The Art of Making Chagel: A Chinese Bagel Recipe
To begin with, we need to make the dough for our chagel. In this recipe, we'll be using pork belly cut into two centimeter cubes as one of the fillings. We also toss in a half centimeter of ginger together with the white parts of two scallions and fry that all until slightly browned, or about four to five minutes. This step not only adds flavor but also helps to caramelize the ingredients, which will eventually become part of our sauce.
Next, we hit that mixture with ¾ cup of hot, boiled water from the kettle, ¼ tsp liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, a half teaspoon of soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon dark soy for color, and a final quarter teaspoon of five spice powder. This step helps to create a savory and umami-rich sauce that will eventually bind our fillings together. Then we cook that over the same low flame for 15 minutes or so, or until the sauce has reduced to only about two to three tablespoons.
After the sauce has thickened, we season it with an 1/8 teaspoon each salt and MSG and thicken it further with a slurry of a ½ teaspoon of cornstarch. This step helps to balance out the flavors in our sauce while also giving it a slightly thicker consistency. Once that's looking good, just set it aside to cool down.
Alternatively, we can make a sweet version of chagel by using a different filling. This time, we'll be using a similar 70 grams of a purple sweet potato arranged on a plate together with one tablespoon of water, then nuked on medium high for four minutes to steam. Once that's good and soft, just mash it together with four grams of sugar, six grams of melted butter, and ten grams of sweetened condensed milk.
This sweet filling can also be stuffed into a bagel, just like the savory version. The process is similar, but we'll need to adjust our fillings accordingly. Just sort those fillings in the same manner as the cheese, though word of warning that you'll probably want to pinch the sides closed for the pork one to avoid any leakage.
After our ten minutes of resting, we can finally shape all of our bagel varieties into their recognizable form. To do so, just grab one log and gently roll it out until it's about 20-25 cm long – the longer the log, the bigger the hole at the center. Then, keeping things seam side down, press one side of the log down to sort of get a kinda 'fish tail shape', then grab the other end and nuzzle it into the fin.
Fold that fin around the edge to hide the connection, and then pinch it closed and hide the pinch on the bottom. Then just work through your bagels, and then let those proof for 60 minutes, covered. During this time, our dough will rise and develop a nice texture, which is essential for creating a crispy crust.
After our bagels have proofed, we can now boil up some bagels. So, to one liter of rapidly bubbling water, first toss in one tablespoon of granulated sugar and then swap the flame to low. Keeping everything at a gentle simmer, carefully place the bagels in and boil them for 30 seconds on each side. Let any excess water drip off onto a cloth, then place the bagel onto some parchment paper, optionally topping with any bagel toppings that you're feeling.
Finally, we can bake our bagels in a pre-heated oven at 200 centigrade for 15 minutes. This step helps to crisp up the crust and give our bagels a nice texture. If we're going for the triple cheese route, just layer over a slice of good ol' Kraft American over the bagel right when it's hot out from the oven.
Once those are all cool to the touch, they're good to devour. And that's how you make chagel – one simple dough can turn into four flavors... so of course, you can have fun and play around with whatever you want into your bagel. Some popular choices right now in China are Sichuan peppercorn flavor, or some pickles, or some dried seafood, or some chili oil or chili stuff.
