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!
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 and bread bakingโand I’m right here to guide you along!
Bagels, crรจme brรปlรฉe, soft pretzels, and 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 secretly, they couldn’t be easier. Homemade bagels taste fresher, are cheaper, and you’ll earn the bragging rights for from-scratch baking. (PS: Each of those recipes has a video tutorial!)
Bagels Require a Lean Dough
The 1st step is to make the bagel dough. This is the same dough you use for everything bagels, a recipe already published on my blog. There’s only 5 ingredients.
- Warm Water: Liquid for the dough.
- Yeast: Allows the dough to rise. I recommend an instant or active dry yeast.
- Bread Flour: A high protein flour is necessary for bagels. We want a dense and chewy texture, not soft and airy like cinnamon rolls. Bread flour is the only solution!
- Brown Sugar: Bakeries use barley malt syrup to sweeten the bagel doughโit can be a little difficult to find, but brown sugar is a fine substitute.
- Salt: Flavor.
Notice how there is no fat? This is called a lean dough. Lean dough is ideal for recipes like focaccia, pizza dough, artisan bread, and cranberry nut no-knead bread. Breads like dinner rolls and homemade breadsticks, and sweet bread, such as cinnamon rolls, include fat for richness and flavor.
You can prepare and knead the dough with a mixer or by hand. If you’d like a visual of how to knead the dough by hand, you can watch the full video tutorial in my post on How To Knead Dough. After the dough has been kneaded, let it rise for 60-90 minutes. Punch it down, then 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 dough, then 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 everythingโthis shine is actually a result of the dough’s starches gelatinizing which creates a crisp, shiny coating. I learned this from Cooks Illustrated.
- Boiling bagels cooks the outer layer of dough, which 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.
- Sesame Seed Bagels: Use 1/3 cup sesame seeds. After brushing with egg wash in step 9, top 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 9, top 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 9, top with or dunk each bagel into topping. These are pretty salty, so feel free to go lighter on the salt.
- Cheese Bagels (Asiago, Cheddar, etc): Add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese to the dough when you add the flour. After brushing with egg wash in step 9, sprinkle 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 below, spoon 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 it, but I do use some whole wheat flour when making homemade English muffins, another breakfast staple!
See Your Homemade Bagels!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. ๐
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Homemade Bagels Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 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 washโboth provide an extra chewy and golden brown crust. This recipe is also in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360g/ml) warm waterย (between 100โ110ยฐF/38โ43ยฐC)
- 1 Tablespoon barley malt syrup, granulated sugar, or brown sugar*
- 2 and 3/4 teaspoons (8g) instant or active dry yeast*
- 4 cups (520g) bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- for coating the bowl: nonstick spray or 2 teaspoons butter or olive 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 attachment, whisk the warm water, barley malt syrup/sugar, and yeast together. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes. *If you donโt 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 salt, and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, until 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 spoon, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, and 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 pieces, add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Knead the dough: When the dough has reached the proper consistency, beat on low speed with the dough hook for an additional 6โ7 minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6โ7 minutes, until the dough feels smooth, supple, and elastic. (If youโre new to bread-making, my How to Knead Doughย video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your fingerโif it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a โwindowpane testโ 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 itโs 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 so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Lightly grease a large bowl with nonstick spray, butter, or oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning 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 1.5โ2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Shape the bagels: When the dough is risen, punch it down to release the air. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 4 ounces (113g) each. Shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a hole about 1.5โ2 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 5โ10 minutes as you prepare the water bath.
- Preheat the oven to 425ยฐF (218ยฐC).
- Water bath: Fill a large, wide pot with 2 quarts (1.9L) of water. Whisk in the barley malt syrup or honey. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-high. Drop 2 or 3 bagels in at a time, making sure they have enough room to float around. Boil the bagels for 1 minute, then use a spatula to flip each bagel over and boil for 1 minute more. Using a slotted metal spatula, lift the bagels out of the water, letting the excess water drain off. Place the bagels back on the lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining bagels.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. If you’re adding toppings, dip the tops of the bagels into the toppings immediately after applying the egg wash.
- Bake for 20โ25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the bagels are dark golden brown. Allow the bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Slice, toast, top, whatever 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 4, but allow the dough to rise overnight in the refrigerator instead of at room temperature. The slow rise gives the bagels wonderful flavor! In the morning, remove 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:ย Baked bagels freeze wonderfully! Freeze them for up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then warm to your liking. You can also freeze the bagel dough. After punching down the dough in step 6, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then 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 yeast, the rise time may be closer to 2 hours. 1 standard packet is about 2 and 1/4 teaspoons, so you will need a little more than 1 packet of yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Bread Flour:ย 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 pinch, but the bagels will taste flimsy and won’t be nearly as chewy.
- Barley Malt Syrup:ย This ingredient can be a little hard to find, but 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 Machine: Place the dough ingredients into the pan of the machine. Program the machine to dough or manual, then start. After 9โ10 minutes, the dough will be quite stiff. Allow the machine to complete its cycle, then 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 it, but 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 dough, I do not recommend doubling this dough recipe. Instead, make separate batches of dough.
- Adapted from a mix of recipes I’ve tried: King Arthur Flour,ย Cook’s Illustrated, andย Complete Book of Breads
Reader Comments and Reviews
Made these today with great results! Saved recipe for sure!111
I just baked these bagels. Oh my goodness!! I’m so pleased with the results. They are big and tender and yummy all at the same time. I’ve tried other recipes, but this is a keeper. I think using the bread flour made such a delicious difference. My toppings were Cheddar & Green Onion, Cheddar & Jalapeno and Everything. I don’t know which one to try first. I wish I could attach a picture . Once again, thanks Sally
Best, Jennifer
Did you simply slice the raw jalapeรฑo?
