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 made everything bagels and they were absolutely amazing. I will definitely be baking these again. I would usually buy costco bagels which means I had to buy 12 – just too many. With the 8, and of course having to eat 2 or 3 that night cause, fresh bagels… this worked out just right!
I made these for the first time last night and they’re so good!!!
If I wanted to make Asiago cheese bagels, would you suggest only adding the cheese to the tops or would mixing in the cheese change the dough too much?
Hi Samantha, add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese to the dough when you add the flour. Hope you love them!
I just made a half batch and they are really good! Mine got too brown, though. I baked them for 25 minutes. Would it be better to turn the temp down or bake them for less time? Thank you!
Hi Christina! We would keep an eye on them as they bake and pull them before they get too brown, you can certainly try a lower temperature next time.
Christina:
Did you halve all the ingredients exactly for a half batch? Any other tweaks?
My go to recipe! I’m a NY’er and living in AZ, this recipe is the best thing compared.
loved this recipe! The bagels turned out delicious and they were easy to make!
I’ve made the plain and cinnamon crunch. Both turned out great! The cinnamon crunch topping falls off a bit when putting in a toaster tho. But a very easy recipe! Thank you!
Hi! I’m a little confused with your recipe. I’m using a bread machine. After 9-10 mins you say the dough should be stiff and then to let it finish it’s cycle. My dough setting has it mixing and kneading “for 1st time” and is a 20min step. Then it rises, gets punched down, and rises again. Do you mean “finishes it’s cycle” like the entire dough process or just the first kneading part?
Hi King, you’ll want to let it finish its mixing and kneading cycle, then proceed with the rising and remainder of the recipe. Hope you enjoy the bagels!
If I don’t have bread flour but have all purpose flour, would vital wheat gluten or wheat flour help in any way?
Hi Lindsey, bread flour really is best here for taste and texture. We recommend waiting until you have some on hand to try these. Hope you enjoy them!
Great recipe. Way easier than I thought it was going to be. Tasty with the right amount of chew.
You say the dough should be very stiff after just 2 minutes on low in the mixer. Mine looks like a soup. What did I do wrong? Higher speed on the mixer? I don’t understand why my dough can be off from what you describe after just 2 minutes on the lowest kitchenaid setting
Hi Sam, happy to help troubleshoot. How did you measure your ingredients? It sounds as though you may have used too much water and not enough flour here.
Omg! I made bagels for the first time and was so proud of myself. I made them a second time tonight (I over kneaded dough for one batch) but I’m learning. Next time will be even better! Thank you for helping us non-bakers/beginners see that we can do this!
Hello and thank you for the recipe, trying it for the first time today! I was wondering if anyone has made it with gluten free flour(1-1 kind). My niece is gluten intolerant so I’m always looking for good recipes. Thanks in advance
Hi Elizabeth, we haven’t tested a gluten free version, but let us know if you do!
Just made these tonight and they are SO good. Thankfully we have barley malt on hand (my husband loves to make malt shakes) so I used that in the recipe as directed. Also added Inclusions to a couple (jalapeño cheddar) and rolled some around in EBTB seasoning and did some plain bagels. They were SO good and my husband devoured them! Going to make lox bagels tomorrow and can’t wait!
Made these for the family today and they are hands down the best bagels ever!
I’m excited to try this recipe. I love your sandwich recipe and ciabatta and I’m sure htis will turn out just as good. Is there a substitute I can use for eggs for the egg wash?
Hi Lavanya, instead of egg wash, you can brush them with some milk before baking.
It took me three different baking days to get it just right. I have a very cold kitchen. I always make two batches. Today one batch was cinnamon raisin and the other pesto. Absolutely perfect!!! Could you toss up a calorie estimate?
