Learn how to make homemade blueberry bagels completely from scratch. These bagels are chewy on the outside, soft and dense on the inside, and packed with real blueberries. Taste testers said they were the most flavorful blueberry bagels they’d ever had, and we agree—just look at their gorgeous color!
There’s nothing quite like a fresh bagel, especially when it’s warm from the oven, lightly crisp on the outside, and packed with blueberries inside! These homemade blueberry bagels are soft, very chewy, subtly sweet, and boast a gorgeous, naturally violet hue. Best of all, they’re made with simple, real ingredients and the dough can be prepped ahead.
My team and I tested these blueberry bagels many times over the past 2 months to get the texture just right: not too dense, not too bready, and never gummy. The key is a sturdy yet soft dough, a quick boil before baking, and plenty of blueberries in every bite. This was a tall order!
If you’ve ever made homemade bagels, the process will be familiar to you. And if this is your first time, let me assure you: this recipe is very doable, even for beginners.
Yeast Beginners: Start Here
Reference this Baking with Yeast Guide whenever you work with baker’s yeast. I include practical answers to all of your common yeast questions.
Ingredients You Need:
- Fresh or Frozen Blueberries: We’ll flavor and tint the dough with a homemade blueberry reduction. Something similar to this blueberry sauce topping, but not as thick. For the reduction, you can use fresh or frozen blueberries; I use frozen, which are convenient and available year round.
- Granulated Sugar: You’ll need to divide it in half; cook half with the blueberries, and add the remaining half to the yeast and water.
- Warm Water: Liquid for the dough.
- Yeast: Allows the dough to rise. I recommend an instant or active dry yeast.
- Vanilla: A teaspoon of vanilla extract complements and enhances the blueberry flavor.
- Dried Blueberries: Look for the kind that are chewy, like raisins or dried cranberries. We haven’t tested these bagels with freeze-dried blueberries.
- Bread Flour: A high-protein flour is necessary for bagels. We want a dense and chewy texture, not soft and flaky like homemade cinnamon rolls.
- Salt: Can’t make flavorful bread without it!
Step-by-Step: How to Make Blueberry Bagels
Cook the fresh or frozen blueberries with a little sugar until they break down into a loose sauce, about 10 minutes. You should have 1/2 cup (about 130g); do not use more than that in the dough. Let it cool slightly before adding it to the dough (too much heat can kill the yeast).
The blueberry reduction will be looser/thinner than a jam, and even thinner than blueberry sauce topping. This is what you’re going for:
Whisk together the remaining sugar, warm water, and yeast. Cover and let it sit for about 5–10 minutes until foamy and frothy. Mix in the remaining dough ingredients, including the cooled blueberry mixture and dried blueberries, until a dense, slightly tacky dough forms. If it feels dry, add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time.
Knead the dough by hand or use a stand mixer. (Need help? I have a full visual guide in my How to Knead Dough tutorial.)
After the dough has been kneaded, cover it and let it rise until about doubled in size, about 2 hours:
How to Shape Blueberry Bagels
Punch down the dough, then divide it into 8 sections and shape into bagels. If you have a food scale, it’s helpful here for dividing the dough evenly. Our bagels each weighed around 130g.
Poke a hole through the center and gently stretch to about 1.5–2 inches wide. They don’t need to be perfect!
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 them their 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!
Once your bagels are boiled and egg-washed, they’re ready for the oven! Bake until these purple beauties darken on top to a deep golden-brown shade.
Homemade blueberry bagels are one of those baking projects that feel extra rewarding, because they taste infinitely better than store-bought. Slice, toast, slather with cream cheese, enjoy plain… however you like them, they’re always a win.
Homemade Blueberry Bagels
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 26 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 bagels
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These homemade blueberry bagels are wonderfully chewy on the outside, soft and dense on the inside, and packed with real blueberries. The dough is flavored with a quick stovetop blueberry sauce and chewy dried blueberries. Made completely from scratch with simple ingredients and unbeatable flavor! Make-ahead and freezing instructions included below.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (about 200g) fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar, divided
- 1 cup (240g/ml) warm water (between 100–110°F/38–43°C)
- 1 Tablespoon instant or active dry yeast*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (120g) dried blueberries
- 3 and 3/4 cups (488g) bread flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- for coating the bowl: nonstick spray or 2 teaspoons butter or olive oil
For Boiling & Topping
- 2 quarts (1.9L) water
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey or barley malt syrup
- egg wash: 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- Cook the blueberries: Place the blueberries and half of the sugar (2 Tbsp/25g) in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring with a silicone spatula, until you have a blueberry sauce, a little thinner than a jam, about 10 minutes. You should have around 1/2 cup of sauce, or about 130g. Pour into a heat-proof bowl and let cool slightly (to about 110°F or cooler). Feel free to speed it up by placing it in the refrigerator while you continue.
- Prepare the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, whisk the warm water, remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar, and yeast together. Cover and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy and frothy on the surface. *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.*
- To the yeast mixture, add 1/2 cup (130g) of the slightly cooled blueberry sauce (do not exceed that amount), followed by the vanilla extract, dried blueberries, 1 cup of the bread flour, and the salt, then beat on medium speed until incorporated. Add the remaining flour 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. If it is dry or 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 6–8 minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6–8 minutes, until the dough feels smooth 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.
- 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 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 130g each. Shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball and stretch to create a bagel shape with a hole 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 honey or barley malt syrup. 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.
- Bake for 26–30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the bagels have lightly browned. Allow the bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Slice, toast, top, whatever you want! Cover leftover bagels tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can freeze them for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Overnight Make-Ahead Instructions: Prepare the dough through step 5, 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 6. I don’t recommend shaping the bagels the night before as they will 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 7, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil—or seal it tightly in a freezer bag. 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 7.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Small Saucepan | Stand Mixer | Baking Sheets | Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats | Food Scale | 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 slightly longer. 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.