As for the recipe itself, check out the description box for all the details. A big thank you to everyone that's supporting us on Patreon, and of course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThis is the Chagel, a Chinese take on the bagel that these days is actually one of the trendier baked goods in China. At first glance it might look like the bagel you know and love, but further inspection will quickly dispel those notions. Its tangible squishiness is probably the clearest indicator, but the aggressively flamboyant stuffings also wouldn’t be too far behind. This is not a New York bagel, nor is it a Montreal bagel… it’s its own thing, and also, I think, pretty tasty.You see, as we discussed in our previous chewy, cheesy bacon bread video, the modern bakery tradition we see in China today is layered from three big waves of western style bakeries opening up: first, the old school type with Pineapple Buns and similar fare; then second, Japanese style bakeries, which were introduced via Taiwan post reform and opening; and third, the latest wave, which’re a bit more western inspired at least partially driven by consecutive waves of Chinese university students that studied abroad and then came back. And perhaps nowhere is this layering of Chinese, Western, and Japanese styles clearer than with the bagel. Because… for the unaware I guess? Japan actually also has its own bagel tradition, which absolutely predates the current craze in China. So at first it might look like our Chagel is actually just… a Jagel, I mean, it’s also pretty squishy and also stuffed. And while the Chinese bagel scene does absolutely owe a lot to Japan, which we’ll get to in just a sec, you can also notice that it’s not exactly the same thing. The Japanese bagel is practically outrageously soft and if you look at the crumb you can also tell that it’s lot more bready. In short, the dough is different.Because just like how every ex-Beijing expat I’ve ever met pines for an authentic Jianbing Guozi, if you, like, studied at NYU or practically anywhere in North America… you’re gunna be exposed to New York-style bagels. So for a while we’d see bagels pop up here or there at some of the most authentically western of the western style bakeries, but in the end it was applying some of that Japanese technique which really caused them to take off. What we’re left with is a dough that’s about halfway between a Western style bagel and a Japanese one, hitting a similar sort of fluff and chew as a Northern style Mantou, which – spoiler – I don’t think is exactly an accident.Either way, to make said dough, to 280 grams of water, mix in of 480 grams of bread flour and then mix it into a rough ball. Then just cover that up, and set it aside in a cool place to autolyze for 45 minutes.Then after that time, cut the dough into a couple pieces to allow for easier mixing… and then to that, toss in 10 grams or 2 teaspoons of salt, 25 grams of honey, all together with 5 grams or 1 teaspoon of yeast dissolved in with 5 grams of water. Then just knead that until it’s combined and it’s no longer really sticking anymore to your hands. Then, at this point, we’ll knead this thing via our tried and true knead-by-slapping technique, something often employed in Chinese doughs as it’s a great way to develop your gluten. What you’ll do is get your dough up to about shoulder height, slap it against your work surface, fold the edge of the dough over, rotate ninety degrees, and repeat. Alternatively, you could also knead this thing with a stand mixer as well, but you would need to go at a high speed, around 5, in order to mimic this effect. Either way just repeat 150 times, or until you can stretch the dough out into a thin film and poke a smooth-ish ring a bit like this if you applied the windowpane test. Now, so far, at this point there is, admittedly a solid bit of crossover between this and the aforementioned Japanese bagels. There’s a little more gluten development, but it’s similar hydration, and it’ll even shaped and stuffed using the same technique.S to do so, we’ll be doing eight bagels today working towards four different flavors. Starting with an original flavor, an unstuffed variety, we’ll take a quarter of our dough, and divide in two for two bagels. Then shape that into a smooth ball by continuously pinching the craggily surface towards the center, then turn that center side down onto your work surface, rotating the thing to kinda ‘seal’ it shut. Then those can be put aside, and rested for 20 minutes.Then. For a stuffed kind, again, there are some popular choices here that are pretty clearly Jagel in origin… a prime example might be this sort of triple cheese stuffed bagel which is a modern favorite, and one of our personal favorites, and also a favorite in Japan. To make it, just fold eight grams of shredded parmesan cheese in to the dough, kneading it until the cheese’s no longer falling out… then you can just roll that into a ball in the same way, and rest that for 20 minutes in the same way.But, whether stuffed or no, we’ll then take those balls and then roll them out into a