Paska Bagels

5 from 2 votes

Paska is a FANTASTIC Ukrainian Easter bread, loaded with citrus flavor, sugar, butter, & eggs. These Paska bagels are inspired by that bread - all the flavour, just in bagel form!

Prep Time30

Cook Time38

Rising Time1 10

Total Time2 18

Course: Bread, Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine: Polish, Ukrainian

Servings: Bagels

Calories: 338kcal

Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

2 Baking Sheets
Parchment Paper

Ingredients

Bagel Dough:

⅔ cup warm - not hot - Milk
⅓ cup Granulated Sugar
4 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
3 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
1 teaspoon Salt
¼ cup Orange and/or lemon juice
2 Large eggs beaten
2 tablespoon Unsalted butter melted

Assembly:

¼ cup Granulated sugar
1 Large Egg yolk

Instructions

Make the Dough

Measure warm milk into a glass measuring cup or bowl, stir in 1 tablespoon of the sugar until well combined.
Stir in yeast, allow to stand for 10 minutes – it should get very bubbly.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, remaining sugar, orange zest, lemon zest, and salt.
Pour in yeast mixture, juice, eggs, and melted butter, stir well to combine.
Dump dough out onto a floured surface, knead until soft and elastic, 5-10 minutes.
Alternatively, use a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 7 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
Note: If the dough is really sticky - sticking to the bowl, rather that coming together in a ball - add a small amount of flour.
It should be slightly sticky, but still able to ball.
Once dough is fully kneaded, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for one hour, or until doubled in size.

Form the Bagels

Once dough has doubled, dump it out on a clean work surface, and divide it out.
We divided the mixture into 8 equal sized balls, for medium-large bagels – but you can make them smaller or larger by dividing into 6, 10, or 12 equal sized pieces.
There are two main ways of forming bagels – with roll each lump of dough into a thick “snake” and secure the ends together, or roll each lump into a smooth ball before poking a finger though.
Once you have a hole made, stretch the ring of dough out a bit to enlarge the hole. Personally, I prefer the latter.
Once you have all of your bagels formed, set them on baking sheets to rise for another 10 minutes. As your bagels are resting, preheat oven to 350F.

Boil and Bake the Bagels

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the sugar, and stir well to combine.
Turn heat down a little, allowing water to simmer rather than boil.
2 or 3 at a time, drop your bagels into the simmering water, allow to cook for 1 minute, then flip each and allow to cook for another minute.
Drain well, place on lined baking sheets.
Whisk egg yolk together with 1 tablespoon of water, brush over the tops and sides of each bagel.
Bake for about 38-40 minutes if doing 8 bagels, or 35-37 minutes (small - 10/12 bagels) or 40-45 mins (large, 6 bagels), until golden brown.

Nutrition