Today I’m welcoming Maria from Ten At The Table as she shares her homemade bagel recipe.
Homemade bagels are one of my favorite fall breakfasts and snacks.
They are absolutely delicious, and keep you full til lunch, which I like because it means that certain little kids wont be asking for more food an hour after breakfast. 🙂
Making bagels does take a bit more time and effort than buying them at the store, but they are also so much more flavorful and satisfying. All the work is worth it!
Plan to knead the dough for a good ten minutes to get the unique bagel texture we all know and love. (I recommend recruiting family members to take turns kneading). Then when those yummy smelling bagels finally come out of the oven, cut them open and slather them in fresh butter or homemade cream cheese.
Homemade Bagels Recipe
Yield: 8 bagels
Dough:
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or flour of your choice–I like this one)
- 2 teaspoons salt (I like and use this one)
- 1 tablespoon sucanat (where to buy–I like this brand) or brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
Water Bath:
- 2 quarts water
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon unbleached pure cane sugar
Instructions:
Combine all the dough ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead vigorously by hand for 10 minutes. (You can also use a stand mixer.)
The dough will be stiff. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel. Let rest for 1 1/2 hours. This is more to relax the gluten, than to let it rise. It will rise some, but not as much as other yeast doughs.
Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth, round ball. Cover with a dish towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
The more circular the balls are, the easier it will be to get a circular bagel. If you don’t mind irregular shaped bagels then you don’t have to worry about the balls being perfectly circular.
While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water and brown sugar to a very gentle boil in a wide pan. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Use your pointer finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it is about 2 inches in diameter (the entire bagel will be about 4″ across). Remember– they will puff up considerably once you boil them. Place the bagel on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
This video will show you how to shape them:
Transfer the bagels 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, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, or the end of a wooden spoon, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
Bake the bagels for about 20-25 minutes, or until they’re browned to your preference. To top with seeds, remove them from the oven after about 15 minutes, brush with water, and sprinkle with seeds. Return to the oven to finish baking.
Cool the bagels on a rack for a few minutes, and serve while warm, with butter or homemade cream cheese.
Homemade Bagels Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours 45 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Bread
Ingredients
- Dough:
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or flour of your choice–I like this one)
- 2 teaspoons salt (I use this one)
- 1 tablespoon sucanat (Like this–I like this brand) or brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- Water Bath:
- 2 quarts water
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon unbleached pure cane sugar
Instructions
- Combine all the dough ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead vigorously by hand for 10 minutes. (You can also use a stand mixer.)
- The dough will be stiff. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel. Let rest for 1 1/2 hours. This is more to relax the gluten, than to let it rise. It will rise some, but not as much as other yeast doughs.
- Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth, round ball. Cover with a dish towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
- The more circular the balls are, the easier it will be to get a circular bagel. If you don’t mind irregular shaped bagels then you don’t have to worry about the balls being perfectly circular.
- While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water and brown sugar to a very gentle boil in a wide pan. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- Use your pointer finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it is about 2 inches in diameter (the entire bagel will be about 4″ across). Remember– they will puff up considerably once you boil them. Place the bagel on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
- Transfer the bagels 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, and cook 1 minute more. Using a skimmer or strainer, or the end of a wooden spoon, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.
- Bake the bagels for about 20-25 minutes, or until they’re browned to your preference. To top with seeds, remove them from the oven after about 15 minutes, brush with water, and sprinkle with seeds. Return to the oven to finish baking.
- Cool the bagels on a rack for a few minutes, and serve while warm, with butter or homemade cream cheese.
Maria Alison is family-focused Christian, who’s finding new ways to feed her family quality home-cooked food on a budget. She understands how difficult it can be to prepare a meal from scratch with such a busy schedule. On Maria’s blog, Ten at the Table, you will find time saving recipes that are friendly to your budget and your health.
Ok, that needs to be pinned. 🙂 I love bagels. Once the goats kid in the spring and we have milk to make cream cheese, I am so making bagels and cream cheese!
Pin away! And homemade goat cream cheese….. YUM.
This recipe worked so well for me! I have tried making bagels before and they always come out very dense or fall flat once I go to boil them but these are perfect! So glad to have found a recipe that uses all purpose flour and turns out great! Topped with poppyseeds and seseme seeds this time but looking forward to different variations in the future!
