Homemade Bagels {Step-by-Step}
Looking for homemade, from-scratch bagels that are as delicious as store bought? Check out this post for step-by-step instructions!
I have two main goals in life:
1) Raise non-smelly, sensitive, caring boys and 2) help everyone conquer making and baking yeast breads at home.
I love to make bread (in any form) and more than that, I love to eat it.
There is something about fresh bread that just does me in. And when I figure out I can make specialty breads at home that are just as delicious for a fraction of the cost…well, I’m sunk.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some unique bread recipes that don’t necessarily follow the parameters of typical roll/bread dough. I’ll be including in-depth step-by-step instructions so you can make them right along with me. I am not a bread-making expert by any means, so let me emphasize that if I can make these, you can, too!
Today is bagel day. I wish every day could be bagel day since I love bagels oh so very much.
I have another recipe for bagels residing on this site. They are fantastic. And so is the recipe below. They both come from King Arthur Flour – the main difference in the recipes being that the old recipe requires a starter (flour, water, yeast mixed the night before and left to bubble overnight) which creates a bit more flavor in the bagels.
The recipe I’m sharing today creates equally delicious bagels but without having to think too far ahead. (Incidentally, you can use the step-by-step guide with either recipe, especially for the shaping/boiling part.)
These bagels are dense and chewy and so magnificent with a slather of cream cheese that it is unspeakable. I always double the batch so we can have some to freeze and eat for breakfast/snacks. Asiago bagels are my dream bagel of choice and the kind pictured in this post, but the options are endless.
Who knew bagels could be so easy and fun to make at home (my kids love to help with the process – especially poking the holes part)?
I’m not sure that I can count the success of goal #1 yet, but if even one of you makes these and loves them as much as I do…well, I’ll consider my life mostly complete.
One Year Ago: Tender Pork Chops with Apples and Onions
Two Years Ago: Baby, Baby Cupcakes
Three Years Ago: Tacos Supreme
Homemade Bagels
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 4 cups (568 g) bread flour (see note for variations)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups warm water
Water Bath:
- 2 quarts water
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- Manual/Mixer Method: To make this dough by hand or in a mixer, combine all of the dough ingredients and knead vigorously, by hand for 10 to 15 minutes, or by machine on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes. Since a high-protein bread flour is used here (or a combination of all-purpose flour and gluten), it takes a bit more effort and time to develop the gluten. The dough will be stiffer than other soft yeast doughs but will still be pliable and smooth once it has finished kneading. It should be stiff and floured enough not to leave much residue on your fingers after pinching a piece but not so stiff that you can’t easily pinch off pieces of dough and work with it. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with lightly greased plastic wrap. Set it aside to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until it is noticeably puffy.
- Bread Machine Method: Place all of the dough ingredients in the pan of the machine, program the machine for Dough or Manual, and press Start. Check the dough after 10 minutes; it should be quite stiff, and won’t have formed a smooth ball. The dough will feel quite firm when you poke your finger into it. Allow the machine to complete its cycle, then complete bagels as instructed below.
- Transfer the puffed/risen dough to a work surface and divide the dough into eight equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a smooth, round ball. Place the balls on a lined or lightly greased baking tray and cover lightly. Let them rest for 30 minutes. They’ll puff up very slightly.
- Once they have rested, one-by-one, use your thumb to poke a hole through the center of each ball then twirl the dough and use your other fingers to stretch the hole until it is about 1 to 2 inches in diameter. The entire bagel will be around 4 inches across. Place the shaped bagels on a lined baking tray (the same one that you’ll bake them on).
- Prepare the water bath by heating the water and sugars to a very gentle boil in a large, wide-diameter pan. You can use a large pot or a deep straight-edged skillet. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- Transfer the bagels, three or four at a time, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gently simmering boil, if necessary. Cook the bagels for 2 minutes, flip them over using a wide spatula, and cook 1 minute more. Using a wide spatula, carefully remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
- Top the bagels with your desired ingredients. If you are going to use a dry topping, such as sesame seeds or poppy seeds, whisk together 1 egg white with 1 tablespoon water and brush each bagel with the mixture before topping heavily with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc. If using Asiago or another cheese, there is no need to brush the bagels with an egg white glaze, simply place the shredded cheese on the bagels.
- Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they’re as deep brown as you like. Remove the bagels from the oven, and cool completely on a wire rack.
