Learn how to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels with this simple recipe tutorial. You only need a handful of basic ingredients and they taste WAY better than store-bought!
Let’s all agree that cinnamon raisin bagels are the best bagel variety. Everything bagels, you hold nothing on cinnamon and raisins. 🙂 Today I’m teaching you how to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels with a few basic ingredients and a deliciously dense bread dough.
These bagels are:
- Hot & fresh
- Extra chewy
- Soft in the center
- Golden brown
- Sweet & cinnamon-y
Let’s do this!
Ingredients in Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
This cinnamon raisin bagels recipe is similar to my homemade everything bagels and plain homemade bagels recipes. The only difference is that we’re adding a little vanilla extract, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins to the bagel dough.
- Yeast & Warm Water: Allows the dough to rise. I recommend an instant or active dry yeast.
- Bread Flour: A high protein flour is necessary for making 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 dough—it can be a little difficult to find, but brown sugar is a fine substitute. Read more in my recipe notes below.
- Vanilla Extract: For extra delicious flavor to these sweet bagels.
- Raisins: Use around 3/4 – 1 cup. Dried cranberries are a delicious substitute!
- Sugar & Cinnamon: Knead the dough directly on the mixture. We’ll use our hands to work it into the dough! This method, rather than just mixing it all in, helps create little swirls and pockets of cinnamon sugar. The dough gets a little moist from the sugar, but that’s completely fine.
Reference this Baking with Yeast Guide whenever you work with baker’s yeast. I include practical answers to all of your common yeast questions.
After the dough rises, shape it into 8 separate balls.
Shape Bagels in 2 Easy Steps
Shaping bagels is a lot easier than it looks. You can watch me shape bagels in the video below, where I’m preparing plain and everything bagels. Same method applies to these homemade cinnamon raisin bagels.
- Poke your finger through the center of the dough ball.
- Widen the hole to about 1.5 – 2 inches wide.
Boil the Bagels Before Baking
After you shape the bagels, it’s time to boil them. 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 becoming gelatinized. These starches cook to a crisp, shiny coating in the oven. I learned this from Cooks Illustrated.
- Boiling bagels cooks the outer layer of dough, which guarantees they’ll hold their shape when baking.
Add honey or barley malt syrup to the water bath because it adds caramelization and crisp to the crust. Brushing the boiled bagels with egg wash does the same. Don’t skip either!
These homemade bagels are perfection. No need to waste money on store-bought or stand in line at the bakery. Homemade is the ONLY way to do cinnamon raisin bagels. You’re going to love these!
More Homemade Favorites
- Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread
- Easy Jalapeño Cheddar Bread
- Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Pop Tarts
- Homemade Brownies
- Homemade Biscuits
- Homemade Everything Bagels
Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 8 bagels
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Learn how to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels with this simple recipe tutorial. Don’t skip the water bath and egg wash- both provide an extra chewy and golden brown crust.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water
- 2 and 3/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast*
- 4 cups (520g) bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for work surface and hands*
- 1 Tablespoon (13g) packed light or dark brown sugar (or barley malt syrup)*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (110g) raisins
- 3 Tablespoons (38g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- coating the bowl: nonstick spray or 1 Tablespoon olive oil
Water Bath
- 2 quarts water
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey (or barley malt syrup)*
Egg Wash
- 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm water and yeast together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the flour, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes, then beat in the raisins until combined. The dough is very stiff and will look somewhat dry.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle onto a clean surface. Place the dough on top. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, picking up all that cinnamon sugar. Work as much of the cinnamon sugar mixture as you can into the dough. The dough may become a little wet from the added sugar– that’s ok.
- Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 60-90 minutes or until double in size.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Shape the bagels: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release any air bubbles. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) Shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a hole about 1.5 – 2 inches in diameter. Watch video below for a visual. Loosely cover the shaped bagels with kitchen towel and rest for a few minutes as you prepare the water bath.
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).