Hi Sally! during baking, my bagels puffed up so much and were tall like a muffin, what did i do wrong?
Hi Camila, you can try making the hole in the center larger next time – this should help!
This recipe is delicious! It was my first time making any sort of bread product from scratch but this recipe was super easy to follow. I only deviated with the amount of time it took to kneed the dough – that took a solid 15 minutes in the stand mixer. But that could have been due to the humidity levels or the temp in the house so I wasn’t worried. Super yummy, very straightforward.
Very good recipe, but had a problem with boiling part. Bagels ended up being disfigured and flat. Any suggestions?
Flavor is great thank you
Hi Natalia! The dough could have been over-proofed, which would cause it to collapse. Try a shorter rise time or a cooler spot next time!
Thank you. You were right
Tried recipe second time and it was even better. I figured out boiling part I just boiled each bengal for an additional minute on each side. Flavor is great. Thank you 10 of 10.
Highly recommend it.
best bagel recipe ever
I am tired of spending good money on what is basically a “white bread” bagel from the supermarket, or ponying up two bucks for a bakery bagel. These from Sally are absolutely delicious and incredibly easy to make. Made as written, and had to add a bit more flour to get the proper consistency in dough. Shaping wasn’t difficult or challenging, but I learned that “fatter is better”. Did the water bath with honey, and baked for about 25 minutes. After they cooled, I took the “everything” seasoned one and made a sandwich. Then I toasted a plain one and ate it with cream cheese. Since I hadn’t dumped the water bath pan, I decided to make another batch. These are going to go on regular rotation. Going to try the Cinnamon Raisin ones once I get some raisins in the house.
Does high altitude (4,000 feet) change the recipe? If so, what should I do? Thank You
Hi Win, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Hello! I am wanting to add browned butter and chocolate chips into this recipe. How would you suggest adding the browned butter and how much would you do?
Thanks!!!
Hi Kate, We don’t recommend adding butter to this dough, although you can brush the tops of the bagels with it instead of an egg wash. For chocolate chip bagels, you can chocolate chips in when we add the raisins in our Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. Same amount. Let us know if you give them a try!
This recipe was slightly frustrating at the beginning because 4 cups of bread flour is definitely not 520g. If you are trying to go by g, it is way closer to 590ish g if you properly spoon and level. The dough was waaaay too wet and sticky at 520g. Maybe my flour differs slightly though since I am not in the US.
Hi McKenzie, There are a lot of variables that go into the consistency of dough, even down to the weather and humidity in the air. Different brands of flour can slightly vary, too. Thereโs nothing wrong with adding just a little more flour to bring the dough into a less sticky and knead-able consistency. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
Iโm also not in the US. I used white flour (not bread flour) and weighed it to 520g. It worked fine for me, using a bread machine to knead the dough for 6 minutes.
Itโs true, flour consistency will vary a lot, plus local humidity can affect things. Perhaps be more conservative with the amount of water you use? โโ๏ธ
These turned out great! Super easy and delicious!
Hi, how would we go about using this recipe as a base for blueberry bagels?
Hi Xun, for blueberry bagels we would follow our cinnamon raisin bagels recipe, substituting dried blueberries for raisins.
Best bagels I’ve made. I added 1/2 cup of sourdough starter. Not sure what it did, but the bagels came out chewy and airy.
I’ve made this recipe about 5 times now and I love them. my bagel shaping has been a little wonky/lumpy the first four times but the fifth time they have turned out way more smooth and round! they puffed up enough to lose most of their holes during baking but I think I overproofed them a little (went longer than 90 mins because I got distracted). they still taste great!
I wanted to make chili crisp flavoured bagels and ended up adding 1.5 tbsp to the dough during step 2, but I reduced the salt by half because I know chili crisp can be pretty salty, but I think it could have used 1.5 tsp of salt instead of just 1. next time, I’ll add 2 or even 3 tbsp of chili crisp as well because the flavour was there but subtle, and the heat was very gentle (I wouldn’t even call it spicy, just kind of warm lol).
Hi Sally, do you have a recipe for pumpkin bagels or a way I can make them as an alternative to your bagel? Love all your recipes! And the videos. Thank you, Beth
Hi Beth, We wish we could help, but we havenโt tried making pumpkin bagels. Youโd likely need to *slightly* adjust the liquid and add more flour if you add some pumpkin puree. Let us know if you test anything!
Will this recipe work with gluten free bread flour?
Hi Tina, we haven’t tested it, but let us know if you do!
Sally what a fabulous recipe! Easy, delicious, and a family pleaser. I have used sesame seeds and poppy seeds to top and your recipe for the cinnamon raisin recipe is amazing ( my fav). It took me some time to find a shop that sold barley malt syrup and I am glad I tried it because I find it makes a difference ( I tried molasses but found it too sweet).
I highly recommend this recipe exactly as you have written it.
Thank you!!
Quick question: do you do the egg wash if you are not using toppings?
Yes!
I don’t have eggs, is there a substitute for the egg wash?
Hi Ashley, instead of egg wash, you can brush them with some milk before baking.
Used apf instead of bread flour and it turned out fine. Love all your recipe
I subbed whole wheat flour for the bread flour and it turned out great!
Excellent! Easy to add things in. Good basic bagel with perfect chew.
Sallyโs recipes Iโve tried all just wonderful. Thank you Sally!