Black Russian Bagels {Pumpernickel Everything Bagels}

Shared by Rebecca on 1/2/17 122

Black Russian Bagels {Pumpernickel Everything Bagels} are the favourite-in-perpetuity around our house. We love buying them at Wegman’s, but we love making them at home just as much… Visit our Bread Recipes page for more fantastic homemade breads!

To say that I love bagels might be the understatement of the century. They are on a very short list foods against which I am utterly powerless at all times with no exceptions. All bagels are not created equal, though… Sweet bagels are better than a kick in the pants, but my preference is for a pumpernickel or a salty, seedy, garlicky, oniony, popping with flavour Everything Bagel. And even better than either of those are my all-time best-beloved Black Russian Bagels. Black Russian Bagels are deep, dark Pumpernickel Everything Bagels. Holy swoon, Batman.

I ran into these for the first time a few years back at my closest Wegman’s. I brought four home (with the remaining dozen being regular Everything Bagels) thinking it was a sure-fire way to guarantee I got two bagels out of the bunch. My kids are stalwart Everything Bagel boys and they always scrunched their noses up a bit when I had my pumpernickel ones. Somehow, one of them grabbed one of the Black Russian Bagels and before I knew it, there were rapturous boys proclaiming their undying love for pumpernickel-plus-everything. I ordered one of them to give me a bite since I clearly wasn’t going to get to enjoy an entire bagel by myself.

Wowza.

I was hooked and hard just like the kids. The trouble is that the nearest Wegman’s is a thirty minute drive in either direction, so the Black Russians were a rare treat for us. I picked them up when I did my monthly shopping trip (and when other Black Russian Bagels aficionados hadn’t cleaned out the basket before I got there.)

Then I visited King Arthur Flour’s Baker’s Education Center last spring and picked up a bag of the Pumpernickel Artisan Bread Flavor. It languished on my shelf until two weeks ago, when I picked it up and read the label: “Takes bread from average to Artisan in one easy step.” and my brain screamed, “BLACK RUSSIAN BAGELS!”

Sure enough, King Arthur Flour had a recipe for pumpernickel bagels on the site, and -like you can count on King Arthur’s recipes to be- it was practically perfect in every way.

I bumped up the amount of pumpernickel flavour just by a smidge to get it super dark and bursting with pumpernickel and crusted the top with homemade Everything Bagel topping* to make Black Russian Bagels that have cured me of the need to burn an hour’s worth of gas and time.

*If you’re not keen on making your own, King Arthur Flour also sells jars of pre-mixed Everything Bagel Topping.

My kids are nutty over them. My hubby is nutty over them. I am BONKERS over them. People, we’ve had Black Russian Bagels five mornings in the last two weeks, and I don’t see signs of it slowing anytime soon.

Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never made bagels before today. The dough is very forgiving and is sturdy enough that you don’t feel like its going to rip every time you look at it. It’s a great baking project whether you’re beginner-to-intermediate or a full-blown expert.

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