- Dried Blueberries: Look for the kind that are chewy, like raisins or dried cranberries. You can skip them if needed, but they add concentrated blueberry flavor and chewy texture. Without them, the bagels will be milder in flavor. We haven’t tested these bagels with freeze-dried blueberries.
- 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 be flimsy and not 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.
- 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Great consistency and flavor!
I’m not a blueberry bagel fan; HOWEVER, these converted me! Love the straightforward process and the fresh and dried blueberries. The end result is well worth it!
These were delicious and a perfect snow day activity! My 4 year old helped and shaped them for us! Thanks for a fun recipe!
These were so tasty and easy to make! I will definitely keep it in my rotation!
Delicious, the recipe was easy to follow. I will definitely be making these again.
My 9 and 8 year olds made these with me. Easy, fun, and delicious! The steps make it simple and practically foolproof. We ate some immediately and my kids keep saying they’re so much better than store bought. We’ll be making again soon! We added craisins because we didn’t have dried blueberries. Lots of flavor and my house smells scrumptious!
These bagels were fun to make. They aren’t going to replace bakery bagels but if you like a crunchier exterior, these are for you! The blueberry flavor is subtly sweet but is very complimentary to cream cheese. This recipe is not complicated but can be a bit tough in a smaller kitchen. It definitely helped to let the dough proof overnight.
Will definitely make again. Super simple recipe.
Much easier than I anticipated, and very blueberry-forward
Overall, delicious! Definitely quite chewy exterior but turned out better than expected. Four stars because I’d like to have all the measurements in the instructions so I don’t have to scroll back to ingredients. Tip: use either weight or volume. I measured out one cup of water and weighed it. Needed another 1/4 cup to for the weight to match. Otherwise, dough would have been too dry.
I agree with your note about ingredients! I used a recipe recently that had measurements listed with every step and it was a game—changer.
Fun and surprisingly easy
The recipe was extremely easy to follow! The honey in the water bath made a great crust on the bagel. Do not leave out the dried blueberries, they add the biggest burst of blueberry flavor. Without them, the dough is fairly bland. Due to the purple color of dough, I did find it a little tricky to tell when they were golden. Overall this was a fun flavor of bagel to make
The dried blueberries are the best! Min turned out a little “yeast-y” tasting, but still edible an will be enjoying more than one.
I really need bagels. Displaced NYer so yes, need. I wanted to love this and was SO looking forward to living on bagels for a week. First time both baking with yeast and kneading dough. I went through both tutorials 3x each, including videos. Have been afraid of yeast but decided time to tackle it. The good part? As Sally mentions, kneading dough is awesome! But I completely failed, will elaborate in post in FB Group. My first ever bake in the garbage, literally, they’re inedible. I don’t blame the recipe, I had too many issues, I blame my inexperience. Plus hubby thinks the (brand new unopened) yeast is bad. I tried. I may again one day but for now I’ll stick to yeast-free. I do great with every other recipe of Sally’s I’ve ever made due to detailed instructions.
This was a very easy recipe to follow and really delicious. Next time I plan to make the bagels a bit bigger and cook them less in the oven. My first round came out a bit too dense and the bottoms too crispy. Minor tweaks to get delicious bagels made pretty quickly!
These were fun to make! Next time I would bake them a little less time as they got a little too brown. Yummy blueberry flavor!
The directions were great and didn’t seem too difficult. I followed them exactly and weighed my ingredients. I thought my bagels came out flat and a bit chewy. As others mentioned, they are bursting with flavor. I’m excited to have completed my first baking challenge!
My family loved the chewy, delicious bagels. No cream cheese nor butter needed.
First time making bagels and I LOVED making these! The recipe was so beginner friendly and I feel like a total pro now. 🙂 Not to mention; they are sooo delicious!!
Love love love. This was such a delicious recipe!
I made these bagels for the challenge and they came out great! I needed nine bagels so I weighed my dough and it came out to 115 grams each. Mine were done at about 20 minutes but it could have been because they were a little smaller. Next time I will stretch the hole bigger because it kind of closed up while baking but it didn’t affect the taste.
These were easy to make and have a great texture! Blueberry doesn’t have a very assertive flavor though, and it barely comes up. I might try making them again with cranberry and orange zest, or some other combo of dried and fresh fruit.
Excellent recipe including notes of what to look for not just timing. These came out so good and flavorful! I used my mixer to knead, but want to knead by hand next time.
These are so amazing! Great blueberry taste and I loved the dried blueberries!
This might have been my favorite baking challenge product yet. I’d never made homemade bagels before, but after trying this recipe, I’ll definitely be making them again.
The blueberry flavor was outrageous and they came together easily. We did end up needing to bake them longer than the recipe listed.
So delicious! And not as complicated as I thought. Homemade blueberry bagels for the win!
These were amazing!! I bake often but have never made bagels. I opted for the overnight rise in the fridge. Really easy and fun to make! Instructions were perfect. I got 7 full size bagels and a lil baby bagel 🙂 Ate them with cream cheese and a drizzle of honey. YUM!! Thank you Sally!
Absolutely delicious blueberry bagels! Waaay better then store bought and so pretty too. They weren’t as complicated as I thought which was pleasant surprise. I will definitely make these again and again.
These turned out great! Followed the measurements exactly by weight and the dough turned out perfect with no extra flour needed. Would love more fun bagel recipes!
So tasty! I’ve never had blueberry bagels that were so blueberry! The jams took these over the edge, and now I want to try this with other homemade jams (I’m thinking cranberry)! I did the overnight option for fresh bagels on a Saturday morning. They turned out perfect. Smaller than a NJ bagel, but the consistency was spot on! Very impressed.