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 baking– and I’m right here to guide you along!
Bagels, crème brûlée, soft pretzels, and hot ham & cheese pockets. What do these foods have in common? Each seem really complicated to make at home, but secretly 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 dough– it 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 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 the dough with a mixer or by hand. Kneading the dough by hand is imperative. Bagel dough is very heavy and dense, which could rattle your mixer too much. 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.
- 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 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. 🙂
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.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (between 100-110°F, 38-43°C)
- 2 and 3/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast*
- 4 cups (520g) bread flour (spoon & leveled), plus more for work surface and hands*
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar or packed light or dark brown sugar (or barley malt syrup)*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- coating the bowl: nonstick spray or 2 teaspoons olive oil
- egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
For Boiling
- 2 quarts water
- 1/4 cup (60g) honey (or barley malt syrup)*
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, and salt. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes. The dough is very stiff and will look somewhat dry.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, knead the dough for 6-7 minutes. 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. If not, keep kneading. The dough is too heavy for the mixer to knead it.
- 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.
- 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
Keywords: Homemade Bagels Recipe
Do you bake both pans at the same time? If so, should I rotate them on different racks midway? If they need to baked separate, should I cover the pan of bagels while the others are baking?
Hi Carol, we usually bake both at the same time – rotate the pans once while baking. Enjoy!
What a great recipe! My family and I love these. I have made them 3x in the last 2 weeks. The only thing I have trouble with is they are always on the thin side. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? What do you suggest?
Is this normal or am I not letting them rest enough before boiling?
★★★★★
Hi Sharon, we’re so glad you’re enjoying these! Is your dough doubling in size during the rising stage? Yeast recipes/breads will deflate if the dough has risen/proofed too long. Our baking with yeast guide may be a helpful resource as well! Hope that helps for next time!
My family and I love this bagel recipe. We particularly love the cinnamon crunch recipe. Our only problem is that they get wet when sealed tightly. Any recommendations?
★★★★★
Hi Samantha, leaving the bag/container open just a crack will help prevent excess moisture. So glad your family loves these bagels!
The best one so far!!!
Excellent! I’ve been craving bagels but the store bought ones have so much junk in them. Thank you for making a recipe that was easy to follow and actually enjoyable! My whole family loved them!
★★★★★
Fantastic recipe! I watched the video prior to making the bagels, and it helped a lot. They are seriously better than any bagels I have ever tasted. Thank you!!
★★★★★
I was always terrified of making bagels from scratch. Well any bread for that matter. We have a local bagel shop in town that makes theirs every morning and they are delicious. After a quick google search on how to make homemade bagels i stumbled upon this recipe. I didn’t realize how easy this is! I have made this recipe 3 times in the past 3 days!! I made a jalapeño cheddar bagel. I added the cheddar cheese to the dough and after putting the egg wash on i sprinkled with more cheese and topped with jalapeños. Soooo good!!!
★★★★★
I have made this recipe a couple of times now, and having been a chef for almost 20 years I would just like to add one piece of my own personal advice, add the sugar with the yeast because it gives the yeast a much better bloom 🙂
I have made these multiple times. They are delicious. I only boil 30 seconds per side as they were too tough for us otherwise. So, I would like to make blueberry bagels. Can I just add them in or do I need to make changes?
Hi Anna, for blueberry bagels, you can add dried blueberries in when we add the raisins in our Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. So glad you enjoy these!
Do I bake both pans at the same tome?
Hi Roger, yes if you have the room! Make sure to rotate the pans once during baking.
This recipe and video were very easy to follow. The texture and consistency of the bagel is spot on. My technique for shaping bagels definitely needs improvement! I thin next time I will make 6 bagels instead of 8, as I like a bigger bagel. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
★★★★★
I found your recipe a couple years ago. I had an online food science class and one of the assignments was making bagels. I’ve been using your recipe as written ever since. I use barley malt instead of brown sugar both in the dough and in my water bath. These bagels are so good even after being frozen and reheated they taste like they were just made. I have tried and looked at other bagel recipes but your recipe is the best and as a chef my standard bagel recipe.
★★★★★
If I had known it was this straightforward to make great-tasting bagels at home I would’ve started much sooner. Great recipe, thanks! (I threw baking soda into the honey-water boil but otherwise unaltered). Looking forward to trying new batches / varieties
★★★★★
Found recipe ten days ago and this is fifth batch of bagels I’ve made with ease and consistent results. Thanks
★★★★★
This recipe was amazing! The whole fam loved it! It tasted great without all the usual preservatives. Just to note, when I took them out of the pot, it was dripping wet so I took a paper towel and dabbed it on top of the bagel, to soak up al that water. Was this the right move? Or should I have left it? Either way, these were delicious and gone within seconds!
★★★★★
Hi Celine! That certainly doesn’t hurt. So glad you enjoyed them.
Hi Sally and fellow bakers,
I make bagels with this recipe every few months, and I do have good luck with the dough and boiling process. My issue is always with the formation. No matter what I do, I have cracks on the bottom of the dough. I’ve tried pinching it together, rolling a tight ball, but nothing works. It’s just never smooth. Any tips? I hope this makes sense 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Carla, Thank you for trying this recipe. If your dough is splitting and cracking you could be using too much flour in your dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
This is such a quick, easy recipe. I am new to baking and the way everything is broken down with possible substitutes really helped. I have now baked several batches using this recipe, even the kids (3 and 2 year olds) love helping! We usually make a batch of 6 big bagels instead of 8 (which are decent sized), and a batch of the 8 sized ones. My husband usually doesn’t get much time for lunch at work, and has found one giant bagel is enough to keep him satisfied until dinner. While it isn’t cheaper than the store brands coin for coin, they are way more filling and taste 1,000 times better, making their overall value better. We have tried a few different flavors, and this recipe just never disappoints!
★★★★★
In addition to my previous review just posted, in the cinnamon raisin recipe, I added the cinnamon and granulated sugar to the dough in the bread machine before starting the dough cycle. Amazing recipe!
I made these with all purpose flour and they are still amazing!
★★★★★
Amazing bagels! I made the cinnamon raisin recipe. I put all the ingredients, except raisins, into my bread machine on the dough cycle. I added the raisins after about 10 minutes. When the dough cycle was done, I just put the dough on a lightly floured surface, divided into 8 pieces, and finished the recipe as written. VERY good and easy!
★★★★★
Is anyone else finding that the dough won’t stick to itself? As I tried to shape them, the dough would not attach to itself, and the boiling water just helped them to puff up and come apart. They are in the oven now, but I’m not sure they are worth saving. I’m so confused.
Hi Rebekah! Did you shape the bagels as instructed above? Also make sure not to measure too much flour in the dough, which could make the dough dry. Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
Great recipe and so easy. My only issue was that the outside was not crunchy/crisp enough but they were very brown @23 minutes in oven. Next time I will bake longer. In your opinion was bake time the only possible issue with over-soft shell (e.g. boil time, kneading, ingredients)? Thanks for the fantastic recipes.
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Hi Laura, the water bath and egg wash both provide an extra chewy and golden brown crust, so be sure you’re boiling them for just a minute on each side and completing the egg wash after. If you find the outsides are browning too quickly, for next time you can try moving the baking sheet a rack further from the heating element. Hope this helps, and thanks so much for giving these a try!