sheet. To do so, roll it in one direction, rotate it 90 degrees, and roll again to expand the width. Just repeat that move until you’re looking at something roughly rectangular, or about 15 cm wide and 18-20 cm long. Press the far side of the length of your rectangle down a touch to make it slightly easier to seal later, then for our cheese one lay over another eight grams of cheddar cut into 1 cm cubes along the near side of the rectangle, leaving about 2 cm from the side. Then just carefully roll that up into a log, and then pinch it closed at the very end. Then leave your logs to rest seam side down, covered, for ten minutes before the final shaping.But on that note, speaking of fillings, the thing that’s starting to get pretty cool I think is that you are starting to see stuff that’s increasingly Sinified. Because I mean… whenever bagels hit a culture, they always seem to alter to fit. Like historically, they weren’t exactly whipping up a sausage egg and cheese in Jewish Poland, it’s an American invention, because what’s more American than turning everything into a sandwich. In Japan, of course, the bagel ended up within their ecosystem of soft, chewy, snacky bread. And in China, you’re starting to see some stuffings descended from China’s own tradition of stuffed leavened buns – that is, I think we’re starting to see the initial stages of… shall we say, Baoification.Case in point, one outrageously fun example that you can find here or there are… red braised pork stuffed bagels, which’re honestly pretty fantastic and way more delicious than they have any right to be.To make them, in a small pan over a low flame first just fry a half tablespoon of granulated sugar in with about two teaspoons of oil until the sugar gets slightly melted, then toss in 70 grams of pork belly cut into two centimeter cubes. Also toss in a half centimeter of ginger together with the white parts of two scallions, and fry that all until slightly browned, or about four to five minutes. Then hit that with ¾ cup of hot, boiled water from the kettle, ¼ tsp liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine, a half teaspoon of soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon dark soy for color and a final quarter teaspoon of five spice powder. Then cook that over the same low flame for 15 minutes or so, or until the sauce has reduced to only about two to three tablespoons, then season with an 1/8 teaspoon each salt and MSG and thicken with a slurry of a ½ teaspoon of cornstarch. Then once that’s looking good, just set it aside to cool down.Or maybe… alternatively, just like a baozi, you can also go sweet with the fillings. This here was a similar seventy grams of a purple sweet potato, arranged on a plate together with one tablespoon of water, then nuked on medium high for four minutes to steam.Then once that’s good and soft, just mash it together with four grams of sugar, six grams of melted butter, and ten grams of sweetened condensed milk… and then this can also stuff a bagel. …Just sort those fillings in the same manner as the cheese, though word of warning that you’ll probably want to sorta pinch the sides closed for the pork one to avoid any leakage.Now. After our ten minutes of resting, we can finally shape all of our bagel varieties into their recognizable form. To do so, just grab one log and gently roll it out until it’s about 20-25 cm long – the longer the log, the bigger the hole at the center. Then, keeping things seam side down, press one side of the log down to sort of get a kinda ‘fish tail shape’, then grab the other end and nuzzle it into the fin. Fold that fin around the edge to hide the connection, and then pinch it closed and hide the pinch on the bottom. Then just work through your bagels, and then let those proof for 60 minutes, covered.And then… after that time, we can now boil up some bagels. So, to one liter of rapidly bubbling water, first toss in one tablespoon of granulated sugar and then swap the flame to low. Keeping everything at a gentle simmer, carefully place the bagels in and boil them for 30 seconds on each side. Let any excess water drip off onto a cloth, then place the bagel onto some parchment paper, optionally topping with any bagel toppings that you’re feeling. Then just pop those into a pre-heated 200 centigrade oven and bake for 15 minutes.And then after that time, if you’re going that triple cheese route, just layer over a slice of good ol kraft American over the bagel right when it’s hot out from the oven… and then once those are all cool to the touch, they’re good to devour.So! This is how you make ‘chagel’, and as you can see, one simple dough can turn into four flavors… so of course, you can have fun and play and stuff whatever you want into your bagel. Some popular choices right now in China are Sichuan peppercorn flavor, or some pickles, or some dried seafood, or some chili oil or chili stuff… so yeah! Have fun! So right! Check out the recipe in the description box, a big thank you for everyone that’s supporting us on Patreon, and of course… subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.\n"
