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
Not sure how old my bread flour is, does it expire?
It can go rancid, do the sniff test.
These are AMAZING and so easy!! I did 4 plain and put mini chocolate chips in the other four. I added the chocolate chips when shaping the bagels before boiling. I can’t wait to try the cinnamon variety.
Hi, I tried the simple bagel recipe two weeks ago and it turned to be perfect. My husband loved my homemade bagels! Thank you! I do have a question for the second time when I make this bagel. This time I don’t use cup to measure the flour. I use the 520 g but it turns to be sticky dough. I notice the cup measuring is 4 cups. Should 4 cups equivalent to be about 1000gram? Is this reason the dough sticky because of less flour? Thanks for letting me know.
Hi Claire, We’re so glad you loved these! 1 cup of spoon and leveled bread flour is about 130g. 4 cups is close to 520g, which is what this recipe calls for.
Hi – I have made this receipe twice now. They taste great. However, both times my dough was really sticky, not firm like the instructions inciate in the 2nd step. So after I shape them and try to lift them to put in the water they stick and loose their nice round shape. A couple come out kind of flat too.
I’m not sure what I’m doing incorrectly. They taste really good, just look kind of sad.
Hi Noreen, 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.
Question: has anyone tried making 16 mini bagels instead of 8 giant ones? Maybe just less time in the oven?? I made this recipe as written for the first time the other day using the cinnamon crunch modifications recommended and the bagels turned out delicious… but huge! I’m going for everything bagels next but wanted any advice before I go rouge and try the smaller bagel size 🙂
Hi Megan, So glad you enjoy this recipe, Thank you! We haven’t used this dough to make mini bagels but you can certainly try it. Bake until they are dark golden brown as pictured and perhaps start checking at 15-16 minutes.
I would love to see a Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe for egg bagels. Your site is my go-to for most baking and every recipe is spot on. Hoping a future egg bagel recipe will be, too.
Thank you for being here, you consistently have the best baking recipes. I’ve shared your site with so many people!
I’ve never left a recipe review before but these are amazing!! Love them! If I wanted to double/triple the recipe can I make 2 or 3 separate dough batches and let them rise in the same bowl overnight? Or should they all rise separately?
Thanks!!
Hi Emily, We are so glad you loved these bagels! For the best results we recommend making the dough twice instead of doubling.
I make bagels about every two weeks. This is a great recipe. Thanks for sharing it. My family favorites are Asiago cheese, everything and garlic/onion.
These bagels were the best ones I have ever made. They literally came out bagel shop quality. This will be my new go to recipe.
This sounds delicious and not too difficult. If I wanted to make jalapeno cheddar bagels, when would I add those ingredients? If I wanted to have some of the cheese and jalapenos on top (as opposed to mixed in) would I top the bagels before baking or partway through?
Hi Jen! We would add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese diced jalapeños to the dough when you add the flour. After brushing with egg wash in step 9, sprinkle with extra cheese and sliced jalapeños. Let us know how they go!
This is by far my favorite bagel recipe. That being said, I have a lot of issues with getting any decent oven spring. They look puffy and wonderful after the 1st and 2nd proof as well as after the water bath. They look mostly okay when they come out of the oven, but then they deflate. Any tips or insight would be greatly appreciated.
I feel like the same happens to me too. I’d be curious if there are any suggestions.
I really want to try this recipe, but I don’t have a mixer with a dough attachment. How would you suggest I approach the first few steps without this piece of equipment? I make your artisan bread all the time, it’s wonderful! I’m hoping I can make this too. 🙂
Hi Sarah, if you do not have a mixer, you can mix the dough together in a large bowl then knead by hand for 10-15 minutes. Hope you love the bagels!
I used all purpose flour and the bagels turned out just fine. They were delicious, not “flimsy” or hard or anything, and they were wonderfully chewey.
Loved this recipe. Bagel dough was smooth and easy to work with and shape. After baking, they were perfectly golden brown with great chew and slight crunch. Wouldn’t change a thing. Used honey and instant yeast.
First time making bagels and they turned out perfect! Very simple recipe!
Definitely making these again!
Wonderful recipe, it’s a keeper)
Look no further, this is the bagel recipe you NEED. SO easy, SO fast, SO stinking good.
I did not have any barley malt syrup so I have always used brown sugar in the dough and honey in the boil… but because everyone has been LOVING these bagels (I usually only make four at a time and they never go uneaten on the day I bake them) I decided to make a full 8 bagels this time AND I SPOILED MYSELF with what I believe is a spoil as barley malt syrup is expensive LOL But today I am going to see if my panel of judges (13 year old son, 15 year old daughter, 40 year old husband) can detect a difference in flavor.
Final Report: Yep. 😉 Spring for the good stuff to try it out if you want the true bagel experience!
THANK You for this recipe!
Most recipes call for baking soda in the boil I thought..am I remembering correctly lol?
