How to Reheat and Re-Eat a Stale, Dried Out Bagel

Here's a quick tip for all of you bagel lovers out there.
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There's nothing like the delicious taste of a true, New York-style bagel. Except when you break a tooth trying to bite into one that's a few days old and about as soft as a cinderblock.

Here's how you take a stale, rock-hard bagel and make it almost like new:

1) Put your rock-hard bagel on a microwave-safe plate and drip six or seven smallish drops of water around the top of the bagel.

2) Microwave the bagel, uncovered, on the highest setting for 25-30 seconds.


This won't quite restore your bagel to out-of-the-oven freshness, but it gets it very close. Be careful to let it cool down just a bit before eating. Enjoy!

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8 comments:

Melissa said...

I wish I had seen this an hour ago when I ate a leftover bagel from yesterday's tray my boss brought in. Crud!

Charmian @Christie's Corner said...

Your bagels last long enough to go stale?

Good trick to know, just in case. I would have likely pulverized the rock-hard bagel in a blender and used the crumbs some other way, but that's such a waste of a great bagel.

Liz T. said...

I've also heard wrapping it in a damp paper towel then nuking it helps. The trick is to nuke it *just enough* - too much an it'll be even more dried out.

The Diva on a Diet said...

I've done something similar with Italian bread by wrapping it in a damp paper towel. It does work. Will file this one away for my next bagel emergency. Thanks!

Daniel said...

I'm glad people are enjoying this post... it's not really typical of the content here at CK, but I thought I'd share the information anyway.

I've had a number people email me about the damp paper towel method, so there's definitely a consensus that that method works too!

DK

Richard said...

Works!

Daniel said...

Yep, it sure does Richard. ;)

DK

Unknown said...

Buy a couple of sugar bears.
Soak them for 20 minutes, put your bagels in an air tight bag with the sugar bears.
Just as fresh on day 2.
Also works with bread that has no preserveitive.
You can buy the bears on line, short money and quickly cost effective.