Revive Stale Bagels with This Easy Trick

Nobody likes to see carb go to waste, particularly when it’s a wonderfully comfortable, chewy, and crisp bagel. However like all baked items, bagels have a shelf life — they will last as long as 48 hours or three months, relying on the way you retailer them. Whereas nothing can recreate the magic of freshly baked bread, we now have a tried-and-true method for respiratory recent vitality into stale bagels. Right here’s every part you’ll want to learn about giving your bagels a second life.

The way to revive stale bagels

One of the simplest ways to revive a stale bagel is to submerge it in a bowl of heat (not scorching) water, then loosely wrap it in aluminum foil and place it in both a toaster oven or an precise oven preheated to 350°F. After 5 minutes, take away the bagel, discard the foil, and slice and schmear it to your coronary heart’s content material. (Observe that you simply by no means wish to put a moist bagel in your common toaster since doing so can harm the toaster and even trigger a hearth.)

This method works as a result of it primarily recreates the circumstances during which recent bagels are boiled. The water bathtub reintroduces moisture to the bread and rehydrates it from the surface in. Wrapping it in foil retains the crust from drying out within the scorching oven, and the excessive temperature turns the water into steam, which makes the inside of your bagel fluffy and chewy once more. 

Desire the char of a toasted bagel? After you soak and reheat it in a 350°F-oven for 5 minutes, slice it in half and pop it into the toaster, guaranteeing it’s absolutely dry first. Brown it to your liking, then add your most well-liked unfold or sandwich fillings and dig in. 

Excellent news for carb lovers: You too can use this trick to revive next-day baguettes and different breads. 

The way to retailer bagels to maintain them recent

One of the simplest ways to retailer bagels that you simply plan to eat within the close to future is in a paper bag at room temperature, not the fridge. This permits air to flow into and prevents the starch molecules in a bagel from crystallizing within the chill of the fridge. 

To freeze bagels, wrap every one tightly in plastic wrap, then retailer them in a ziplock or zippered bag for as much as three months. Defrost them in a single day within the fridge, then rehydrate them utilizing the soak-and-bake course of outlined above.