Hi Lisa, the sugar from the honey or barley malt adds extra caramelization and crisp to give them that signature bagel coating. You could use baking soda if desired, but the coating would be more like a soft pretzel.
I love this bagel recipe! It is so much better than the other couple I have tried. Could you please tell me how to make these into blueberry bagels? Is it as simple as adding blueberries? But how much and would I use fresh or dried or frozen?
Hi Emily, 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.
I have a KitchenAid stand mixer which handled mixing the dough with no issues. I finished by hand per the directions; however, I wondered if I could have finished with mixer. Mine was not straining at all. Any issue keeping it in the mixer?
Hi Kenny, We also use Kitchen Aid stand mixers but still find this dough to be a little too heavy for kneading. You can certainly give it a try if you would like – let us know how it goes!
Hi Sally and Michelle!
If I halve the recipe do you think it would be okay to do all the kneading in a kitchen aid? Or would it be too heavy still?
Thank you !!
Hi Waverly, that should work just fine, but use your best judgement. If your mixer seems like it’s being overworked, best to take it out and knead by hand!
I have tried 3 bagel recipes. This by far is my favorite. It took my a couple tries to get it just right. Baking and cooking is like learning how to ride a bike. I just love my bagel. Thank you so much!
First time making bagels, I didn’t have bread flour so I used regular TOTALLY fine, delicious actually! thick and bready. I adjusted cook time to about 18-19 minutes because I watched the browning and they came out perfectly hard on top but so soft on the inside! Perfect! I want to try cinnamon raisin next. Honestly once you go homemade. I don’t know if I can do store bought now
Love these bagels. Recipe is simple and they always taste delicious. One problem I keep having is that although my bagels are puffy when they come out of the water bath, they deflate when baking and are rather flat. I do out toppings on them, is it possible I’m leaving them out too long before baking after coming out of the water?
Hi Susan, Yeast recipes/breads will deflate if the dough has risen/proofed too long. Hope that helps for next time!
Amazing! They came out perfectly first time. My husband loves bagels but often hates supermarket-bought ones that aren’t “right” – but these were definitely approved! I was so surprised at how easy they were – super clear instructions and not scary at all 🙂
This is my third bread bake from your website and they’ve all been brilliant – am just working my way through them all now! Thank you!
Tried lot’s of bagel recipes, your lean dough recipe gave the best results I have had.
Hi Sally, can’t wait to try this recipe! Is there a way to make bread flour ? As in how u make your cake flour by adding in corn flour etc.. as we don’t get bread flour here.. thanks is advance!
P.S love love love all your recipes.. they are my go to for all things baked
Hi Divya, we haven’t tried any DIY bread flour substitutes. If you do find one that works well, we’d love to know how it goes! (You can use all purpose flour here in a pinch, the bagels just will be a bit flimsy and not as chewy).
I have now made this recipe 4 times in the last 2 weeks. I’ve done Everything, Cinnamon Crunch, Plain and now am going to try Chocolate Chip and Asiago. My hubbies coworkers DEMANDED I make more after they tried them.
One question though- can the bagels be frozen once they are baked? And how long do you approximate they would keep in the freezer?
Loooooooove your website. I’ve done the garlic knots, cinnamon rolls and have eyeballed a few more to try soon
Hi Annie, so glad to hear you’re loving these bagels! 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. Thank you for making and trusting our recipes!
I don’t usually leave comments but just had to this time. I have always wanted to try homemade bagels and am so glad I did! My kids all loved them and my husband and a few of my kids even made the comment “these are the best bagels I have ever eaten!” I made a plain batch and they were so tasty I immediately made a cinnamon batch. Both are delicious! Thanks for a fantastic recipe, can’t wait to try some others I see on your site!
Thank you so much for reporting back, Jenny — we’re thrilled the bagels were such a hit with your family!
I love this recipe because it always works and the bagels are very uniform one time to the next. I grind my own flour, so it’s always done with whole wheat or half and half and yet it still rises and gives a very nice texture. I’d have given it six stars if that was possible
Fantastic!! I am a novice bread baker and have only been making “no knead “ bread so far. This morning I thought I’d give this a try. I was going to adjust the water based on other comments but decided to stick strictly to the recipe. These turned out perfectly. My husband wants me to make them every day ! I’m going to try to make some with cranberry and walnut next time. Thank you Sally!
Hi there. I’ve been using this recipe for about a month. The bagels taste delicious but I can’t seem to get a good shape. They end up with so many seams and the dough isn’t workable enough to remove them. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!!
Hi Stephanie, We are so happy that you enjoyed this recipe so much! You can watch the video above to see exactly how we shape the bagels (starting right around the 1:30 mark). They certainly are not perfect – but more of a rustic shape/look!
Tear off a piece that is enough for one bagel. Took it into a ball. Stick you finger in the center to make the hole and then gently pull it a little open and even out the the dough so it’s more or less even thickness all around. I’ve made these bagels lots of time and they come out great. Good luck!