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 cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Bagels, crème brûlée, 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. (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 find, but 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 texture, not 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 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 stand 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 everything—this 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.
- Blueberry Bagels: Follow my blueberry 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!
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 wash—both 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 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 sugar, or brown sugar*
- 4 cups (520g) bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- for coating the bowl: nonstick spray, butter, or 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 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 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 6–7 minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6–7 minutes, until the dough feels smooth, supple, and elastic. (If you’re new to bread-making, my How to Knead Dough 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 finger—if it slowly bounces back, your 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 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 1.5–2 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, then 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 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 20–25 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, enjoy 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 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: 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.
- Barley Malt Syrup: 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 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 pinch, but 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 manual, then start. After 9–10 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, Cook’s Illustrated, and Complete Book of Breads
Reader Comments and Reviews
Soooo good! I was surprised how easy this was to make. I used half whole wheat and half AP flour (that’s all I had), and I used melted ghee rather than the egg wash, then sprinkled the Everything seasoning on some, and cheese on some others. Thank you for sharing!
I’ve tried making these bagels twice and for whatever reason I can’t get the bagels to float when it’s time to boil. I’m also noticing that the dough isn’t doubling in size when I proof it even though I follow the recipe exactly.
Hi Camille, Do the finished bagels taste ok? There may not be enough boiling water in the bath step if they aren’t floating. (Or the water isn’t hot enough.) I’d also double check the expiration date on your yeast if it doesn’t seem to be rising. Also be sure that when activating the yeast, that the warm water isn’t too warm to the point where it kills the yeast.
Your bagel recipe is amazing. Easy to follow and makes some delicious bagels. I tried the plain and everything bagel and both are perfect everytime I make them now. Never buying a store bought bagel ever again.
This recipe is so easy and they turned out amazing!
I put the dough in the refrigerator to rise overnight, but it had already doubled in size after two hours, so I took it out and made the bagels immediately.
Why did it rise so fast in the refrigerator?
The bagels turned out really good. I felt that the dough was a bit dense but overall, me and my family were very happy with them (they were gone in like 3 days haha)
Hi I just tried these bagels and really loved them! The only thing was the bagel texture was definitely a little tough and chewy to eat through, I’m wondering how to fix this for next time? Maybe less kneading or flour?
Hi Allyson! These bagels are definitely chewy, but if they were overly tough it sounds like they may have been overkneaded a bit. Try a little less kneading next time and that should help. Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try!
These bagels were delicious! Your recipe was so easy to follow and I really appreciated the tips. I would really like to make blueberry bagels, could you please tell me how to adapt your recipe.
Also, how about chocolate chip bagels?
Hi Virg, we’re so glad you love these bagels! For blueberry bagels, you can add dried blueberries in when we add the raisins in our Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. You can use the same recipe to make chocolate chip bagels by substituting chocolate chips for the raisins as well.
Hi from India
I discovered this site when I was surfing the net and now it has become my go to site .l have tried many recipes and all were successful
Thank you so much
These were excellent! My oven runs hot so I baked at 405 degrees for 9 minutes then flipped them and baked 9 more minutes.
I tried this recipe and loved it! Was wondering if you knew roughly how many calories are in each bagel?
Hi Alexa! We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
I made these not thinking they would turn out great especially in a house of bagel critics. But they loved the bagels begging for more! I am so excited to make them again.
Hands down the best and easiest bagel recipe I’ve ever tried. Always use the overnight method. I use 2/3 bread flour and 1/3 whole-wheat. Thank you for posting it.
Made the dough last night and finished making this morning for some warm bagels for breakfast. OMG! So good. HEB sells an “Everything but the bagel” topping which makes…yes, an everything bagel when used as a topping. We tried it and it was perfect. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Hi, I made this recipe using the make ahead instructions (left the dough in the fridge overnight). They were delicious but pretty flat. Any idea what may have been the problem? I want to make them again and still want to prepare the dough the night before (won’t have time in the morning).
Hi Rachel, Was the dough particularly sticky? A little more flour will help for next time – a firmer dough should create puffier bagels. Did they puff up during the boiling step?
Another tip is to not let your dough rise too long (you want it to double in size). Yeast recipes/breads will deflate if the dough has risen/proofed too long. Hope this helps!
Hi from Spain!
I`m so excited to prepare this recipe. Mi question is…what can I do to keep the bagels fresh? How many days can I keep them? I’m not sure if i’m making the full amount or halving it. Thank you
Hi Andrea, when covered tightly (in a bag or even individually wrapped), these bagels will be good at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. For even longer storage, see recipe notes for freezing details. Let us know if you give them a try!
