The perfect bagel awaits you ? in your kitchen. Image by Eric Moran/Food52

I’ve spent hours — possibly even days — worth of my life debating the perfect bagel and where to find it. Questions like these always arise: Who does it better, Brooklyn or Manhattan? Are seeds essential? Are Montreal bagels worthy of our attention? It seems that the quibbles, questions and criteria surrounding what makes a bagel perfect are endless. Meanwhile, newspapers and blogs are playing Game Of Thrones and crowning different bagels king.

But, we might have all been looking in the wrong place. A recent post on the website Food52 declares: “This is a promise — the secret to good bagels is that there really is no secret, other than you don’t have to be anywhere near New York City to have perfectly chewy, fresh bagels for breakfast this Sunday morning.”

The place to look for the perfect bagel is in our kitchens. Food52’s recipe only calls for a handful of ingredients and while, like any bread recipe, it requires some time (for the bread to rest), the promise of a golden, delicious and chewy bagel hot from the oven sounds too good to resist.

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Try pairing it with Anne Mendelson’s old fashioned tangy cream cheese and Mile End’s luscious gravlax.

Happy brunching.

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