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’m a teacher, sheltering in at home during the covid pandemic. I just made your cinnamon raisen bagels! OMG! I’m a New Yorker, so I know a good bagel when I taste one, and this was the best bagel I ever had! I am so proud of myself (and I’m not a cook at all — I was just craving a bagel). Thank you for a great, easy, straight forward recipe. I’m going to make another batch of plain ones to freeze. Helped make this quarantine a little better.
Amazing! I used AP flour, kneaded a little longer to develop more gluten, and added diastatic malt powder to the dough. I added Asiago and coated half in everything bagel seasoning. Hands down one of the best things I’ve made. Thanks for another great recipe.
Oh my god, I don’t know if I’ll ever buy bagels again. These are SO delicious. I let the dough rise overnight and followed all the other instructions exactly. Topped half with sesame seeds and half with everything bagel seasoning. They came out perfect! Chewy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. Next time I will make the holes a bit bigger and the bagels a bit flatter as they came out somewhat puffy in the middle, but I’m not complaining. Thanks for another great recipe!!
Hi Susan! 1 cup of bread flour is about 125-130g per cup.
Omg!!!! I made these bagels today making the cheese version. I used regular all purpose flour because I didnt have bread flour #quarantine. They turned out amazing. So chewy, crunchy and soft on the inside. I will be making everything bagels in a couple of days because these wont last long in our house! So yum! Thanks for a great recipe.
Truly spectacular bagels. Better than any store I’ve had!
I have NEVER been more proud of anything I’ve baked before (other than your Artisan Bread recipe, which I currently bake almost every other day!) This recipe is soo simple and the results are really impressive. Second time baking them this morning and they are just as good, if not BETTER than the first time. Thank you soo much for your blog…You rock Sally!!!
Hi Sally! Can I use “high gluten” flour instead of bread flour to make these bagels? Are they the same thing?
Hi Rachel, this particular flour is typically higher in protein than bread flour. The bagels will be pretty dense, so if you don’t mind the chewier and denser texture, you can try it.
These came out perfect. I used AP couldn’t find BF. My husband is a bagel connoisseur. He loved these. I used poppy seed and Trader Joe’s everything bagel toppings.. Making again today.
I’ve made this recipe twice now and it’s been great every time (though the second batch was better). I bake a lot and prefer to weigh my flour when I can, prevents me from forgetting how many cups I’ve already added. Have you weighed your flour?
Also, when I oil my bowl for resting I use the recommended amount of oil but my dough feels oily when I go to work with it. I don’t oil my bowl when I rest my bread. I feel like I waste a lot of time forming my bagels because of the oil. Have you ever skipped the oil? Will they boil differently.
Love your site! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Elana! Glad you enjoy these bagels. Feel free to use nonstick spray or skip greasing the bowl if you prefer. Greasing the bowl is only so the dough doesn’t stick. It doesn’t change the outcome of the taste and texture.
Hi! We’ve been making your bagels for about a year now and really love this recipe. We recently tried this with 110 bread flour (ran out of KA) and it came out more like whole wheat bagels than the ones we have been making and loving, as I think the bread flour we have does trend more whole wheat than white. Do you think we could mix some AP in to balance it out? If so, what ratio would you recommend?
Thanks so much!
Christina
Hi Christina, I haven’t tried this recipe with that particular flour but using a mix of it with all-purpose flour would certainly lighten the texture up. Try half and half.
Made the Asiago version of these last weekend & they were phenomenal! Making them again tomorrow & I’m going to try the cinnamon raisin version too. Thanks!
My local grocery FINALLY had bread flour so I was able to try these out and oh my goodness they were even better than I imagined! Like, the best bagels I can remember having. This was my first attempt at making bagels so I was nervous I’d messed it up but they turned out absolutely perfect. I hand-kneaded them since I don’t have a stand mixer, refrigerated the dough overnight, and I topped them with sesame seeds before baking. I can’t wait to try other flavor variants. Thank you SO much for another amazing recipe, Sally!
LOVE!!!Taste like NYC bagels!! We sprinkled grated cheddar cheese and jalapenos on top – Amazing!
Since the pandemic it’s impossible to buy any flour. All I had at home was all purpose flour but gave it a shot anyway. I’m a total beginner baker and these came out AMAZING! I let the dough rise overnight in the fridge last night and made the bagels this morning while my 5 month old napped. It was quick and easy and I even had a few minutes to relax before my kid woke up. Love this recipe and already sent to all my baking friends.
Excellent recipe and directions! Bagels turned out perfectly!!!
Excellent recipe! Have made several batches all super tasty!
Made these bagels on Friday, making another batch today.(Monday)…Love them!!!
