Homemade Bagel Recipe
on May 23, 2013, Updated Aug 22, 2024
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This homemade bagel recipe includes everyday ingredients and are the chewiest circles of perfection you will ever eat!
This recipe is for your standard bagels, but you can add any flavors that you want. I’ve had great success with them and I love that you can customize the bagel really easily. If you are feeling an everything bagel or cinnamon raisin-it’s a cinch to create.
Some of my favorite carbs come in the form of bagels. Especially the ones that are plump and chewy. These bagels make for a great breakfast. I like to serve them with an assortment of yogurt, fruit, and if you are feeling fancy, add some sausage or bacon or even a smoothie.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Fresh and Homemade: Nothing beats the taste and aroma of freshly baked bagels made in your own kitchen. Bagels that are made at home are fresher, chewier, and more delicious in my opinion.
- Customizable: You can easily customize your bagels by adding toppings like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, everything seasoning, or even mixing ingredients like cheese or herbs into the dough.
- Fun Baking Project: Making bagels from scratch is a fun and rewarding baking project, whether you bake by yourself or grab some family or friends to help out.
Ingredients
For the sponge/starter
- Bread Flour
- Cool Water
- Instant Yeast
For the dough
- Water
- Salt
- Instant Yeast
- Bread Flour
For boiling the bagels
- Water
- Brown Sugar
- Baking Soda
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Homemade Plain Bagels
Step #1. Mix all the starter ingredients together in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature 12-24 hours.
Step #3. While the dough is rising, prep the water for boiling and preheat the oven. Shape the dough and drop the bagels into the boiling water 2 or 3 at a time. Place the boiled bagels onto a parchment lined baking sheet. (Optional: Sprinkle with toppings while still wet.)
Step #2. Mix the dough ingredients together in your stand mixer. Remove and knead until slightly tacky. Shape into a ball, place in a greased bowl, and let rise one house. Punch down and let rise another half hour.
Step #4. Once all the bagels have been boiled, bake them for 25 minutes or until deep brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Recipe FAQs
As with most things, it is super cost friendly to make bagels at home. Bagels from breakfast shops or restaurants are between $6-$10 once you get toppings put on. You can make a bagel at home for under 50 cents! Cost effective and delicious. Total win.
Boiling bagels is the key to chewiness. When you boil bagels it creates a type of gel wall. This creates a shiny exterior as well as cooks the outer layer so they hold their shape and texture when baked. It is an extra step in the process but so worth it. Bagels need to be boiled for about 30-60 seconds per side before they are baked.
Shaping bagels is the fun part. Simply roll the bagel into a ball of dough and then poke your finger through the middle. Use your fingers to widen the hole to about 2 inches. There’s nothing to it! You can also roll your dough into a log and then twist the ends together rightly to make a circle.
I like to use bread flour when making bagels. Bread flour has a higher protein content and because of that it aids in making the bagels chewy. All purpose flour will work, but I just don’t prefer it because they won’t be as chewy.
Expert Tips
- Not kneading the dough enough is one common mistake with yeast breads. When you knead dough, the gluten forms a sort of “net” that catches the yeast bubbles and helps the dough rise nice and tall. One of the best ways to tell if the net is strong enough, is to do a “window pane test” – take a small piece of dough and stretch it thin enough that you can almost see through it. If you can do so without it breaking, you’re done kneading. If not, give it a few more minutes and try it again.
- It’s really helpful if the bagels are the same size. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces before shaping. If you have a tough time eye-balling the amount of dough, this is a great time to whip out a kitchen scale and measure the pieces to make sure they’re even.
More Bread Recipes to Consider
Snacks
Big Soft Pretzels
Homemade Bread
100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Easy Appetizers
Bosco Sticks Recipe
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
King Arthur Flour’s Plain Bagels
Ingredients
For the sponge/starter:
- 1/2 cup bread flour
- 1/4 cup cool water
- pinch of instant yeast, about 1/16 teaspoon
For the dough:
- 1 1/4 cups cool water
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 4 cups bread flour
For Boiling the Bagels:
- 5 cups water
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
Instructions
- To make the starter, mix all of the ingredient together in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to sit at room temperature overnight (12 to 24 hours)
- To make the dough, add all of the starter, after it’s overnight rest, the water, salt, yeast, and half of the bread flour called for. Using the dough hook of your stand mixer, mix these ingredient for 5 minutes.
- Continue adding the rest of the bread flour, ¼ cup at a time, until the dough starts to come together. The dough should still stick to the bottom of the bowl but it will pull away from the sides.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is lightly tacky. Form into a ball. Let the dough rise in a lightly greased bowl for one hour.
- Gently deflate the dough and let it rise for another half hour.
- When the dough has risen a second time, remove it from the bowl and cut it into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a round ball. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- While the dough is rising, prep the water for boiling. Mix the water and brown sugar in a large pot. The water needs to be at least one inch deep.
- Heat the water in the pan over medium heat until it starts to gently boil and the baking soda dissolves. Reduce the heat so that the water stays at a very gentle boil. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a baking mat.
- Take one piece of dough and poke your finger through the center. Using your finger gently stretch the hole in the center until it is about a 2 inch circle. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Gently drop 2 or 3 bagels in the boiling water and let them boil on the first side for 2 minutes and then flip them over in the water and let them cook on the second side for 1 more minute. Remove from the water with a strainer or the end of a wooden spoon and place the bagels on the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat the boiling with the remaining bagels.
- While the bagels are still wet you can sprinkle them with everything bagel seasoning if you like.
- Bake the boiled bagels in the hot oven for 25 minutes or until they are a deep brown.
- Let the bagels cool on a wire rack before enjoying.
Notes
- To make cinnamon raisin bagels – When you divided the dough into 12 balls, roll each ball into a long thin rectangle, about 8 inches by 3 inches. Sprinkle the rectangle with sugar, cinnamon, and a few raisins. Roll the rectangle up so that it’s a long log and then connect the ends to make circle. You’ve made your bagel! Now let them rest for 30 minutes before boiling.
- I like to do part of the bagel batch plain, part cinnamon raisin, and part with everything bagel seasoning so that one batch has a lot of variety.
- Make sure you knead the dough enough. Bagels really need the chewiness and texture!
- You can double this recipe if you’re going to be feeding a crowd.
i want to try…in the winter…weather’s getting too hot. i never want to bake anymore
I just happened upon your blog, looking for a homemade oreo recipe, and I am SO HAPPY! First of all, because you had the recipe I was looking for, and then I start looking around and your blog is SO cute! I read your bio and I am amazed at the things you do! I thought, “this must be a good strong woman….Hmmm…I wonder where she lives?” “Look, she’s dressed modest in all these pictures, and they look HAPPY!” Then I found it, the “Yes, I live in Utah” button, with a link to mormon.org. I KNEW IT!!! It makes me so happy to see that something makes us different, especially when I can see it in 5 minutes, from 3 pictures and the way your blog makes me feel. Thanks for having the button, the recipe, and the glow!
You are so sweet… I assume you are LDS too 🙂 Are you in UT?! So glad you found the blog, stop by again!
Yum! It seems labor intensive, am i just lazy? I will say, home made bagels completely blow store bought bagels out of the water. So good.