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 did the overnight and let it sit 45 minutes with excellent results
Good afternoon, after being quarantined for the past 4 weeks, I wanted to do something special with my daughters for Good Friday. Though I am not a baker AT ALL, I had purchased yeast and bread flour “just in case” I wanted to try my hand at anything given our situation. My daughters and I made these bagels today for the very first time and they were phenomenal. We followed the recipe exactly, and appreciated the thoughtful notes, video, and hints that you provided, and they turned out GREAT. While mine certainly were not pretty to look at, the taste was exceptional, so much so that my New York husband felt like he was back home . Ours were everything ( with Everything But the Bagel spice from Trader Joes), cinnamon sugar, salt, and Parmesan cheese, along with plain. Thank you so much for sharing your talent with the world.
Worked perfectly. It was so good. I used all purpose flour, brown sugar in dough and honey in water and still delicious!
I am quarantined in Japan, only have a toaster oven, and never baked anything before. I didn’t have a pastry brush either. The grocery store did have instant yeast and 13 gm bread flour. I didn’t grease the tin foil in the toaster oven so the bagels stuck a little, and they didn’t look too pretty, but they were amazing! I can’t believe I actually made bagels that tasted way better than anything I have bought here in Japan. Thank you Sally for a great recipe!
Thank you for this recipe. Have made these bagels a number of times now and have never had a failure. I live in a rural town in Queensland, Australia and prior to making these we only had a big food chain to buy bagels. Since making this recipe I cannot eat what they have on offer. Fantastic recipe. Right off to bake some more.
Thank you this recipe. I have made this recipe a couple of times and have never had a failure. I live in a rural area in Queensland, Australia, and prior to trying your recipe only had a food chain to buy bagels from. Now I cannot, no will not, buy them. These are delicious. Thanks again, I am off to bake some more.
Just made these this morning. Followed the recipe to a T except I used my bread machine to knead the dough for about 12 minutes, then turned the dough into a greased bowl and went back to the recipe from there. I made some sesame seed, parmesan cheese, and plain. Hands down the best bagels I have ever eaten! Using the bread machine for the kneading made it so easy. It took me a few tries to make them “pretty”, but once I got the hang of it, they looked great. I will be making these again and again! Thanks for this delicious recipe!
Do you still need to add the sugar for the savoury bagels?
Yes. The sugar in the dough feeds the yeast.
I’m going to make these this week! Any suggestions to add chocolate chips or do the multi colour dough?
Hi Stephanie, I followed the recipe for cinnamon raisin bagels but substituted the raisins for chocolate chips – they came out delicious. I recommend making sure the chips are really well incorporated into the dough – a few that stuck out got a little crispy in the oven. I also made pink bagels for Valentine’s Day – I just used red food coloring and they turned a nice light shade.
Wow, Thank You. I made these today, which is the first time I have made Bagels. They turned out very New York Bagel like. Just what we wanted!
Made these this morning, amazing!!! Whole family begging me to make more. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Forgot to rate it:)
My first time making bagels and these were so easy, fast, and delicious! I’m hooked.
Do you have a modification for sourdough bagels.
you can try boiling it alittle longer. the longer you boil the thicker the crust will be maybe 2-3 minutes
I’ve tried several bagel recipes over the years and this is my family’s absolute favorite! I love that you include options for the barley malt. Thank you for this!
Super easy recipe, and fun to make!! And they came out great – the first time! I plan to make these again, soon!~ Maybe I’ll call them my social distancing bagels! Oh, and I didn’t have bread flour, so I used all purpose, and they came out great, but I definitely want to try the bread flour, when I can get it.
I made these bagels this morning and am IN LOVE! So simple, so delicious. I’ve finally satisfied my bagel craving when the store bought bagels just weren’t hitting the mark. Thank you for this recipe, I look forward to making it a regular in our home.
First time bagel-maker and this was awesome!! I used half whole wheat bread flour and half all purpose with really good results! I also let the dough rise in the fridge overnight before shaping and think it made a huge difference. Lastly, I used a variety of toppings and mix-ins and found the most popular was a cheddar mix-in with a little bit of cheddar on top as well as sesame seeds! Looking forward to making more!!
These were amazing, I’m not a great baker at all but the directions were easy and the ingredients were simple. Being stuck at home we have made three batches of bagels and they have been perfect. So much better than any bagel you can buy in the store! Thank you so much! The only change we made was from reading other peoples comments, we proofed the yeast, sugar and water in a cup first and added it to everything else. So far our favorite has been the addition of shredded cheese and jalapeños !
Hi Sally!
First of all thank you so much for this recipe!
This is my very first time making bagels and it was a success thanks to you. I wanted to challenge myself and also been craving for bagels in while. Due to the current situation, we cant go out that much and bagels are not that assessable in my country. even buying it frozen in grocery stores would be expensive!. so I made these and follow your instructions and i did it!. I never knew i can make bagels .
Tomorrow im gona make another batch and get them delivered to my parents house. Thank you again!
So you add in your other ingredients after the egg wash. But what if I want to make blueberry bagels? Should I use fresh, frozen? And should I mix them in before the water bath and egg wash or still after?
Hi Veronica! I recommend fresh or dried blueberries. You can add them in when I add the raisins in my Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. Follow those instructions. A caution, though, fresh blueberries will make this dough very wet. I prefer dried berries.
I made these for the first time and they turned out great. I ended up with 6 bagels from the batch and they were the perfect size for bagel sandwiches. I used only 2 1/4 tsp of yeast and 1 tsp of salt in my recipe. Thanks for the recipe Sally!!
Great recipe. Delicious even though I forgot to add honey in the water bath and the egg wash to the bagels before I baked them.
I’making these for the second time and once again I have a very wet dough, not dry as described. I weighed out the flour and used a thermometer for the water. They came out delicious my first time, but once again I had to add a ton of extra flour to knead the dough after mixing. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Lauren! I don’t think you’re necessarily doing anything wrong– a lot of factors go into this such as mixing time, speed, weather, yeast, and temperature of water. Feel free to add a little more flour to make a soft, yet workable dough.
Bagels are in no way a common pastry here (Czech republic), but I was always curious about them. I tried your recipe today and it turned absolutely delicious. Thank you!
These were absolutely amazing! Thank you so much. I’ve been missing a nice fresh bagel since this virus has been going around. I had exactly 4 cups of bread flour left in my pantry, and these were perfect! On each of mine, I put coarse salt. I used some dried chopped onion on a few, and I think my key was using fresh minced garlic on them. It turned out great, and no burnt garlic like I usually get when I go to a bagel shop. I shared the recipe to my zero waste group on facebook!
The first time I made them they were fabulous! They were chewy and light… My New Yorker Born friend/family loved them, so they must be good. I have made them many more times and they are all right/good but seem very dense/heavy. My shaping skills are also lacking so they usually look kind of ugly! The last batch somehow looked like pinwheels. Not sure how I managed that…any suggestions???
Hi!
If I don’t have honey or barley malt would that be a major problem? Could I just boil them in plain water?
Thank you!
Hi Katie! It’s best to boil them with either. You can try brown sugar instead.
Would I run into problems if I doubled the recipe? Love your site and recipes! I know I will have success, if I use one of your recipes!
Thank you, Rebecca! For the best results I recommend making the dough twice instead of doubling.