. After 4 hours of resting, I couldn’t wait any longer and sliced into it. The loaf has a nice, tight crumb, moist interior, a good crust, very reminiscent of a bagel. It made a wonderful vehicle for my lunch, a left-over skirt steak sandwich. And the next morning, the ham, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich was awesome. My better half enjoyed hers with brie and tomato and has insisted this bread now become part of the bread I bake each week.
This no-knead everything bagel bread is one of the best bread recipes I’ve ever tried! The crust is light and crispy, the crumb has a nice airy structure, delicious flavor and best of all, it is easy to make! Using the Dutch oven makes a big difference (employ caution to avoid any burns). I served this with thick, heart-attack inducing slabs of butter and radishes. Whoever thought of putting the everything bagel seasoning *inside* the bread deserves some sort of award – like maybe the Nobel Prize!
This is one of those recipes that made me say, “why didn’t I think of that!?” This no-knead everything bagel bread was delicious. I’m not a huge fan of sprinkling ‘everything bagel spice’ on my food–which I know is a polarizing statement given how popular it is, but when mixed into the bread dough, I absolutely loved it. This bread took avocado toast to the next level. I’m an experienced bread baker, but I’d encourage even a newbie to give this a try as it is nice and simple and you’ll be rewarded with a delicious loaf. Good luck waiting for it to cool before digging in.
I was so excited to make this recipe! I LOVE everything bagels, but try not to eat too many carb loaded things anymore, plus, I was excited to try making a homemade bread because it’s not typically my forte as I have neither the patience nor the skill – usually my breads are flat – yikes! However, this recipe for no-knead everything bagel bread I thought seemed like a good challenge without being too much work. Aside from taking overnight, it was pretty easy and quick. The result was a fluffy, tender crumb with a crispy crust underneath. Light onion flavor which I loved – perfectly delicious! I had it hot from the oven with fresh creamy butter and then I knew I shouldn’t have made this recipe because it was so yummy!
This no-knead everything bagel bread is GOOD—a combination of 2 perfect things, no-knead bread, and everything bagel seasoning. The directions for shaping the bread and the timing work really well. I made the bread after work one night and baked it later the next morning.
I did find that my loaf didn’t rise as much as I anticipated it would but my kitchen was unseasonably cold for a summer day. I gave it a little extra time—it did become “pillowy” but didn’t get demonstrably bigger. Because of this, I left it in the oven a little longer, I was afraid it would be too dense otherwise. I used my large cast-iron Dutch oven and it worked well as always.
I waited 2 hours before slicing it and was really thrilled with the result. A gorgeous crust with a nice chewy texture, and an interior that’s just dense enough. I used my favorite everything bagel seasoning from Silk Road Spice Merchant—it’s fancier than the regular stuff with cumin seeds, nigella seeds, coriander, caraway, aniseed, and rosemary. It’s brilliant and made this bread extraordinary.
I enjoyed this no-knead everything bagel bread; the everything bagel taste doesn’t hit you over the head, but lingers in a way I liked. I felt the bread could have used a bit more salt. The crumb was decent; it made yummy grilled cheese sandwiches. I also plan to make torn croutons with a few slices.
This bread exceeded all my hopeful expectations. I’d made plenty of No-Knead and Almost-No-Knead breads before, using AP flour, bread flour, and combinations of flours. But I’d never before gotten such a soft and airy crumb. Maybe it was the stretch and fold move, or the refrigerated rise, or the butter. Whatever, I’m sold. I’m about to make my second iteration, to accompany my Country Pate’, this time for public consumption. Thanks so much.
You’re welcome, James. That looks fantastic!
James, that is a beauty! I’m so glad you liked the recipe. It’s one of my favorites. I hope you saw the video tutorials in the steps?
No, I didn’t find any instructional videos, although I scrolled through the page several times. JHL
Ah, I was afraid of that. To the right of the word “Instructions” are two icons: a camera and a camera with a line through it. If you click the camera icon, all the videos for each step pop up.