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
I love this recipe!!!! I’ve made 4 batches of bagels. The one concern that I have is, how do I prevent the bottoms from getting so dark? I cut back the time by 4 minutes. The bagels are cooked through and brown on the top but very dark on the bottom. I didn’t do an egg wash with this last batch thinking the run off from the wash might have been the issue.
I used cornmeal and cooking spray on the bottoms of the bagels. That seemed to do the trick!
Thank you for your response. I ended up using an air baking sheet and they came out perfect.
Has very good flavor, but the outside was almost a little too hard. What can I do the prevent that?! Other than that I love this recipe!
Hi DeAnna! You can try reducing the oven temperature a bit if they’re coming out too hard.
Is bread flour comparable to Canadian flour? I have a large sack of cans down flour but if bread flour truly is the best way to go, I’ll buy some!
I tried doing the recipe straight as well as doing the slow rise in the fridge overnight. Both versions are awesome but the slow rise did make the bagel full bodied. Thanks for this!
I made these using half whole wheat flour and half bread flour, and they came out really good! I need to work on my shaping and portioning (I got 7 uneven sized bagels out of my dough ball ), but not bad for my first attempt!
Love this recipe. I never made any kind of bread before and these bagels came put so good. I made mind in my brand new food processor. Bagels were the first food i made in it.
Hi Sally, I am a big fan! I’ve been trying only sweets so far but now it’s time to go for the bagels. My question is, would I be able to substitute fresh yeast in the recipe? Thank you!
Hi Ioana, active dry and instant yeast can be used interchangeably in recipes (1:1); just keep an eye on your dough so it doesn’t rise too much.
Hey Sally,
These look awesome! And i absolutely love all your recipes so I can’t wait to try them. I was wondering if these could be made into bagel bites? What would you recommend for boil time and bake time?
Hi Bailey! We haven’t tested mini bagels but other readers have reported success with dividing the dough into 16, then baking 15-18 minutes. The boil time will be slightly shorter as well. Would love to hear what you try!
Thank you for the recipe! Is there a modification to make an egg bagel?
Luv it! my 2nd time making this.i used maple syrup instead of honey on boiling h20.yummy❤
Hi Sally! My family and I love all of your recipes! I am hoping to make chocolate chip bagels, when would you recommend adding them to the dough? Don’t want to mess up the rising process! Thank you!!
Hi Rachael, for chocolate chip bagels feel free to use this recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Bagels and substitute chocolate chips for the raisins. Let us know how they turn out for you!
I have made chocolate chip several times and here is what I have experienced. I added the chocolate chips while the dough was still being needed in my bread machine. Because the dough is so warm it melted all the chocolate and made chocolate bagels. That made the dough a little on the wet side when it was done proofing but all the sugar from the chocolate makes for a huge rise! I just kneed a little extra bread flour into the the dough as I am punching it down and shaping. If you want actual chips in the bagel not just chocolate bagels I portion out my dough and put chips into the center and then ball up the dough. Get all your bagels into balls first and then go back and poke the hole in the center sealing up any areas that chips are poking out. My son is madly in love with these and begs me every week to make more.
Hello! I’m wondering if you happen to have an egg bagel recipe? Your recipes never steer me wrong so I’d love to try one from you before I try one from somewhere else. Thank you!
Hi Alicia, we haven’t tried egg bagels yet, but let us know if you test anything.
I’d love to try ou tthis recipe, but can’t see under the new popup ads.
Hi Frank, we’re actively working on having the intrusive ads blocked ASAP. No ads should actually be blocking the recipe or its instructions, though. You may just have to keep scrolling to continue to the recipe.
I made the plain bagels with a fantastic outcome. Then, I made the cinnamon-raisin but traded out the raisin for dried cranberries. I also added the zest of one orange. The orange zest made the dough a little more wet. As I was kneading, I kneaded in a little more flour. The final result was an amazing tasting bagel!
So good and very forgiving recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Oh my gosh. This website has become my absolute go to for all baking. I’ve now tried so many recipes from here, and they are all superb.
That being said, I, too, am terrified of yeast, though I’ll put on a brave face if it’s for something exciting…like these bagels. OH MY GOSH. If you’re hesitating to make these, stop. Just do it. They’re not difficult. Let your heart guide you for toppings. Eat one right out of the oven, no cream cheese needed. Use them to make bagel breakfast sandwiches. They’re so good.