- I only bake one sheet of bagels at a time, even though I usually double the batch and have four sheets of bagels ready to be baked. The bagels that have been boiled, placed on the baking pans, topped with cheese and then sat and rested for 20-30 minutes while the other bagels baked – well…they actually turned out more rounded and golden brown than the ones that were baked right away. So there is no harm in boiling all the bagels at once and letting them hang out on the baking sheets while the other bagels bake.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly and expounded upon from King Arthur Flour
These are killer. We love them. My husband loves jalapeño rounds with cheese on the top. I just like Parmesan or sesame seed. That chives cream cheese is where it’s at too.
These turned out awesome, I am so excited to have these in my repertoire!
I just finished making these and they were delicious and easier than I thought they would be. Yes, they take a little time (what bread doesn’t?), but the steps go quickly and they turn out great. Thanks!
Rohini – I’m not familiar with that kind of yeast. Does it say rapid rise or instant yeast anywhere on the bottle?
Can I use Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast to this, that is all I have right now?
My cute husband just made this, since he has a huge love of bagels, and I’m not feeling well, but I ate a few bites of a warm one from the oven and it’s pretty much amazing! Probably good I cant gobble them all up now!!
Katie – I use my Bosch electric stand mixer to make and knead the dough.
I just found this recipe and am excited to try it! Do you usually use a bread machine? It looks like a bread machine from the pics. I know that bagels are pretty motor-intensive so I was wondering what kind you use?
Thanks!
Oh my! Oh my! I just made these and they are fantastic! They are soft, yet chewy, and the outside is ever-so-slightly crispy. I am never buying bagels ever again … ever. Thanks for such a great recipe!
I’ve made these 3 or 4 times now. Once with the wheat flour variation, and the other times with white flour. They are THE YUMMIEST THINGS ON THE EARTH!! So much better than any store bought bagels I’ve found. My only question is: when you finish letting the dough balls rise and you poke a hole in them, does the dough do a weird deflating thing that leaves it a little wrinkly?? I don’t think the taste has been affected, but for some reason mine are having a weird texture on top because of that.
Lana – so glad you love these! As for the wrinkling issue – are your dough balls well covered? I know the recipe says to cover “lightly” but the reason they probably get wrinkly when you poke a hole through them is because the air has crusted the top of the dough a little bit (forming a bit of a skin) so when you poke the hole through that skin, it deflates the rest of the dough more than it would if the entire surface of the dough was soft. Does that make sense? Clear as mud? My recommendation would be to cover them so that there isn’t a lot of air flow around them as they puff up. If you really don’t think that’s the issue and that they are covered well enough…well, then, I’m stumped! The only other thing I can think of is maybe they need a bit more flour to hold their shape and not wrinkle down – bagel dough should be a bit stiffer than other yeast doughs. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I just found your site today through a link to your soft wrap bread. I will be making that for sure as my husband just discovered a love for felafel on his most recent deployment to Iraq and it sound just like what he described to me. But this bagel recipe is all for me. The bakery in our little town makes bagels that look just like these and they are amazing! Now the store bought bagels just seem so dense that I don’t care for them anymore. Looking forward to trying my hand at baking bread!
Hey Mel! Is it possible to leave your bagels in the boiling water for too long (or not long enough)? I made my first batch tonight, and they taste okay, however, the texture [on the outside] of a few of them is doughy. I also absent mindedly left them on the cookie sheet after they were done cooking which didnt help! My dough was also pretty sticky- not stiff like yours. I used my scale to measure, but I dont know if it is our altitude (Utah), the wet, rainy day or the flour I used …. I will definitely be trying these again though. I was almost there! 😀 Thanks!
Hi Barbi – yes, actually, leaving the bagels in the water for too long could make a difference (or not long enough). I think if they seemed overly doughy to you it might have been a combination of all the factors – rain and temperature and altitude can make a huge difference in baked goods. Even with the measurements (good for you for using a scale!) being at a high altitude, you may need to throw in a couple extra tablespoonfuls of flour to your baked goods.
Hi Melanie,
I am on round 2 of these bagels. I screwed up round 1 before the boiling phase so I am trying them again today!! 2 questions. Is it ok to put the dough to rise in a very slightly preheated oven? that is usually where I put my yeast breads to rise but maybe that isn’t the right place. our house is usually a little on the chilly side so I always worry the breads wont rise properly in a place that isn’t a little warm. second, at what point could I add in raisins, mini chocolate chips or cinnamon INTO the bagel. I would love to have bagels that have these ingredients IN them instead of just on top of them…thoughts??
thanks!
