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
Hi. My bagels looked good after boiling, but then they didn’t rise in the oven and ended up a little flat. Thoughts on what I might be doing wrong? Thank you!
Hi Timmy, if they’re coming out flat, they may be rising for too long and deflating. Try letting the dough rise for a shorter amount of time to prevent this. Our baking with yeast guide may be a helpful resource as well!
Thank you for the great bagel recipe! I made mine a little smaller and made 10 instead of 8, and cooked them for 20 minutes. They turned out great!
These look amazing! Just wondering, would the bake time be less for mini bagels?
Hi Hannah, we haven’t tested this recipe to make mini bagels but you certainly can! Bake until they are dark golden brown as pictured and perhaps start checking at 15-16 minutes. Hope you enjoy!
I am a baking novice and this recipe was a hit! I made plain ones and they were 10/10!
I love this recipe! I do have a question – if I prep the dough the night before, can I make the bagels the following evening rather than the morning?
Hi Jazmin, It’s best to stick to about 12 hours if possible! A little longer would be okay, but we wouldn’t recommend 24 hours.
Thanks so much! Could we also just refrigerate for about 6 hours and then start baking?
What about making blueberry bagels? How would we introduce blueberries in the mix?
Hi Carly, for blueberry bagels, we recommend using dried blueberries and following our cinnamon raisin bagels recipe, swapping the raisins for blueberries. The moisture from fresh blueberries is too much for the bagel dough. Hope this helps!
At first I got worried, because my dough didn’t toughen up when mixing like in the video. It was quite soft and sticky. I trusted the process and continued to follow the recipe.
This didn’t seem to affect my bagels because they came out FANTASTIC! When fresh out of the oven they’re nice and crispy. The perfect softness in the middle. They’re just perfect!!
Would love to know why my dough didn’t come out like the one in the video, just for general knowledge. But I’m not too worried as they were still so good!’
If you like this recipe, you’ll love Sally’s pretzel recipe! They’re made very similar to this bagel recipe.
This is our go to for Bagels recipe 🙂 they always always turn out perfectly every time .
The bagels are delicious, and lacking all those preservatives. Just what I ♥️. I’ll need to work on the timing of getting everything done ahead of time, so the bread is ready with the meal. Lol. Thankx .
These look so good. Are they rarely large like bakery sized? What is the nutritional value of these bagels please
Hi LaLonie, these are standard bagel size, not huge. 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
The bagels turned out perfectly!! I used an Everything Bagel seasoning and Sesame seeds and left a couple plain. I will be using this recipe again and again. Thank you!
These are way too salty. They are not very good. Definitely recommend using less salt and allow for a second rise after formed.
This is my new favourite recipe!! Well done, my family thanks you! ❤️
I tried making these with dried onion flakes as the topping and the onion flakes burned a bit bit before the bagel was cooked through. I noticed onion isn’t one of your recommended flavorings and maybe that is why. Do you have any thoughts on how to avoid burning the onion flakes?
Hi Susan! We haven’t tested onion bagels, but recommend adding about 1/4 teaspoon onion powder and 1/3 cup dried minced onion in the dough. Some recipes suggest soaking the onion flakes for the topping in water before baking to prevent burning, but we haven’t tried that ourselves. Let us know what you try!
I really would like to use this recipe for bulk amounts. I’m wondering if, after the boiling step or possibly right before it, could I freeze them in shape and bake them much later?
Hi AyeBee, it’s best to freeze the dough right before the shaping step. However, baked and cooled shaped bagels freeze wonderfully!
Easy, simple, and delicious. I put cinnamon sugar on two, garlic, herb, and parm on 3 and plain on the other three
I’ve made this recipe 3 or 4 times now and every time i do the dough turns out shaggy and dry so kneading it is difficult. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi Katie, We’re happy to help troubleshoot. How did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or weigh to measure) to ensure the right amount–too much can make the bagels overly dry. Hope this helps for next time!
My bagels turned out SO GOOD. I am very pleased. And amazed. Wow. Thank you so much for this recipe!! Chewy, puffy, golden, and delicious flavor!!
I made these this morning, baked them on convection for 20 minutes and they were perfect!
These bagels are wonderful! And wonderfully easy to make! My second batch turned out the best after I tweaked a couple things. I think it’s VERY important to weigh the flour as I didn’t in my first batch and the dough was too dry. I also used barley malt syrup in the second batch in place of the 1 T of sugar, and I also used it when I boiled the bagels. The barley malt added so much more flavor in my second batch as compared to the first batch that I didn’t use any in. So it is definitely worth buying (I had to order) barley malt syrup and using this where it calls for it instead of sugar and honey. The only other change I made to my second batch was that I made the bagels smaller. I separated the dough out into 12 equal portions to get 12 smaller bagels in my second batch and they turned out wonderful! Crusty on the outside and so chewy on the inside, and the flavor is perfect! These bagels taste better than any other bagels I’ve ever bought and they are so easy to make! Just follow the directions and make sure that you DO NOT SKIP weighing your flour, using barley malt syrup, boiling before baking, and brushing with the water-egg white wash.
This dough works great in my bread machine on the “dough” setting. With 2 toddlers it makes making bagels a doable project because I’m basically coming in at the shape boil and bake stage and my two and three year olds live poking the holes, painting on the egg white and sprinkling on seeds
Hi Sally, I’m very new to baking so please excuse the basic question. Most of the recipes I’ve done with yeast said to add some sugar to get the yeast / water mixture going. Is the sugar not needed? Thanks!
Hi Eric! Sugar can help activate the yeast, but isn’t needed.
I have used this recipe over and over so many times. How would you make blueberry bagels.
Hi Corrinne, for blueberry bagels, we recommend using dried blueberries and following our cinnamon raisin bagels recipe, swapping the raisins for blueberries. The moisture from fresh blueberries is too much for the bagel dough. Hope this helps!
This is the second time I’ve made bagels with this recipe. Both times I used the overnight rise method. The first time I forgot to put sugar in the water. The bagels turned out fine. This time I bought the Malt Barley Syrup and used it in the bagel dough and in the water. It really made a big difference in the bagels! I bought the Malt Barley Syrup through Amazon. This is the recipe I’ll continue to use. Thank you!
I appreciate no popups on the website. They are so obnoxious.
I love this recipe. I have your site bookmarked for future reference!
These are delicious—objectively better than anything at the supermarket. However, I cannot for the life of me get them “dark golden brown.” By the time their internal temp is done, they’re just a light blonde color. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
Hi Austin, you could try baking them at a slightly higher temperature, or moving the pan to a higher position in your oven – all ovens are a little different!
For darker browning, add 2 TBSP of molasses to the water in place of half the honey when you boil them. Works every time without changing the flavor.
I have had better browning when using convection and rotating the pans half way through baking. Great bagels!
You can also try adding a teaspoon of diastatic malt powder to the flour.
Great recipe. I always add a tsp each of onion and garlic powder and a tsp of veggiemite. Gives a nice slightly malty savory flavor.
Thank you for such clear instructions – these look delicious and I can’t wait to make them.
I have tried this recipe many times. I use everything bagel seasoning on top before baking and I use the silicon bagel molds from Lee valley. They turn out fluffier than if I don’t use the molds.
Bread flour is hard to come by in Mexico, so I use all-purpose + diastatic malt powder. Will that work and still give me a chewy texture? Thanks.
Hi Linda, we haven’t tested that exact combination, so we’re unsure of the results. Please do let us know if you try it.