Do I Really Need to Use Bread Flour for Bagels?

Our Bake Club recipe of the month, Homemade Bagels, calls for both all-purpose flour and bread flour. Inevitably this invites some questions: Is this necessary? (In this case, yes.) Can you use just one? (Not in this recipe.) Are we just messing with you? (Never!)

When Shilpa and I develop recipes, we keep ease top of mind. This means, among other things, streamlining the ingredients list wherever possible and not using products that might be hard for a lot of folks to find. So when a recipe calls for something special, rest assured that it’s truly necessary.

After many rounds of testing, we found that if you want chewy bagels with a bubbly-crackly crust, you need to use both flours. While not always the case for most bagel recipes, let me explain.

Bread flour vs. all-purpose flour

The defining difference between all-purpose flour and bread flour is protein content. Bread flour is made from hard wheat, which has a higher protein content compared to the softer varieties (or typically a blend of soft and hard wheats) used to make all-purpose flour. All-purpose flour hovers around 9–11%. In contrast, bread flour clocks in at about 11–13% protein. This difference might seem insignificant, but the increase in protein allows the bread to develop more gluten. More gluten in your dough equals more chew. And in the case of bagels, that chew is a defining characteristic.

So why do we call for using both all-purpose and bread flour in this month’s recipe? It’s all about perfecting that signature bagel texture. Using all bread flour resulted too much bounce, a bread that fights back as you chew. But using all AP flour resulted in no chew whatsoever—a dinner roll with a hole, if you will. A blend of the two flours struck the perfect balance between chew and tenderness.

Have I successfully convinced you to pick up a bag of bread flour yet? Once you’re done baking bagels you can make some homemade sandwich bread or perhaps some garlic dill rolls. And if you have any questions, send us a message via our Substack chat and either Shilpa or I will get back to you ASAP. —Jesse Szewczyk, Senior Test Kitchen Editor at Bon Appétit