Melanie
Melanie – I never use a slightly preheated oven to rise my dough(s) because I have had bad luck with it – the dough gets a weird crust on it and it is never as fast as I want it to be. If it makes any difference, my house is always chilly, too – between 64 and 66 degrees and my dough rises just fine on the counter. Sometimes it takes longer than the suggested time but it always rises just fine. I’m not saying to not use the preheated oven, I just don’t have any really good advice for you on that point. If you want to add cinnamon or another dry ingredient like that, add it in with the other dry ingredients (flour, etc.). For raisins or chocolate chips, knead them in at the very end by hand after the dough has been kneaded most of the way already. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I made these the other day and they turned out so yummy! We gobbled them up and I wished I had made a double batch like you suggested. I will definitely be making these again. Thank you for all your delicious recipes!
I made these this morning (as well as the refrigerator bran muffins…also yummy) and couldn’t believe how easy, fun and delcious they were! I made some into sunflower bagels and some into poppy seed but I just saw that someone else did cinnamon and sugar and I want to make another batch just to try those! I can’t see why I would ever buy bagels from the grocery store again! These were just fantastic! Thanks for the amazing step by step instructions!
I have a bit of a yeast bread dough…”disability” but I tried this recipe. I followed your instructions step by step. (pics are a great help) and, I DID IT! they turned out amazing! seriously. amazing. thanks so much for helping a girl out 😉
how’s that stink-free kiddo endeavor going? 🙂
i’ve never made bagels and to tell you the truth, i had no idea how they were made. thanks for the schoolin’. 🙂
You just make this look too easy 🙂 Now I have to try making them. I am not toatlly dough comfortable yet…
Melanie,
Consider mission #2 completed. Yesturday I was at Costco and was tempted to buy the Pillsbury crescent rolls that come in can because they were on sale but I remembered that yummy recipe of butter crescent rolls you recently posted and decided to make those instead. I filled them with chicken and kind of made chicken bakes out of them. They were so delicious, my whole family devoured them-and the remaining rolls. Thanks for all the great recipes and tips!
I did it. I made them. They were much better than I thought they were going to be. Slather on some cream cheese (even better yet, cream cheese AND Nutella) while warm, and they were delightful. I always thought bagels were beyond my abilities. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
They should make a doctorate program for chefs. Then you would have the title of Dr. Melanie, because you have conquered your field of specialty!!
Hi Mel – Thanks for the wonderful tutorial for the bagels. I’ve made them once before, with another recipe, and they tasted ok but weren’t as pretty as yours. I have a question, I’m in the middle of making these and the dough tastes really salty. Could the amount of salt be a tad bit off or does it get milder after the dough is cooked? I’ve tried many of your recipes and I have never been disappointed!!
Angie – to be honest, I’ve never tasted the unbaked yeast dough while making these so I don’t know if it is on the salty side. The baked bagels, in my opinion, aren’t overly salty – so I hope yours mellow while baking. Let me know how they turn out!
I made these today….they are amazing!!! I made 2 plain, 2 with cheddar, 2 with poppy seed, and 2 with tastefully simple garlic garlic and parmesan cheese (this flavor was our favorite..it tasted like an everything bagel…only better).
Thanks for sharing!
The bagels turned out amazing! Thanks for helping me over come my intimidation of bagels made from scratch. I see many years of bagel making from home in my future. I also can’t wait to see what other great bread recipes you will be sharing with us. Another one I have marked to try out is the Naan bread.
Thanks for sharing your recipe. I can’t wait to try your recipe. I love making bagels, but I haven’t done it in quite a while. Mine usually turn out well, but there are usually one or two that go rogue and end up deflating either right before or during baking. Any suggestions?
Wendy – I’m not exactly sure why that would be happening, to be honest. Perhaps it could be the bagel that ends up in the boiling water too long while the others are removed? I’m not sure!
What do you mean by gluten? Can you just buy gluten at the regular grocery store because I do not carry bread flour either. Love your site. Keep baking bread!
Hi Aimee – vital wheat gluten is sold in most average grocery stores (I’ve seen it everywhere from Walmart to our larger grocery stores) and is usually located near the other flours. I buy mine online at King Arthur Flour. Let me know if you have other questions!
Melanie – have you ever made mini bagels? I’m just wondering what the boiling time and baking time would be? Thanks!
Hi Stacy – I’ve never made mini bagels but love the idea. I’d probably cut the boiling time down to a minute each side and then watch the baking time – depending on the size, you may need to only bake for 10-ish minutes. Let me know if you try them out!
