I hear you!!!!
Split the fresh bagels, and freeze them, then take a frozen and split bagel out of the freezer and toast it!
Another alternative would be to remember to take a frozen bagel or 2 out of the freezer the night before you want to eat it.

First of all, slice the bagels before freezing. To do this, I slice them, and put each slice on a tray to freeze before repackaging. Two slices if they're not huge bagels, and sometimes three slices if they are.

If you can find a toaster with a ''frozen'' and a ''toast'' setting, you can have those perfectly toasted bagels you're after. Mine is a very inexpensive Oster, and I toast my frozen slices directly from the freezer, which works very well. That is, assuming you like your bagels toasted. (Since I wouldn't consider eating one that isn't you see!)

I like a bagel, cream cheese, and Habanero Gold jelly for breakfast. That necessitates keeping frozen bagels on hand. I like Ray's New York Bagels.

I don't care for toasted so my process is to put the frozen bagel in the toaster oven; turn it to 400 convection; take it out when the preheat bell goes off. This timing is just right for a crispy crust and a warm tender inside. It's just right...for my taste.

BTW, Welcome to you, stick around for awhile.

When I was a kid, we had a special gizmo for warming up bagels. It was a brushed-aluminum, almost-spherical pot/lid combo, a little flattened on the bottom so it could sit on a burner. Made by Rival or Proctor-Silex or one of those companies. The lower part had an inset with small holes in it. As I recall, you'd put water in the main pan--there was only room for a very small amount--and then put the bagels in the inset, plunk on the lid, and warm them up over low heat. The printing on the lid said "bun warmer," but in our house it was always used for bagels. And usually to revive ones that were starting to go stale, but I bet it would work to thaw frozen ones, too. I guess it was basically a steamer, but the bagels always came out of it tasting fabulous. I've got to check and see if my mother still has that thing.

I was taught to never jump food more than one temperature stage at a time.

If the food is in the freezer, it goes into the fridge until fridge temp and then out until room temp and then into or onto the heat.

It's not so much a "sanitation" thing.

It's about the cellular structure of the food and how it changes. That's why many people notice the mouth-feel difference between toast made from bread out of the bread box and toast made from bread out of the freezer (which I used to have to do with those organic spprouted breads).

Go ahead and freeze your bagels. When you plan on having some in the morning, take enough out of the freezer and put them into the fridge for the night. When you wake up, take them out of the fridge and place them, in a bag, on the counter for a few minutes. Then toast them.

Joe

Here is what I do:

Steam the bagel till hot and soft, then immediately toast on high heat setting till outside is done the way you like it.

Almost like just fresh out of the oven.

Remember bagels are first boiled in water before baking.

dcarch

Cathy: Sounds Good.

I've found heating Bread or Bagels in a Micro Wave makes them Chewy and toughens them.

Maureen:
I put a Thread in a while back about a Bunn Warmer.

But these were used many Moons ago, when things weren't so plentiful.

It was a 3 inch deep Alluminum Pan with a lid. Inside was a Screen Basket with short wire legs.
If you had Cinnamon Bunns that were getting Stale.

Like you said ,put them in there with a little water,
for a couple minutes.
They would be like fresh baked.

Don't have mine anymore. I use a Vegetable Steamer Basket,
inside of a pot, with a lid.

Works the same. If they happen to get a little soft,
I toast them a little in the Toaster Oven.
Lou

A hearty "thank you" to all who replied. So many great tips.

Looking back, we used to toast them, but somehow got away from that and have tended to have them more like mustangs. However, with so many good suggestions for toasting, we're going to try some of them toasted again. Just got two dozen from Costco today, so will slice half of them and leave the other half frozen whole.

Again, many thanks to all of you!

I bake my own bagels and freeze them a couple of dozen at a time. I wrap each bagel in a paper towel (prevents bread from being soggy when defrosted) and then into a freezer bag. We prefer them toasted. If I remember I take the bagels out of the freezer the night before. If I don't, I just defrost them for a minute on the defrost setting of the microwave. (30% power). Haven't had a problem with the texture. My toaster oven (Cuisinart) has a bagel setting so it is possible to toast just the top/cut side. I don't precut before freezing.

Ann