This easy homemade bagels recipe proves that you can make deliciously chewy bagels in your own kitchen with only a few basic ingredients and baking tools! Watch the video tutorial before you get started.
Today I’m teaching you how to make homemade bagels with only a few basic ingredients and kitchen tools. Today you’re going to tackle any fears of yeast-bread baking—and I’m right here to guide you along! This recipe is such a fan favorite that I included it in my New York Times best-selling cookbookSally’s Baking 101.
Bagelscrème brûléesoft pretzelsand French macarons. What do these foods have in common? Each seem really complicated to make at home. That’s why you’ll often find them on your baking bucket list. But secretlythey couldn’t be easier. Homemade bagels taste fresherare cheaperand you’ll earn the bragging rights for from-scratch baking. (P.S. Each of those recipes has a video tutorial!)
Bagels Require a Lean Dough
The first step is to make the bagel dough. You need only 5 ingredients:
- Warm Water: Liquid for the dough.
- Yeast: Allows the dough to rise. I recommend an instant or active dry yeast.
- Barley Malt Syrup or Sugar: Bakeries use barley malt syrup to sweeten the bagel dough—it can be a little difficult to findbut either white or brown sugar is a fine substitute.
- Bread Flour: A high-protein flour is necessary for bagels. We want a dense and chewy texturenot soft and airy like cinnamon rolls. Bread flour is the only solution!
- Salt: Flavor.
Notice how there is no fat? This is called a lean dough. Lean dough is ideal for recipes like focacciapizza doughartisan breadand cranberry nut no-knead bread. Breads like dinner rolls and homemade breadsticksand sweet breadsuch as cinnamon rollsinclude fat for richness and flavor.
You can prepare and knead the dough with a stand mixer or by hand. If you’d like a visual of how to knead the dough by handyou can watch the full video tutorial in my post on How to Knead Dough.
After the dough has been kneadedlet it rise for 60–90 minutes. Punch it downthen divide into 8 sections and shape into bagels.
How to Shape Bagels
Shaping bagels is easier than it looks. Poke your finger through the center of the ball of doughthen use 2 fingers to widen the hole to about 1.5–2 inches. That’s it! I don’t really do anything fancy and the bagels don’t need to be perfect. Mine never are!
Bagel Water Bath
Bagels must cook for 1 minute on each side in a pot of boiling water. This is actually the most important step in the whole recipe. Why?
- Boiling the bagels gives the bagel its beautiful shine. But looks aren’t everything—this shine is actually a result of the dough’s starches gelatinizing which creates a crispshiny coating. I learned this from Cooks Illustrated.
- Boiling bagels cooks the outer layer of doughwhich guarantees they’ll hold their shape in the oven.
Add honey or barley malt syrup to the water bath. Why? The sugar adds extra caramelization and crisp. Brushing the boiled bagels with egg wash does the same. Don’t skip either!
Homemade Bagel Varieties
- Plain Bagels: Follow the recipe below. These are excellent as the base for breakfast casserole.
- Cinnamon Raisin Bagels: Follow my cinnamon raisin bagels recipe.
- Everything Bagels: Follow my everything bagels recipe.
- Blueberry Bagels: Follow my blueberry bagels recipe.
- Sesame Seed Bagels: Use 1/3 cup sesame seeds. After brushing with egg wash in step 9top with or dunk each bagel into topping. Use more as needed.
- Poppy Seed Bagels: Use 1/3 cup poppy seeds. After brushing with egg wash in step 9top with or dunk each bagel into topping. Use more as needed.
- Salt Bagels: Use 1/3 cup coarse sea salt. After brushing with egg wash in step 9top with or dunk each bagel into topping. These are pretty saltyso feel free to go lighter on the salt.
- Cheese Bagels (AsiagoCheddaretc.): Add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese to the dough when you add the flour. After brushing with egg wash in step 9sprinkle with extra cheese.
- Cinnamon Crunch Bagels: Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough recipe below when you add the salt. Double the cinnamon crunch topping from cinnamon crunch bread. After brushing the bagels with the egg wash in step 9 belowspoon cinnamon crunch topping on each.
Some readers have used this bagel recipe to make whole wheat bagels by replacing half of the bread flour with whole wheat flour. I haven’t tried itbut I do use some whole wheat flour when making homemade English muffinsanother breakfast staple!