I am in the process of making these bagels 🙂 Here’s hoping I have success. I’ll let you know. Thanks for the step by step photos and all the amazing recipes you share. I haven’t had a recipe that wasn’t a success from your blog yet.
I’ve been wanting to make bagels for a while now! These look delicious, great tutorial.
I have always wanted to try bagels. I’ve been venturing into bread making a little more this year, so I’m sure the tutorial will be helpful! Thanks!
Those look so good! I love Asiago cheese bagels. I also like adding garlic to my asiago cheese bagels.
We love making homemade bagels! I made sweet potato ones this fall and those were amazing 🙂 But, I think blueberry or cinnamon raisin are on the top of our favorites list. These look wonderful — thanks for your tips.
I couldn’t wait even one more day, had to make these today and they are awesome! I love the crunchy outside and soft chewy inside. My kids are major fans of bagels so I have lots of happy kids right now. They love bagels so much that they decided they wanted these bagels for our FHE treat instead of the usual sugary treat.
I can’t wait to try these! The complete lack of good bagels might be the hardest thing about moving to TX from NJ. I so miss NYC bagels! I’m sure you’re doing an awesome job with your first goal, but non-smelly boys might be tough if you plan on letting them outdoors. My stepsons are 10 and 12, and I think they could win gold at the Olympics if “icky” was a sport! Good luck, though! I’m rooting for you. 🙂
I couldn’t wait another minute to try these so the bagels are in the oven as we speak….with cinnamon and sugar on top! Thanks for sharing!!!!
I have always been intimidated to make home-made bagels, until today! Your step-by-step tutorial is the best I have ever seen, Melanie! You are amazing! 🙂
We love bagels! I have been dying to make them from scratch for quite sometime but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I think that it is about time I change that! Thanks for the recipe and step-by-step photos!
this is so helpful! thank you! now ill have bagels to go with the cream cheese in my fridge!
This made my day! I have been looking for a bagel recipe and HERE IT IS! My only problem now is that yeast and I don’t get along at all… yet, but I’ll keep trying. I bet if I had a cool contraption like your handy dandy Bosch mixer it would like me better. Sadly, I don’t. Just my hands and they don’t work well with yeast. 🙁
I wonder if this recipe would do well with ALL whole wheat pastry flour, do you think?
AWESOME! as soon as hubby and i get through the low carbs phase of p90x, you can bet ill be making these! thanks for the tutorial.
Mel, these bagels look amazing and you make the process look so simple! Great photo tutorial, too. This will definitely come in handy for when I eventually get over my fear to try homemade bagels. Thanks for sharing and inspiring me with something new!
How long do these last without freezing? I can’t wait to make some but don’t want any going bad on me! Thanks!
Coralie – we eat these for about 2-3 days (by day 3 they taste best toasted).
Melanie,
What do you mean by “instant yeast”….I have looked for it in the grocery store and can’t find it. Does it go by a different name? This is different than active dry yeast right?
thanks,
melanie (jolyn B’s friend)
Melanie – instant yeast is also called rapid rise yeast. I know at Sam’s Club they carry the Fleischmann’s brand of instant yeast and the grocery stores in my area (which I assume are similar to your neck of the woods) have instant yeast in the little packets and in jars. Looking for “rapid rise” may help your search. Hope that helps a little!
When I pulled your website up, I was so excited to see your new bagel post! I’m trying to cut costs wherever possible, and have been slowly starting to make more bread items. Your step by step instructions make the process so much easier! Thank you!
This recipe is everything!!! We also loved the step-by-step instructions!
Have you ever made cinnamon raisin or blueberry bagels? Those are the faves around here. I imagine it would be relatively simple to add raisins or dried blueberries, but if anyone has measurements I’d love to hear them.
Rachel – I’ve never made either version so I don’t have any really great advice. I think with both you would probably want to knead in the raisins/fruit at the very end – and possibly add cinnamon with the other dry ingredients? Hmmm…just thoughts. Sorry!
Those look so good.
You never cease to amaze me! I just want one of YOUR bagels right now because I’m too tired to do anything at the moment. Maybe later this week though. Thank you, Mel! Your two goals in life are awesome. I know you’re doing a fine job on the second one, and am certain that you’re most likely nailing the first goal with just as much success.
I love bagels and have thought about trying to figure out how to make them at home – you really made it seem “easy” with the pictures and I appreciate that! I’m adding this to my “things to make” list – not sure when I’ll get to it but I will try it.
You made that look way too easy…and yummy!
This will be so fun to try! Thanks for the step by step instructions.