Finding a good bagel recipe was on my to-do list this week – perfect, and I had no idea bagels were boiled in water – wow! Thanks for sharing this recipe, I intend to give it a whirl!
Yes! The boiling definitely gives them that signature texture.
What do you do with the water bath after you’re done? Can it be saved, frozen to use again?
If they’re not “kettled” they’re just rolls with a hole.
In the oven now… oh how my daughter loved making the holes! Can’t wait to bite into them. And vegan to boot!
FUN! Enjoy! 🙂
Fantastic- I love to get a prompt to do something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while. Thank you!! I remember once trying to make cinnamon raisin bagels with my mom as a kid, they didn’t look very pretty, but so delicious and rewarding. I’ll be trying to do veggie bagels, those were my absolute favorite! Think I could use the dried veg medley from Frontier as my veggie flakes?
Oooh, veggie bagels sound great! I don’t see why the flakes wouldn’t work!
Yum! Have you tried to add things like raisins and cinnamon?
You definitely could– yum!
This sounds awesome! I’m going to try it with the kiddos 🙂 Does anyone know if you can make the dough earlier and throw it in the fridge overnight to bake in the morning? Or will it give it a weird texture? Looking forward to trying it!
We tried your recipe it was great we have a blog ourselves trying to learn more about bloging and homesteading. We use your site alot if we want to try something new your blog is in our top 5 sites to look. Here is our post about our attempt at the bagle recipe from your site. https://thebibleandthebarn.wordpress.com let is know what you think. Thanks
There is no way we could eat this many bagels all at once. I was wondering if they do well bagged and stored in frig or on counter-top?
I suggest using a FoodSaver-type device and freezing them. As long as no moisture crystals can form inside they should keep for a while!
Grain-free or at least wheat-free version?
Would Almond flour or TigerNut flour or combination of rice flours work?
I was wondering the same thing; subbing Almond flour, Coconut flour, or Paleo flour mix. After all, the recipe does say “or flour of your choice”.
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or flour of your choice)
???
I have made bagels (not this exact recipe, but still bagels) with spelt flour. They turned out fine. Maybe a bit more chewy/dense because it was whole grain spelt. I’m not sure how gluten free flours would work, but non-wheat grains that still have gluten should work well.
Hi! Have you tried using organic whole wheat flour with this recipe? Would I need to add some gluten?
I made this over one of our snow days last week. I made them exactly as the recipe indicated, using the brown sugar. They were fun to make-not hard at all-and were delicious! I will be making these from now on!
Traditional bagels were made with water used to boil potatoes, and the remaining potato starch gave that extra chewiness to the bagel. Nowadays the factory made bagels use malt to get the chewy texture.
I have made this recipe many times now and it’s absolutely amazing. I followed each step and they always come out great.
Mariazl, I appreciate your contribution with this awesome recipe. Thank you!
God bless you
Yay! We’re so glad you love this recipe! 🙂
I have not made bagels prior to today and your recipe made it simple to make. I love it. Thank you!
Yay!! Good for you. We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe and found it easy to follow! 🙂
Could I use dry active yeast with this? Does anyone know? I don’t have the yeast this recipe calls for and all the stores locally are sold out.
These turned out amazingly! Really easy and fun to make. I’m not a great baker and these were still perfect!
Can I make this with sourdough starter instead of instant yeast? And how?
Yeah you could! Just sub your starter for the yeast (probably between 1/2 C. and a full cup of starter), and decrease the liquid a bit.
Made these today! They were great, but I had one issue. I probably baked them for closer to 17-18 minutes and the tops were a little on the crunchy/hard side but they didn’t appear burned, rather they looked nicely golden. Should I bake them at a lower temperature or for less time? Thanks for the recipe!
Why adding the brown sugar to the dough mix? My mom was allergic to sugars, and she ate bagels from the Detroit Bagel Factory every Sunday. And boiling in a water bath with sugar added? Really – sorry, I think I’ll try the good old Jewish Cookbook for my versions. Thanks any how – BTW – the Bagel Factory had ovens that flipped the bagels halfway around the bake cycle, so they’d be browned top and bottom.
I can’t wait to make and eat some. Yum