They remind me of NYC bagels, and being a transplanted Long Islander, that’s really saying something! Can’t get good bagels where I live, but now I can start making them myself thanks to you.
Hello! I made these bagels with whole wheat flour (only kind that was available). They came out really well. I did let the dough rise a tad longer before and after shaping because it was WW flour. Other than that, super easy to make a great taste.
Made these twice in one week. First try didn’t come out so great, but it was completely user error. My water was a smidge too warm and I almost completely killed the yeast. The flavor was there, but texture not. The second time was perfect. I was very careful with my water temperature and I also did the dough on the dough cycle of my bread maker. They came out perfect! For anyone new to bread making like me. Give it a try.
Hi Sally, made this recipe yesterday and just smile when I look at these beauties! I was so impressed that I actually made bagels….and with a taste and texture that truly is impressive! For some reason, I had to keep adding flour because the dough didn’t get heavy like yours. Maybe because I used 3 cups bread flour (all I had left) and 1 cup AP? Even though I added more flour, they still came out perfect! As always, thank you for a great recipe and wonderful tutorials. Best of luck with your growing family and your special pups! I’m a new grandma to a sweet 6 week old little girl and a dog mama to our rescue Golden , Finn! Take care during these trying times….
So I made this dough for the first time and it was way to sticky. I had to add almost a cup and a half more flour. I used bread flour and I weighed out the amount. Any clues as to why it was so wet?
Made the dough yesterday, did the refrigerator proofing, made the bagels this morning and they’re awesome! I altered the recipe in two ways: I used half 00 and half All Purpose flour (only because I’m running low on flour like everyone else right now) and I added 1 T of honey and 1 T of baking soda to the poaching water. I am beyond thrilled with the results. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Stay healthy!
It can’t get easier than this! And it’s soooo delicious! 🙂
Great recipe! I didn’t have a machine so I kneaded it by hand and had to work in quite a bit of flour to get it elastic but it worked out in the end! I live in Italy and used farina Manitoba and 12 grams of lievito di birra secco
Hi! Made this dough to spec for the first time last week and they were delicious! I’ve exhausted my yeast stash now and no stores anywhere near have any left for weeks now.
I’ve started my own potato water yeast (sugar, flour, water leftover from boiled potatoes)… any recommendations on how to use that ratio wise in this recipe in replacement of the active dry yeast once it’s ready to use?
Thanks! You are my go to for all my recipe searching!
Hi Brianna! I haven’t tried making my own yeast before, so I can’t offer advice for the best way/ratio/amount to use it in this recipe. Sorry! Let me know what you try.
I’ve been making these bagels many times and they are delicious. I would like to know if I can had frozen blueberries to this recipe without ruining it! Thanks!
Hello, we have made this recipe two times they taste delicious but they look a little bumpy, not sure why. Before they go into the water bath they seem smooth but when they come out they have pock marks. Lol Have you heard of this before? Thank you for your insight!
First time making bagels and they turned out suuupppeeer yummy! I’m gonna make them again soon with other toppings, like parmesan or seasame seeds. I used AP flour (oops! I can’t find any bread flour lately) and they turned out wonderful so if you only have AP I would recommend you still try this recipe. Also, I noticed mine were done around 15-17 minutes, so I would keep your eyes on them around 15 because yours might be done earlier too.
I just made these this morning. We kneaded it by hand. all we had was All Purpose flour. I also had fruit left over from Christmas cakes which I chopped up and added. They aren’t beautifully formed but are delicious. Will definately try again!
Wow!!! I am originally from Long Island and we have some amazing bagel shops there. I now live in Pennsylvania and could not find a bagel nearly as good…until now! Made them this morning and my daughter said “these taste just like the ones at Grandma’s house”. The ultimate compliment!! Thank you so much for this recipe!!
I do have a question. How long after the boil can I wait until I put them in the oven? I put 2 baking sheets in the oven and the bagels on the bottom rack got a little burnt on the bottom. The ones on the middle rack were perfect. Next time I may bake them in separate batches. Thanks again!!
My dough was too sticky so the bagels were hard to remove from the pan after shaping and rising, next time will add a bit more flour, should it be not sticky at all?
So many great recipes. Thanks for helping us fill the time. Never knew making bread or bagels could be this easy and satisfying…
Awesome recipe! However, I was unable to get yeast and bread flour – sold out everywhere. I used self-rising flour instead, and they were good but more biscuit-y than bagel-y. I am not a baker by any stretch of the imagination so I used 4.5 cups flour, the sugar, and water as per recipe. I also boiled a bit longer. The outside was perfect, but the inside wasn’t quite bagel consistency. Any suggestions for using self-rising flour here?