Homemade Bagels Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 8 bagels
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Make fresh bagels right at home with this tested dough recipe. Don’t skip the water bath and egg wash—both provide an extra chewy and golden brown crust. This recipe is also in my cookbookSally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360g/ml) warm water (between 100–110°F/38–43°C)
- 2 and 3/4 teaspoons (8g) instant or active dry yeast*
- 1 Tablespoon barley malt syrup, granulated sugaror brown sugar*
- 4 cups (520g) bread flour (spooned & leveled)plus more as needed*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- for coating the bowl: nonstick spraybutteror oil
For Boiling & Topping
- 2 quarts (1.9L) water
- 1/4 cup (85g) barley malt syrup or honey
- egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachmentwhisk the warm waterbarley malt syrup/sugarand yeast together. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes. *If you don’t have a stand mixer, use a large mixing bowl and mix the dough with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula in the next step.*
- Add the flour and saltand beat on medium speed for 2 minutesuntil the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If it seems too sticky and clings to the sides of the bowl instead of forming a rough mass around the dough hook or spoonadd more flour1 Tablespoon at a timeand continue to mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be stiff and somewhat dry. If it is crumbly and breaks off in piecesadd more water1 teaspoon at a timemixing well after each addition.
- Knead the dough: When the dough has reached the proper consistencybeat on low speed with the dough hook for an additional 6–7 minutesor knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6–7 minutesuntil the dough feels smoothsuppleand elastic. (If you’re new to bread-makingmy How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading processsprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a softslightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneadingthe dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces backyour dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If soyour dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If notkeep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Lightly grease a large bowl with nonstick spraybutteror oil. Place the dough in the bowlturning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 1.5–2 hoursor until doubled in size.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Shape the bagels: When the dough is risenpunch it down to release the air. On a lightly floured surfacedivide the dough into 8 equal piecesabout 4 ounces (113g) each. Shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a holethen stretch and widen the hole to about 1.5–2 inches in diameter. Arrange the shaped bagels on the prepared baking sheets. Loosely cover the shaped bagels with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rest for 5–10 minutes as you prepare the water bath.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C).
- Water bath: Fill a largewide pot with 2 quarts (1.9L) of water. Whisk in the barley malt syrup or honey. Bring to a boil over high heatthen reduce heat to medium-high. Drop 2 or 3 bagels in at a timemaking sure they have enough room to float around. Boil the bagels for 1 minutethen use a spatula to flip each bagel over and boil for 1 minute more. Using a slotted metal spatulalift the bagels out of the waterletting the excess water drain off. Place the bagels back on the lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining bagels.
- Using a pastry brushbrush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. If you’re adding toppingsdip the tops of the bagels into the toppings immediately after applying the egg wash.
- Bake for 20–25 minutesrotating the pans halfway throughuntil the bagels are dark golden brown. Allow the bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutesthen transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Slicetoasttopenjoy however you want! Cover leftover bagels tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Overnight Make-Ahead Instructions: Prepare the dough through step 4but allow the dough to rise overnight in the refrigerator instead of at room temperature. The slow rise gives the bagels wonderful flavor! In the morningremove the dough from the refrigerator and let the dough rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Continue with step 5. I don’t recommend shaping the bagels the night before as they may puff up too much overnight.
- Freezing Make-Ahead Instructions: Baked bagels freeze wonderfully! Freeze them for up to 3 monthsthaw overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperaturethen warm to your liking. You can also freeze the bagel dough. After punching down the dough in step 6wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrapthen a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigeratorthen punch the dough down again to release any air bubbles. Continue with the rest of step 6.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer | Baking Sheets | Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats | Large Pot (such as a 5- or 6-quart Dutch Oven) | Pastry Brush
- Yeast: Use instant or active dry yeast. If using active dry yeastthe rise time may be closer to 2 hours. 1 standard packet is about 2 and 1/4 teaspoonsso you will need a little more than 1 packet of yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Barley Malt Syrup: This ingredient can be a little hard to findbut truly gives bagels that traditional malty flavor we all know and love. Most natural food stores carry it. I offer alternatives such as brown sugar in the dough and honey in the water bath; I’ve made bagels with these alternatives AND with barley malt syrup and honestly love both versions.
- Bread Flour: Bagels require a high protein flour. Bread flour is a must. Here are all my recipes using bread flour if you want more recipes to use it up. All-purpose flour can be used in a pinchbut the bagels will taste flimsy and won’t be nearly as chewy.
- Bread Machine: Place the dough ingredients into the pan of the machine. Program the machine to dough or manualthen start. After 9–10 minutesthe dough will be quite stiff. Allow the machine to complete its cyclethen continue with the recipe.
- Bagel Varieties: See blog post above for various add-ins and toppings. Note that the toppings are added after the egg wash in step 9. Some readers have used this bagel recipe to make whole wheat bagels by replacing half of the bread flour with whole wheat flour. I haven’t tried itbut let me know if you do!
- Halve or Double: You can halve this dough recipe by simply halving all of the dough ingredients (do not halve the water or honey for the boiling step). No changes to the recipe instructions. For best taste and texture and to not overwhelm your mixer with excess heavy doughI do not recommend doubling this dough recipe. Insteadmake separate batches of dough.
- Adapted from a mix of recipes I’ve tried: King Arthur Flour, Cook’s Illustratedand Complete Book of Breads
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