Hi Sally, thank you so much for your recipes! I live in the Czech Republic and usually bake American recipes. My friend and a teacher of baking classes recommended me your website. I have to admit that your bagel recipe is the one who works best for me and I did not have to wait overnight as many bagel recipes require. Thank you once again! Your bagels are really top and number one!
I just used this recipe to make my first ever homemade bagels. They were a hit! I plan to work this in to my weekends more often. Thanks for all the notes (yeast, hand mix, overnight, etc) it made it easy to feel comfortable without having to do multiple searches on what would be best to do.
I’ve made these 3 times now following your recipe precisely. After the water bath they are plump and beautiful but come out of the oven smaller and flatter. Any clue.? I’m in Arizona, perhaps altitude? Thanks.
Hi Terry! Some readers have found this chart helpful for high altitude baking: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html Also make sure to not over-proof your dough as that can lead to deflated yeasted baked goods – you could try reducing the rising time next time as well. Hope this helps!
I made cheese bagels. They turned out unbelievably professional looking and tasting. Easy to follow. This sight is becoming my go to for recipes. Never failed. Thanks
Hello, thanks for this recipe! I don’t have a mixer like yours, so I was going by hand. From the moment I mixed it, my dough seemed much wetter than yours. I did the overnight in the fridge rising and it didn’t seem to really rise. The bagels sunk in the water bath until they’d been in for a minute or so. The flavor is fine, but it is clear that it isn’t fully cooked/risen inside in some places. Do you have an idea of where I went wrong/what I can do to improve? I am very new to attempting to bake, haha. Thank you!
Hi Kelly! A very wet dough is likely the culprit. There are a lot of variables that go into the consistency of dough, even down to the weather and humidity in the air. There’s nothing wrong with adding just a little more flour to bring the dough into a less sticky and knead-able consistency. Let us know if you give these another try!
Hi Sally! I wanted to use your recipe to make Jalapeño Cheese bagels. Would I just replace some of the cheese in the dough with chopped jalapeno?
That should work perfectly – Pickled jalapeños may be a good option as well. Let us know how it goes!
Really excited to try this recipe, I don’t have any honey in the house am I able to use maple syrup instead?
Hi Paul! We haven’t tested this recipe using maple syrup but other readers have reported success with that substitution. Let us know how it goes!
I use maple syrup as that’s what I have. They come out great. I don’t have bread flour but I have an excellent flour that worked well in bread so I used it. Nice delicious chewy wonderfulness.
Love this!!!! The barley malt makes for really amazing results! I never made bagels before, but I’ve been craving them and am quarantining due to the pandemic. So glad I made these… better than the bagel shop!!
I used my trusty bread machine to mix and knead the bagel dough. Beautiful! I do need practice in shaping the dough balls, which need to be smooth or the finished bagel will show any folds and cracks when baked. Other than aesthetics, the finished bagels are crisp on the outside and chewy inside just as they should be. A fun challenge to make them myself and far more enjoyable still than paying $2 each at the bagel shop.
Thanks, Sally for another wonderful recipe!
So good and straight forward. The only thing that has happened twice to me it I cannot roll them evenly. The dough is almost too dense so it doesn’t amalgamate properly? What am
I doing wrong?
Hi Daniela, thank you so much for trying this recipe. Try reducing the flour to produce a slightly lighter dough. Even 2-3 fewer Tablespoons could make the dough a little more manageable for you.
This recipe calls for 4 cups, or 500 grams, of bread flower. 500 grams is incorrect as 4 cups of bread flower weighs ~620 grams.
I think the author must have accidentally provided the weight of 4 cups of all purpose flour, which IS 500g – it’s lighter than bread flower.
Please update the recipe to reflect the correct number of grams. I made 2 batches of bagles thinking I was doing something wrong, when in fact I just wasn’t using the correct amount of bread flower.
Other than that, this recipe is great!
Hi T, 1 cup of spoon and leveled bread flour is about 130g. 4 cups is close to 520g, which is what this recipe calls for. I wouldn’t use 620g in this recipe because that is a little too much. Were your bagels pretty dense? Glad it worked out for you though!
Absolute perfection!
Very easy to make. Wish I knew it was this easy before. I didn’t use honey but I used maple syrup instead in the boil. Came out great. I’ve made everything bagel cheese bagels and sesame seeds bagels. All came out very well. Delicious chewy goodness.
These are wonderful! Just baked them today. Very easy and delicious. I live at high elevation and I did not make any adjustments and they came out perfectly!
My bagels always have some gummy parts, not sure if to long in water bath. I try to remove after 1 minute each side but they look gummy and fall apart. Any idea what is wrong?
Hi Glenda, I would reduce the boiling time– even to 30 seconds on each side.