Storing Bagels

Bagels are best enjoyed fresh, if possible within the hour after being removed from the oven. But we don’t often get that luxury. They’re still pretty darn good on the day they were baked. Unfortunately, they start to diminish in quality the next day and exponentially worsen as the week goes on. If you can’t enjoy all of your bagels on the day they were baked, what can you do?

If you are going to eat a bagel with 48 hours, just keep it in a rolled-up paper bag on the counter. This should allow enough protection from the air/moisture for a day or two. If you want to take that next step for an extra day’s worth of preservation, place the rolled up paper bag in a resealable container (plastic bag, tupperware, etc.). The bagels may still harden a little bit, but should not go completely stale. To revive a bagel that is starting to go stale, sprinkle some water on it, wrap it in a towel, and microwave it in 15 second intervals until you reach the perfect texture.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that you the bagels in the refrigerator to keep them fresh longer. This actually causes bagels to go stale quicker than sitting on a counter because refrigerators are designed to remove moisture from the air inside. If you need to keep a bagel fresh longer, the freezer is the best place to store them. Slice the bagel in half before freezing so that it can go right in the toaster when you want to eat it, no defrosting required. If you don’t like your bagels toasted, you can warm it up in the microwave as listed above.