- Water bath: Fill a large, wide pot with 2 quarts of water. Whisk in the honey. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high. Drop bagels in, 2-4 at a time, making sure they have enough room to float around. Cook the bagels for 1 minute on each side.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. Place 4 bagels onto each lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. You want the bagels to be a dark golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Slice, toast, top, whatever you want! Cover leftover bagels tightly and store at room temperature for a few 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 for 60-90 minutes. 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 large 5.5 quart dutch oven) | Pastry Brush
- Yeast: Use instant or active dry yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise time may be up 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: 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: 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 9-10 minutes, the dough will be quite stiff. Allow the machine to complete its cycle, then continue with the recipe.
- 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
AMAZING! FIRST TIME MAKING BAGELS EVER. PERFECTION!
Recipe was fantastic! No hydration issue at all. Learned not to over-scoop flour (even if it’s leveled) and that has helped me with baking. First time making bagels ever and these turned out so fluffy! I added a tad bit more cinnamon, but such a perfect recipe. Wouldn’t change it at all! Currently eating this at 10:30 pm.
Best bagels ever!
I made the everything bagels first and loved them so much so gave these a try. My coworkers were so pleased I did!! They came out perfectly. I think I added a bit too much egg wash because they browned on top rather quickly but even so – no complaints!
Absolutely love these! Yes, the dough does get a bit sticky and you said that in the recipe. I just kneaded in a bit of extra flour, and it was just fine. Also, I didn’t have bread flour…just all purpose, and they still turned out beautifully!
Thank you so much for such an easy to follow recipe!
This was my first time making bagels and they came out perfectly! The recipe was very easy to follow and I got rave reviews from my friends and family. They all requested I make them regularly.
I have loved every single one of your recipes I’ve tried – and I’ve used several. Thank you for taking the time to break everything down into easy to follow steps. You’re my go-to for most of my baking now!
Can this be made without raisins or craisins? Or does that change the composition of the recipe? Thank you!!
Yes, absolutely! Here’s our plain Homemade Bagels recipe as well 🙂
This was my first time ever making bagels…although the way they look, my wife refuses to call them bagels. The dough got wat too sticky with the addition of the cinnamon sugar (it actually started a bit sticky, but not bad at all) so I could not get them to a good bagel shape however hard I tried. However, they cooked fine and taste good, so I’m pretty happy. Next time (and there will be one!) I’ll just knead in the sugar and the move to another floured surface so I can knead it longer (no mixer) without it sticking to everything. I suspect I’ll be able to form things that my wife will agree are bagels. I’m also going to look for malt syrup before I give them another go. I didn’t have honey so I put pancake syrup in the water bath, which worked, but I can see where malt would be better.
Any chance on macros??
Hi Ana, 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://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
It’s my first time ever making bagels. I followed this recipe with the overnight alteration. I kneaded for about 10-12 minutes. After trying the pull test, it kind of breaks before becoming translucent. It has been in the refrigerator for some time now. My question is whether I can knead them in the morning until they pass the pull test or should I bake them as is? Thanks for your time.
Hi Ad, I’m just seeing your question now. I would bake them as is– you do not need to knead the dough for that long. In this particular recipe, about 4 or 5 minutes is fine.
Great recipe, the ads on this page are really obnoxious.
This is my second time making this recipe. This time I used high gluten flour because I love a very chewy bagel. I also added more cinnamon sugar. The additional cinnamon sugar made it sticky and hard to get a pretty/smooth bagel but man were they great. I will definitely use the high gluten flour in all of my bagels. I can’t wait to try the different varieties.
The comment about over hydration (too much water) is correct based on my experience resulting in an unmanageable sticky dough. By reducing the water to 300 Grams from the recommended 360 grams with a high gluten bread flour results in a dough consistency that’s just right for forming bagels.
I also reduced the amount of vanilla to 3/4 tsp to reduce the vanilla aftertaste, reduced sugar to 2 TBS (less sweetness) when added to the sweetness of the raisins. I also reduced the raisins to 1/2 Cup , because the raisins dominated the flavor.