I’ve made this several times. Very good!! I have a commercial mixer (8qt kitchen aide) and have doubled it successfully without bogging down. I used 6 cups of white bread flour and 2 cups whole wheat bread flour. Excellent flavor while keeping the same consistency. Kids love them. We make these now multiple times a week and just keep on hand for quick easy breakfast options (for teens who don’t like cereals). This one is a keeper for sure. Sally… you’ve been life changing for our kitchen! You are our go to for so many recipes now. Thank you!! It may not save us time but knowing my kids are eating organic homemade stuff (and no fillers/fluff/bad stuff) puts my mind at ease!
How would adding chocolate chips work?
Hi Tegan, for chocolate chip bagels, you can chocolate chips in when we add the raisins in our Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. Same amount. Let us know if you give them a try!
So good. I’ve made these about 5 times now since my kids keep begging for them. Question though – why don’t we add the sugar while the yeast is proofing? Does the yeast really need to sit in warm water alone for 5 minutes at the beginning? Thanks again – you are my go to for all my baking needs!
Hi Genevive, We are glad you enjoy this recipe. Sugar can help activate the yeast, but isn’t needed here.
I am originally a New Yawka and I grew up on NY bagels, boiled of course. I tried your recipe and they were good but definitely not chewey enough. The NT Bagels I love you have to wrestle a little bit to take your first bit. The ones I made were more like store bought “baked” bagels. What can I do to get more chewey and tighter bagels ?
Sally, I made bagels for the first time yesterday using your recipe for cinnamon raisin bagels.. I prepare my dough using my bread machine. I baked them for 22 minutes which was probably 2 minutes too long. The end result was dense and rubbery. I’m wondering what may have caused this and what changes I could make in the future.
Hi Dolores, bagels should be quite chewy, but if they were overly dense the dough could have been over-proofed. We haven’t tested this dough in a bread machine, but we would try following the instructions as written without one to see if they turn out better.
Loved these! Quick question though- mine seemed to harden very quickly when left in a sealed container at room temp for a few days. Is that an over kneading issue or just a bread issue and I should store in the fridge or freeze? I use so many of your recipes and have always loved them!
Hi Sarah! You can definitely try storing them in the fridge instead.
So so good thank you !!
But I was wondering if you could use self rising flour instead of bread flour.? I made them with the king Arthur bread flour they turned out great
Hi Barbie, we don’t recommend using self rising flour in this recipe. It would take additional recipe testing to ensure accurate results. So glad you loved them!
Great recipe, easy to follow!
I decided to do 16 mini bagels instead- shortened the cook time by 7 min- they are amazing!!!!!
Hi! Love this recipe. However, lately I keep running into a problem where the center (holes) of my bagels are uncooked, but every other part is baked well. How can I fix this?! I tried to bake a little longer however the bottoms began to brown too much, so I had to pull them out of the oven… leaving the centers underdone.
Hi J! If the bagels aren’t baking through evenly, maybe your oven is running a bit hot. We would try reducing the temperature by 10-15 degrees F and baking for longer to bake more evenly.
SALLY YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN!! Amazing recipe. Tastes better than the store. Like I went to a bakery! I’m so excited!! Way easier than I expected. Not sure why I waited so long to make bagels from scratch!!!
These are the best bagels I have ever had! this was my first time baking bagels and this recipe was pretty perfect. Definitely will use it again!
Hello! If using malt barley extract, do you use the same quantities as the brown sugar and honey respectively, and at the same points? Thank you!
Hi MG, yes, that’s right. Enjoy the bagels!
My go to is Sally’s, but I am not finding one for BLUEBERRY BAGELS. Are they the same, just add berry’s?
Hi Randi, for blueberry bagels we would follow our cinnamon raisin bagels recipe, substituting dried blueberries for raisins.
Hi, I made these and they turned out almost perfect but they were a little too chewy. I noticed that it says 4 cups (520g) of flour in the recipe card, but isn’t 4 cups 480g? I used 480g, but I’m wondering if using the full 520 would have made them a little less chewy?
I’m beginner at baking and this recipe was so easy! Thank you so much!! I have already made this twice!
I tried baking bagel for the first time and they turned out so amazing. I used Allinson’s country grain bread flour. Tomorrow I’ll try the raisin, cinnamon bagel. Thank you for your recipe.