New York Style Poppy Seed Bagels & Lox

Tip the flour and yeast into a bowl with the sugar and fine salt. Blend the dry ingredients together before tipping in the warm water. Use your hand to bring the ingredients together into a shaggy dough. You want to incorporate all of the flour in the bowl, so keep mixing until there are no dry spots left!

Tip the dough out onto your countertop and knead for 8-10 mins until it is smooth, springy and has lots of strength. You can test this a few different ways, but my go-to is the window-pane test: using your thumb and forefinger on each hand, grab a corner of your dough and stretch it out as thin as you can. You should be able to see light passing through it (like a windowpane) before it tears. If it tears too easily, get back to kneading!

Once you’re happy with the gluten development, pop the dough into a bowl and cover. Allow to prove at room temperature for about an hour, or until doubled in size. Once proved, tip the dough back out onto your worktop and divide into 100-110g pieces. Flatten each piece into a long rectangle. Roll the dough up into a sausage, roughly 20-22cm long and about an inch thick.

To form the classic bagel shape, join the two ends of the sausage in the palm of your hand, wrapping the loop around the top of your hand. Roll the two ends together between your palm and the worktop, joining them together. Roll them until the join is roughly the same size as the rest of the bagel.

Line a couple of trays with parchment paper and set the bagels out on them to prove. Make sure you give them plenty of space to grow and cover them loosely with plastic wrap. You can either prove them at room temperature for an hour or so (until doubled in size) or you can do it overnight in the fridge. I prefer the overnight prove as you get a much nicer texture and flavour!

When your bagels are just about proved, preheat the oven to 220°C and set up a tray filled with the poppy seeds. Cut the paper between the bagels so each is sitting on a little square of parchment.

Fill a large pot with water (roughly 5 litres) and add the treacle and bicarbonate of soda. Whisk to combine and set over a high heat. Bring to a boil and then carefully lower in your proved bagels on the paper, peeling it off once they’re floating. Cook for about 30 seconds a side (flipping them over so both sides cook) before scooping them out with a slotted spoon or spider. Drop them straight into the poppy seed filled tray and flip them around a few times, completely coating them in the seeds. Repeat with the remaining bagels.

Put the poached bagels back onto a tray lined with parchment and slide into the oven for 20 mins until a deep golden brown. Whip them out and allow to cool on a rack for at least 15-20 mins.

Split the bagels in half and stuff with sliced smoked trout, cream cheese, sliced raw red onions and capers.