The recommended quantities produce a yield of just over 1000 Grams dough, resulting in what I consider oversized bagels for 8 bagels.
By cutting the recipe by 20%, yield results in more appropriate size bagels.
The basic recipe is a good start, and with a bit of fine tuning can be made even better to suit personal preferences.
I’ve just made this recipe, I’m delighted with them. I usually use a different recipe but wanted to try something different, and they turned out beautiful.
My dough was a perfect easy to knead bagel dough until I’ve added the sugar and cinnamon, I’ve managed only half of the quantity, then it became a bit wet and sticky, so I half kneaded by hand and half I’ve used the mixer.
Sally could I possibly add these with the raisins? Just because our flour in Ireland seems to take in water very easily, plus our weather and humidity are quite different too.
They proofed fine and I was able to do the rest of the baking, but because it was so sticky I cut the kneading probably a couple of minutes short.
Many thanks for this and so many lovely recipes
Hi Dani, thank you so much for your kind feedback and for giving this recipe a try! The dough will definitely be a little wet, but 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. For next time, feel free to more (about a tablespoon at a time) until it comes together as a workable dough.
Well, thanks a lot. Looks like you just cost me a lot of time. I got tired of the bagels I bought in the store as the cinnamon / raisin bagels had hardly any cinnamon in them and one brand had like 1 raising per bagel so I thought I would try making my own. First time I have ever made bagels. They may not be the prettiest (will improve with experience) but the flavor is fantastic so looks like I am going to have to be making my own bagels from here on out. (One note: I tripled the cinnamon. Thinking of possibly changing it a little using dried cranberries and orange extract in place of the vanilla.) Thanks for a great recipe.
Loved. I’m not an experienced baker. I even changed recipe to whole wheat flour mixed with bread flour, and added chopped pecans. They were delish. My 3 year old twins are tough critics and loved. I will try to make the mini bagels next time so I can keep myself under control. I’m no professional but everyone should know if dough is too wet at flour and water if too dry. Sally, you describe what the dough consistency should be perfectly. I agree, they are much better than my children’s store bought breakfast addiction. They like your homemade version much better.
Water to flour ratio is way off. Too wet. Kneading was impossible as the dough kept sticking to the surface. I had to add extra bread flour. I prefer recipes that are strictly by weight to ensure success. I will continue to use Joshua Weissman’s tried and true bagel recipe, and tweak it to add the cinnamon and raisins.
Hi Claudia, thank you for giving this recipe a try. 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.
I agree with Claudia. My dough was so wet it was almost liquidy. And I followed everything. I ended up adding at least another 2 cups of flour! That’s a lot of variation due to “humidity”. And even after that it was still REAL sticky. Not hard or a bit dry like the recipe said. I can’t see having to add 50% more flour being due to humidity. I appreciate the recipe none the less. Just makes it kind of confusing when you’re looking at it like “what did I do wrong?”. I’ve used lots of your other recipes and they were great. Thank you.
These are amazing! I have made several batches now and keep my freezer fully stocked for easy breakfasts during busy weeks. 🙂 They remind me so much of the cinnamon raisin bagels I grew up with from NOAH’s! Sooo tasty!
We used to love the blueberry bagels as well, but I can’t seem to find a good recipe for them. Have you ever made blueberry ones? Would I be able to use this same recipe but substitute dried blueberries instead of raisins, and then just leave out the cinnamon and knead the dough in just the sugar? Or will this change the consistency of the dough too much? What would you recommend in trying to get a good blueberry bagel?
Also, do you have a recipe for chocolate chip bagels? They were my brother’s favorite as a kid and I would love to make a batch.
Thanks for all of the amazing recipes!
– Jessica
This was my first try at bagels. This recipe is perfect. My bagels turned out really good- moist, tasty, good texture. My family loved them! I will be making some more tomorrow! Thanks for such an excellent recipe!
