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
Great recipe, I have made this at least a half dozen times now. One suggestion I would make is to reduce the amount of yeast used of you are preparing the night before. I reduce by a teaspoon and it rises very nicely.
love this recipe! quick question – what if i have self-rising flour and no yeast. can this work too? what are the measurements for thisv
I wasn’t paying attention and I thought the 2 quarts of water was for the dough! !:(
I am going to try it again and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Ok, so the second attempt was a success!
I think I made them a tad too big because I only got 6 of them as opposed to 8 and they turned out a tad under-baked, so I just sliced them open and put them back in the toaster oven a few more minutes.
Great recipe, thanks! 🙂
I love this recipe!! Thinking about making these again but letting the dough sit 2 nights in the fridge. Do you think this would be ok?
Hi Hannah! The longest we recommend letting the dough rise in the fridge is overnight, it could overproof if left longer than that. See recipe Notes for details!
This is the best and easiest bagel recipe! I am new to baking and started my journey with this bagel recipe. I now make them every single week and have even started making them for friends/family/coworkers at their request. I am obsessed.
How do I prevent the Bottoms from burning?
Hi Aleks, if the bottoms of your bagels are burning, try lowering the oven temperature a bit more or even flipping them over halfway through baking (if you’re making plain bagels). Also, wait for the bagels to somewhat dry before baking. It could be the water from the boiling step that is burning on the bottoms (you can dab up extra water with a paper towel if needed). Finally, are you using an especially thin or dark baking sheet? Those can both cause burning. Thanks so much for giving these a try!
I had this issue when I did not place them on my silicone baking mat while in the oven – that might solve your problem
Just wonderful. Light and crunchy. Came out great.Thank you
My first attempt at making bagels and they turned out perfectly. I let the dough sit in the fridge overnight rather than bake them after 90 min to increase the flavour!
Will be using this recipe from now on!!
This recipe needs about 41/3 to 5 cups to work in my KitchenAid mixer or maybe less water. First batch after baking I threw out. We’ll see how this batch does.
Did you measure with a cup or use a food scale? I weighed my flour and it turned out perfectly in the mixer. Just a thought
What a great recipe. The bagels turned out crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Thanks for a delicious Sunday brunch bagel.
Loved this recipe. First time making bagels and they came out well. I did find the texture to be not quite right it was a little dense. I believe this was user error though as I haven’t made any bread products before.
However, I did use whole wheat bread flour. Is there any quantity changes I should have made to accomodate the whole wheat flour?
Hi Emily, we would recommend replacing only half of the bread flour with whole wheat flour, if desired. Bagels require a high protein flour, so you will definitely want some bread flour in the recipe.
This was a complete bust for me. I tried 2 times. I have such better experience with all purpose or wheat flour over bread flour. Maybe it’s the brand I use (organic King Arthur).
hi there I usually make sourdough bagels but wanted to try a different recipe thank you for sharing they are great
I found the Barley Malt Syrup on the Azure Standard website. They ship all over the country so you might be able to order some for yourself
These are perfect! This was my first time making bagels from scratch. I followed the recipe exactly and they came out great! I will definitely be making these again.
What changes are needed if I want to make banana nuts bagels?
At this hydration the bagel comes out still raw inside for me. I put them back in at 425 for another 20m but still no help. Any possible reasons?
Hi HH, did the dough seem too wet to work with? Did it look similar to the photos and video tutorial above?
Delicious bagels! Suprisingly easy recipe, which I followed exactly. I baked them for 20 minutes and they came out perfect.
Omg! Wow people these are beyond any delicious I’ve ever had in a bagel! My mamma suggested to add a spoon of baking soda to the bath water, I’m not sure it does anything but I literally changed nothing. I did the dough recipe in my bread machine, customized to the instructions… these were the best ever! They’re everything you love about bagels only beautifully fresh: chewy, dense, soft, crispy!!! Just wonderful, really! Thank you
Hi there, I have ripe bananas and thought I might try making banana- nut bagels. I was wondering if you could recommend how much mashed banana I should add to your basic recipe? I realise it will add more moisture to the recipe so I want to get it right and not have an overly wet, sticky dough.
I just made these and they turned out AMAZING! We would bagels from Panera’s often, but they have been cutting their variety down and we haven’t been back so I miss my bagels. Now I can make our favorites whenever I want. Thank you for this recipe!!!
Made these AGAIN today. I just can’t get enough! They’re so easy and tasty. I especially love it right out of the oven with some pub mustard… so good!
I’m planning to make these very soon (so pumped)
But one question: Should I use the same amount of barley malt syrup as sugar listed in the recipe?
Yes! Hope you enjoy them, Allison.
A good place to get malt sugar is a home brewing shop.
Hi Sally, I really love this recipe and decide to give it a try soon. However, I’m wondering a little about the “overnight proof” and the syrup put in the dough. Letting it rest overnight is a little time-consuming and I also don’t have the syrup used in the recipe. What if I didn’t let it rest overnight and use honey (you recommend honey or sugar for the substitution?) instead? Are there any drawbacks compare to the dough having an overnight rest and that syrup?
Thank you! And good work btw!
Hi Jayden, the overnight instructions are completely optional and only there in case that works better for your schedule; you can follow the regular recipe directions which don’t require an overnight rest. Honey or sugar will work fine, as well. Enjoy!
I loved this recipe for everything bagels, but when I duplicated it for cinnamon crunch they just would get crusty on the outside. What might I be doing wrong?
SO GOOD. I’ve been thinking about making bagels for so long, finally did it and I might never go back! Made a Rosemary sea salt version, so yummy! Have yet to make something from Sally that I haven’t loved.
Hey Sally! Just made this recipe yesterday, and it was delicious. I would like to experiment with different flavors, such as blueberry, and whatnot. What do you suggest? Also, how would I make egg bagels using this recipe?
Hi Carson! For blueberry bagels we would follow our cinnamon raisin bagels recipe, substituting dried blueberries for raisins. You can definitely add walnuts, too. See recipe post for more flavor ideas! We haven’t tested an egg bagel recipe.
Will this recipe work with all-purpose flour and adding a bit of vital wheat gluten? If so, how much gluten do I add?
Hi Jane, 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 do this and it works just fine, I do 11g of VWG to 520g of APF-I use KA special patent flour myself.
Sally never lets me down! These were easy to make and delicious. They look so impressive and taste great. I used molasses in the boil since I had some on hand, thinking it might be a little closer to barley malt than honey, but otherwise stuck to the recipe. My first time making a yeasted/kneaded dough!
This recipe was absolutely amazing. Better than any bagel I’ve ever had at a market or from the store. I wanna try to make blueberry, when would I add in the berries would it change the recipe at all?
Hi Karleigh, so glad you love these! 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!
Super easy, tastes great, and very pleasantly chewy. Definitely saving this recipe!!