This week I planned to post a completely different, sweet recipe. Long story short, I made it several times with different flavor variations and they all weren’t up to my standard. So, thankfully, a few weeks ago I documented making homemade black sesame seed bagels for the first time. I’ve gotten really into bread baking in the past year – pizza, sourdough, focaccias. So, homemade bagels were the next logical step. And my mom happens to be obsessed with sesame bagels. My goal in 2025 is to eat one every morning for optimum happiness. My favorite flavor, and this recipe, is black sesame.

Post-Holiday Blues

I can’t explain why, but I felt a shift this week. I was basking in the holiday glow and new year optimism for the past month. And suddenly, real life started to sink in again. Nothing in particular upset me, but I found myself in a down mood for a few days. I struggle with my mental health sometimes, specifically managing my ADHD. And some days I want to do nothing and sleep. Some days I clean the entire house twice over and bake a cake before sundown. I was re-reading my Food52 article for fun and glanced at the comments, which reminded me that I’m not the only one who enjoys long, hard cooking projects for my anxiety.

It’s the same reason I love art. Getting completely in the zone. Immersed in a project until you have something tangible that you can show the world. I ran through ideas in my head this week of the hardest recipes I could think of. Opera cake, which I just made, croquembouche, sourdough fermented for 3 days. Caneles. It feels like my brain is going a million miles a minute, and I’ve been hyper fixated on planning and recipe research in the dark hours of the night. So, I’ve been driving myself anxious and not sleeping well. I told myself to just make something I wanted to eat and started to listen to my stomach.

Recipe Testing (and Failing)

I couldn’t stop thinking about lemon poppyseed cake. The memory I have of trying it as a kid is hazy – I was at some school function at the YMCA. They gave us grocery store muffins. And I was obsessed with them. I probably begged to eat them every morning for breakfast for a while and then completely forgot about them. As I do. So, I decided to make lemon poppy seed madeleines, after opening a fresh new madeleine pan in the mail. My treat to myself. I spent a few days scouring the internet for what felt like every picture ever taken of a madeleine. Writing down dozens of ideas and flavor combinations after failing my lemon poppyseed recipe. When the hankering wore off.

I sprang out of bed on Friday ready to conquer the recipe, but something went wrong. They’re adequately delicious, and flavorful. A great texture. But something just not exciting enough. And I’m being a perfectionist, which I’m trying really hard to overcome. I’ve been so fixated on recipes that I think I could recite them at this point. And the key to a perfect madeleine is a big hump. They say the key is a cold pan, and cold batter, but I’m driving myself crazy trying to get there. So, I put the pan away and enjoyed my madeleines without photographing them. And I tried to just calm down and recenter.

Craving Homemade Black Sesame Seed Bagels

I started to crave homemade bagels again. Those crisp-shelled soft, flavorful rings that you only get once in a while from an amazing shop. Or, if you live in New York, you might have every day. My co-worker used to buy one every morning from Mr. Bagel and clean the crumbs with a miniature purple vacuum. This summer I picked homemade bagels up from the farmers market from “the bread guy” as we call him every week. He always has the longest line, and you can smell the sourdoughs and pastries from across the common. I’ve always wanted to try making them myself.

Ironically, I decided to make them when I was having nerve pain in my wrists, probably carpal tunnel. I get it sometimes when I lift too much or cook with my cast iron pan a lot. It got really bad one summer when I worked as a chef on an island and had to wash dishes with an old cast iron tea kettle of hot water. When it flares up I struggle with sleeping, and I stop working out, which impacts my mental health. I had no idea how much kneading my bagel dough would require. So, naive and confident, I started Martin’s Bagels from King Arthur Flour on a sleepy Monday.

Poolish + Bagel Dough

My black sesame seed bagels recipe begins by making a poolish, which is definitely now on my list of favorite words. It’s similar to sourdough starter – just flour and water and a little yeast to get bubbly. It essentially starts the rising process early to help your homemade bagels, and it develops a yeasty, sour flavor. The poolish is the easy part. Then, the recipe says to add over 5 cups of flour, water, yeast, and salt.

I found myself with an overflowing metal bowl of flour, carefully trying to knead it all together with my hands. Finally I decided to dump it out onto the counter. The flour, salt, yeast, poolish, and extra water. I kneaded away, watching the time tick by, listening to some podcast or Yebba’s album Dawn. Time moved like molasses, and my hands started to hurt. I was wrestling a large bowl of dough like a wild beast. Sweating like a dog.

Finally, the dough came together, and felt somewhat elastic. I could have used it as a pillow. But I put it back in a greased bowl and covered it, letting it rise again. Martin’s demonstration shows an elastic, springy dough that falls like water when lifted. Like the texture of the sourdough I’ve made. But when I waited an hour and went to fold mine, it was thick and tough. It relaxed a little as it sat, but I felt like it must have too much flour in it.

Proofing the Dough

I don’t know what it is about baking, but sometimes your kitchen or the temperature of your home just doesn’t let you win. You can make something exact, following every step carefully, and still have a completely different dough. So, that’s the moral of the story I guess. You can do everything “right” and still end up with something you didn’t expect. You can “fail.”

I cold-proofed my dough in the fridge overnight. I felt dejected. My homemade black sesame bagels were probably going to fail, or be doughy, or tough. But I persevered. The next morning I woke up to a softer, aerated dough trying to burst from under the cling film. I was excited, and rolled it out on my counter, feeling the delightful bubbles of air pop under my fingers. A wave of hope and curiosity washed over me, wondering if I could actually pull it off. Visions of fresh, hot black sesame seed bagels in my mind. The ones I tried in New York with lox on the subway. Thinking of a special day with my friends in the Maine winter when we picked up bagels at our favorite spot and sat at the beach for a while.