These bagels are fantastic and on my regular rotation. It is a very tasty dough and I was wondering if this dough could be used as a base for other kind of bread recipes? Kind of like using the same dough for dinner rolls, pizza dough, etc.
Hi Susan, we’re so glad you love these bagels! This is a quite dense dough and we fear wouldn’t be the best for other baked goods. You may love our recipes for dinner rolls and pizza dough instead!
I have made both the dinner roll and pizza dough and they are both delicious.
Thank you for responding.
Love your recipes Sally! You are my go to when it comes to baking, in-fact I just tried your plain bagels …. delicious! So they are gone, and today I am making a batch of whole-wheat and a batch of cinnamon raisin. They are rising now. I did something different with the raisins, I soaked them in boiled orange juice, then drained and added the raisins to the dough while kneading the cinnamon and sugar into the dough. I bet they are going to be amazing!!! Lots of thanks for your informative videos too.
Wow my first attempt and success! Some are a little wonky due to sticking to parchment before boiling. Will dust paper with flour next time.
Just cut around the bagel and boil with the parchment attached. You can peel it off more easily after boiling.
This is the best Bagel recipe I’ve ever done, very easy to follow and the bagels come out as if they were from a Restaurant but better, I am now a Bagel slave, my whole family only want to eat Bagels for breakfast, thank you Sally!
I loved these bagels! I followed the recipe as listed and had no problems. The bagels were chewy with a slightly crisp crust. The dough was just a little more stiff than a bread dough and the addition of the cinnamon sugar did loosen it up a bit. Will definitely be making these again.
Hello.
I am new to baking and I’m going to attempt your bagel recipe but I want to add raisins. My question is, do the raisins need to be prepared in any way before adding them to the dough ? I am going to be using Sun Maid raisins.
Hi Alan! No need to prepare the raisins. If they’re clumpy you can gently separate them with your hands. Enjoy!
I love this bagel recipe! I make mine with dried cherries and white chocolate chips. They are soooo good! I once tried the recipe with regular flour because I was out of bread flour. It was impossible to shape the dough into bagels, so I just made two big loaves which were actually delicious. My family thought it came from a bakery. 🙂
Hi Sally! I just made these bagels this morning – they’re delicious! I think I’m going to hide them so that my family won’t eat them all (because I want to save them for me !) They’re soft and chewy and taste SO MUCH better than the storebought ones. I added just a bit more cinnamon, and it was awesome! Do you know if you could replace the raisins with blueberries to make blueberry bagels? Or would they be too wet and change the texture of the bagels? Thanks!
I am an experienced baker, and used this recipe in combination with another from a dedicated bagel making book to tweak to my liking. No idea why all the “hydration ratio” comments, but the problem is not this recipe. All breads need an adjustment when kneeding, based on environmental factors and/or how flour was measured. There are no absolutes with bread making.
It’s experience, to wet add flour, too dry add water. It isn’t rocket science but it isn’t an exact science. I made bread before and had it down pat but that was winter and dry heat with no humidity inside, the summer time was a game changer so I had to adapt.
First time making bagels…these bagels are so delicious and soft. Thank you for this amazing recipe. I used my bread machine to mix the dough. Now I’m looking forward to making it again. Five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hydration ratio is way off, wasted good dough and time I won’t get back
I had made plain bagels before but I wanted to venture into different flavors. This recipe was great. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins because I am not a fan of raisins. In addition, I used malt syrup for the first time. I highly recommend using malt syrup. The bagel was way more flavorful than using brown sugar in the dough. The difference is amazing – the dough puffed up to give it that classic bagel look that I was missing previously and the sweet bagel flavor was on par with those bagel shops in New York. In addition, I used active dry yeast instead of instant yeast. Because of this, I increased the amount of yeast by 25%.
The bagels were amazing – perfectly sweetened with sugar and cinnamon. They were chewy. We ate them untoasted with cream cheese and it was so good. The bagels are also great for freezing. We toast them in the mornings on busy mornings. While the bagels are not as chewy as the day they were made, they are still tasty.