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Turn your bagel into a brioche with this easy trick

Have you had a hamburger where they used a "brioche" bun? It was really tender and pillowy, and unlike firmer buns it didn't squeeze the burger out of the bun when you bit into it?

If you like that kind of bun, you can fake it with plain bagels from the supermarket and one easy trick involving a skillet. I have had the best results from No Name Brand plain bagels from the Real Canadian Superstore but you can try it with any supermarket bagel to soften them up.
Even if you aren't going for a brioche effect, it's a nice way to soften up old bagels without outright toasting them.

When you put a bagel in the toaster, it toasts both sides and can come out like crispy, dry, toast. That's not what we're after of course, but you may also have noticed that the inside becomes softer, at least while it's warm. Same with slices of bread, except normally it's less noticeable because the slices are so thin.
So what we're going to do is just toast one side of our bagel.

  1. Slice your bagel into two halves as usual (Slide 1).
  2. Lightly butter the inside or lightly oil your non-stick skillet.
    • This helps with preventing it from outright charring.
    • You might be able to get away with not doing this if you are watching it carefully and not using too much heat though.
  3. Then just place the bagels in the skillet (slide 2) with the inside of the bagel facing down.
    • Do NOT flip -- we're toasting only one side.
    • If you cover the skillet, that can create moisture. This can accelerate the process of softening the bagel due to the slight steaming effect, but the results will be somewhat different.
    • You can also deliberately moisten the lid you are using in order to create steam. Steaming will result in some moistness and generally a soft but chewy bagel -- which can also be fun to eat, at least while it's still warm (it will harden again once it cools).
The result will be a crunchy film at the bottom, but the rest of the bagel should soften. You can occasionally lightly press the tops of the bagel halves to see how soft they are. Remember that once you take them off the heat, they will still continue to soften a bit more due to the heat retained.

Eat while toasty warm as the bread will eventually harden again once it cools.


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