I’ve made several kinds now—everything seasoning, cheddar and Parmesan, cheddar and jalapeño, and my personal favorite, cheddar and green chiles. My mouth is watering thinking about the new batch waiting for me downstairs.
Thank you for this recipe and your informative and detailed instructions!
I have made these several times and my family loves them! I did make a slight tweak the last batch I made and added 2 teaspoons of baking soda to the boiling liquid and it made for a very nice crunch on the outside of the bagels. I also put a little bit of cornmeal on the bottom of the bagels before baking because the bottoms of my bagels kept getting a little bit burned. My son now starts nagging that he needs more bagels as soon as we finish off a batch. Thank you for such a great awesome recipe.
Have had this recipe saved for a VERY long time -(I was extremely intimidated by making a recipe that called for yeast). I finally decided to give it a try and I am SO proud of myself. These came out beautiful, delicious, and it was so easy following the step by step directions! Also watching the video was a big help too. I can’t wait to make them again
wonderful!! I am also a First time Bagel maker and I am so happy that i found your recipe. Love them. I am already excited to make them again and work a little better on sharpening them. Mine look a little like creatures! LOL but they taste amazing. Thank you for the added notes! They helped as I prepared my dough the night before.
My first attempt and my dough was super soft and sticky there was no way I could have shaped them. What do you think went wrong?
Hi Ces! Did you make any substitutions? You can always add flour 1 Tbs at a time until the dough is easier to handle.
This is my first attempt at bread baking and my son wants bagels so I will attempt your process. I am puzzled how do you measure the yeast for the bagel recipe.
You noted 2 and 3/4 teaspoons for active yeast, is this:
2 – 1 teaspoons
3 – 1/4 teaspoons
Is this correct?
Hi Michelle! Yes you need 2 teaspoons plus 3/4 of a teaspoon yeast. You can measure this by subtracting 1/4 tsp from 3 teaspoons of yeast if you would like.
I want to make Asiago bagels. I am confused about when to put the cheese in. Can I add it to the dough mixture at the beginning? I know that I can add some on the top after the egg wash but I was wanting to put some in the dough too.
Hi Wanda, add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese to the dough when you add the flour. Hope you love them!
I made these today and they were so delicious. Very good instructions and simple to make. Love them!!
I was afraid of trying bagels because of the boiling process. That’s it. Pretty lame.
I made the dough in my breadmaker and followed the rest of the recipe exactly (the first time). This is one of the most pleasurable things I have ever made. The aroma of a fresh baked bagel is unmatched. They do not compare with the bread rings you buy at the grocery store.
I got a bit reckless on the second batch. I figured a non-stick pan would be ok without the parchment paper. Wrong. The egg wash welds to the pan; don’t try it.
First time ever baking bagels and these were perfect!! My nine year old helped and loved every minute. Only down side I should have made two batches, now I will have to make more tomorrow!
Oh my goodness, Sally!! I love all your recipes (please make a bread cookbook!! I need it), but this may be my favorite. I make two batches a week- my family devours them. They’re so easy and delicious, I share this recipe with everyone!
PS- I always make it all in my KitchenAid with no issues
Yeast scares me. This recipe has taken the fear away. I made bagels! They need a little work next time for better shape but the flavor was great. The color was beautiful. The chew superb. Next time I’ll knead a little less and cook a little more as they needed the toaster to be great.
Sally you are the best! Thanks for all the great things you’ve helped me bake in 2020 and now 2021.
I love this recipe! So easy! Delicious bagels Thanks!
This was absolutely worth the effort and will make again. They were big and chewy! Used 2 T brown sugar and 1 T white sugar instead of the honey for boiling. Hand mixed.
These turned out amazing and were so easy to make! I didn’t have bread flour, so I used my unbleached all purpose and brown sugar in place of the malt syrup. I topped them with shredded Asiago cheese after the egg wash and they were done to perfection in 22 minutes. They came out wonderfully chewy with a crisp bottom crust. Hubby and I had to open a bottle of wine just to try them out!
I didn’t have bread flour either and used all purpose flour and they still were delicious. Also, I used agave instead of brown sugar for the batter. I also used agave in the bath water and a tsp of blackstrap molasses, which is actually similar iin flavor to barley malt, which I didn’t have. Either way this is a great recipe, hard not to eat them as soon as they come out of the oven:)
The bagels stuck so badly to the lined paper, and they deflated while baked. I wouldn’t recommend that they are baked on anything but a bare cookie sheet.