Shaping Black Sesame Seed Bagels

I reached into my desk cabinet and found my digital kitchen scale. Its days are numbered, and it shuts itself off all the time. But I weighed my dough and then divided that number by 12, measuring out a dozen jagged rocks of dough. Frankensteined with pieces ripped off from too-heavy mounds. Then, I rounded them all into balls and poked a hole in the middle with my finger. Twirling and stretching to get a too-big hole, which would shrink later. I didn’t care that they were misshapen and uneven. Rustic. I just kept going. Once they were ready, I covered them and let them rest while I made my water bath. Just a bunch of water, eye-balled, and a couple tablespoons of molasses and salt.

This is my favorite step. I laid out a baking sheet covered in black sesame seeds. I recommend playing with them if you have time, and feeling them through your fingers like sand. Once my bagels boiled for 30-60 seconds on each side I hoisted them onto the sesame seeds with a chopstick. It’s probably better to use a spatula. I pressed them down a little and coated each side of each bagel in black sesame seeds. Then I arranged them on baking sheets in two groups of 6. All that was left was to bake them. One sheet went onto the top rack, and the other on the bottom. I was going to switch them halfway, but I started cleaning, got sidetracked, and forgot.

The Joy of Homemade Bread

So, half of my homemade black sesame seed bagels were a little overcooked. I’ll use them to make bagel chips, or croutons, or just eat them like bagels anyway. The other half were magically sour, delicious, and crunchy yet soft. With a slick amber sheen from the molasses and black sesame seeds on the top and bottom. I sliced one open when it was fresh out of the oven but not so hot that I would burn my hands, catching the fallen seeds on a kitchen towel. I spread a pad of butter on each half. And I sat in the dining room by myself, thinking about life. We don’t often think of the hard work and time that goes into making homemade bagels. But if you can make them yourself, I would recommend trying it.

Simple Pleasures

I let the rest of my black sesame seed bagels cool and sliced them to save myself time later. Then, I vacuum-sealed half of them and popped them in the freezer for another day. I ate the rest for breakfast 3 or 4 consecutive beautiful days. I just thawed the rest today after pausing from my misadventures in madeleine making. And I’m so excited to toast one up in the morning, slather it with butter, or herbed cream cheese, and forget about the world. Indulge in the simple pleasures of life. Which I’ve been in love with recently. Reading. Good acting and great stories. Music. Afternoon naps. Playing old Pokemon games. Candles and warm blankets. It sounds cheesy, but these things make life special for me. You can’t beat a warm, homemade bagel in the morning that took you 2 days to make.

Thank you for reading! As always, be sure to check out my Etsy for 25% off art prints and recipe cards. Use code THEFORKEDRING.

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Black Sesame Seed Bagels

Homemade bagels coated in black sesame seeds (recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour)

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword bagel, bagel recipe, bagels, black sesame

Prep Time 1 day day 6 hours hours

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author theforkedring

Ingredients

• 6 cups AP Flour
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• 2 1/2 tsp + 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp molasses or barley malt syrup
• 2 cups black sesame seeds

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine 1 1/4 cups AP flour, 1/4 tsp yeast, and 3/4 cup lukewarm water. Mix until cohesive, then cover and rest for 4-6 hours.
• When poolish is bubbly and ready, add 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water and mix. Then, add 4 3/4 cups AP flour, 3/4 tsp yeast, and 2 1/2 tsp salt.
• Mix dough with a chopstick or fork until shaggy. Then, transfer to a clean work surface and knead for 5 minutes until a cohesive dough forms.
• Place your dough in a clean, lightly-greased bowl for 2 hours, covered, folding the dough on top of itself on all 4 corners 2-3 times after the first hour. Then, refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
• Remove dough from fridge and let come to room temperature for 1 hour.
• Weigh and divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Form each piece of dough into a tight ball and place on a baking sheet or counter, covered, and rest for 30 minutes.
• Next, form a hole in the middle of each ball with your finger and stretch the bagel hole to 2-3”. It will shrink when it rises.
• Let the bagels rest another 30 minutes, covered. In the meantime, heat a large sauté pan, dutch oven, or pasta pot with about 4 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Add molasses and 1 tbsp salt when bubbling and stir.
• Fill a baking sheet with black sesame seeds. Then, 3 at a time, transfer your proofed bagels into the boiling water mixture and cook for 45 seconds on each side.
• Remove bagels with a slotted spatula and place directly onto the black sesame seeds. Shake pan and press gently to adhere. Then, transfer each bagel, sesame seed side up, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (6 on each).
• Preheat oven to 475°F. Boil the rest of your bagels in batches of three and cover with sesame seeds.
• Bake both sheets of 6 bagels in the same preheated oven for 18-23 minutes, switching racks halfway.
• Let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Notes

• Your bagel dough may need a little more or less flour, depending on your environment, humidity, and temperature. The more you make them, the more accurate you’ll get.
• You can use barley malt syrup instead of molasses, if you have it, which is the traditional ingredient used in boiling bagels. 
• I recommend baking one batch of bagels at a time in case you have issues with your oven temperature. Then, you can perfectly adjust for your second batch. If your oven runs hot, bake at 450°F instead. 
• You can form the bagel rings and refrigerate them overnight before boiling if you want to bake them first thing in the morning. Cover well and boil immediately when they come out of the fridge. I prefer their texture and flavor without this step, but it makes things easier if you want to spend less time in the kitchen.