Homemade Bagels

Homemade Bagels

These home-baked bagels are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and great with cream cheese or butter!

8-12 bagels

1 1/2 cups warm water (112-115 degrees F)
2 tablespoons dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt 
4 1/4 cups bread flour
8 cups of water, for boiling
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water

Additionally, you can add one of the following (or be creative and come up with your own delicious addition to the recipe!):

cinnamon and/or raisins
poppy seeds
onions or garlic
sesame seeds

1. In a small bowl, mix yeast, sugar and warm water together and let stand 3 minutes.

2. Mix 2 cups of flour with the salt in a large bowl; then add the yeast mixture. Stir until combined and slowly mix in the rest of the flour.

3. Knead dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary. Dough should be fairly smooth and somewhat firm. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double.

4. Punch dough down (if making cinnamon raisin bagels, add the cinnamon and raisins now -- knead just enough to swirl the cinnamon through the dough). Divide and shape into 12 balls. (For larger bagels, make only 8 balls.) Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

5. Bring 2 quarts of water to boil. Make a hole in each ball of dough and pull open about 2 inches, making a bagel shape. Place the shaped dough onto a cookie sheet and cover for 10 minutes.

The shaped dough

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop 2 or 3 bagels at a time into the boiling water for about 45 seconds, turning each once.

Boiling the bagels...

7. Drain cooked bagels on a wire rack. Mix egg white and water; brush tops with egg white mixture and top with optional toppings, if using. Place bagels on greased baking sheets.

brushing the bagels with egg, after they've drained

Bagels are placed on baking sheets

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, turning once half-way through baking. (If making plain bagels, you can flip the bagels; otherwise, just rotate.) Bagels will be lightly browned and shiny.

Naking the bagels...

Homemade Bagels

Finished bagels!

This recipe and photos were submitted by guest chef Bethany Kerr.

She writes, "I love this recipe because the bagels taste so much better fresh than they do bought from the store...the kids and hubby adore them!  They really are not that difficult or time consuming to make either. :)"

Original recipe from recipezaar.com. Recipe has been edited by tammysrecipes.com. The photos are property of Bethany Kerr and tammysrecipes.com. :)

Onion poppyseed bagels

Note from Tammy: We made these onion poppyseed bagels by mixing minced onion with the egg white before brushing it on the bagels. Then we sprinkled poppy seeds on top and baked them! Yum! :)

30 minutes + 60 minutes rising time
35 minutes

Average vote based on 20 reviews.
9.5
out of 10
User Reviews
10
out of 10
Yum
I just ate one that came fresh out of the oven and it was delicious. I just need to work on making them all the same size and thickness.


10
out of 10
Yummy!
I made these a few weeks ago and the instructions and pictures were very easy to follow and didn't take a lot of time either. Unless you want your bagels to be smaller, I would only make 8 out of a single recipe. I made 10 and they ended up being more on the smaller/flatter side than I had hoped for. But I would definitely make them again! Thank you for the recipe!


9
out of 10
Very Good!
I tried these last night and my kids loved them... So I am making another batch today. Thanks for the recipe!


8
out of 10
Simple to make!
These bagels are simple to make. I just have to remember not to flatten them! They are delicious and the children all exclaimed yummy as they ate them. :)


8
out of 10
A great recipe.
Nice to find a workable home recipe for bagels. My husband has made them twice and they are really good. The only thing I've noticed is his are a bit flatter than the ones you've pictured. We use bread machine yeast (from a jar) and he kneads adequately, so I'm not sure why this occurs. But we still eat them, and they are wonderful.


5
out of 10
oh dear, I'll be the odd one out here...
...I really wasn't very impressed with these. I tried them a couple times and we ate them both times but the texture and taste just didn't seem like how I remembered bagels tasting. Mind you, I can't buy bagels where I live now so maybe I've just lost my taste...


10
out of 10
love these
My daughter loves bagels but I never buy them. Just too expensive for my food budget. Now she can have them anytime she wants them. They are delicious and so great to pull out of the freezer for breakfast when you have overnight guests. Will be writing this one in my recipe book!


10
out of 10
Wow
These are so delicious and so easy and inexpensive to make. We have spent a lot of money on good bagels from a local bagel shop for years. I'm so happy that I can make my own now and they're just as good as the bagel shop and much, much better than the ones from the grocery store.


10
out of 10
10!
I made this recipe last night and it will be certainly added to my favourite recipes. I always thought making bagels was more time consuming but was surprised how quick the whole process went. I made half plain and half sesame. I don't know if it'd work for all the seasonings, but, I turned the sesame ones upside down half way through and the topping stayed on them fine. Next batch I might try adding chocolate chips. That doesn't sound healthy but the Great Canadian Bagel used to make them and they were good. :)


10
out of 10
Wow!
We really enjoyed these. They were way better than store-bought, and quite easy to make. They were perfect for sandwhiches and great toasted for breakfast. Next I want to try adding dried blueberries for blueberry bagels (my favorite! :D)


10
out of 10
Delicious
I made these yesterday and we have already eaten half the batch! I made half sesame seeds and half cinnamon and raisin. It's such a great recipe for us, as we love bagels and can't buy them over here. They seem to be a little hard though, I wonder if you have any idea why that happened?


10
out of 10
Changed the flavor
This bagel recipe is excellent! I love tomato basil bagels but haven't been able to find them in stores for over a year so I modified this a bit. I used part fresh ground w.w. flour and added pizza sauce, basil and oregano after combining the yeast mix and 2 c. flour. The children are oohing and ahhing over them!


10
out of 10
My first time ever
baking bread was when I made these bagels a couple weeks ago. We love them. I've made 3 batches of them already. Thanks so much!


10
out of 10
Yummy
I made these this morning. I did cheat a little, I used my bread machine to make the dough. I also used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and made mini bagels. It really was a lot easier than I thought it would be.


10
out of 10
Delicious!
This is a great recipe - very easy to make with delicious results! :) I, too, used a little cornmeal on my cookie sheet to prevent sticking - works great! I made cinnamon raisin bagels - I kind of made it up as I went, but you can see the results on my blog. I would definitely make these again - and I'm thinking of trying other types. If I do, I'll blog about it and send you the link, Tammy! :) These made my day. Thanks for sharing!


10
out of 10
"Turning" - over or just rotating?
Tammy, in the directions do you mean to turn the bagels OVER halfway through the baking, or just rotate them for more even cooking? at first I assumed turning them over, but I put toppings on, and it seems like the toppings would get gnarly from being flipped. Help, I just put them in the oven and have 14 minutes 43 seconds to decide!!!!


10
out of 10
Very easy!
These turned out really well and were oh-so-easy! I used my breadmaker to knead the dough and then let it rise and followed the instructions after that. They turned out perfectly. Definitely a keeper recipe!


10
out of 10
Much easier than I thought!
I used our breadmaker for the dough, so these were super easy and very good! I did shape each ball into a thick rope, then join the ends of the rope to form a circle -- instead of just making a hole in the ball. They looked smoother, and it didn't really take much more time. I also sprinkled the baking sheet with cornmeal for a nice crunch on the bottom. What a wonderful recipe!


10
out of 10
Easy homemade bagels... yum!!
These bagels are delicious, easy to make, and fun to eat!! We're definitely making these again. Wait, we already made them twice! They're very very good!!


10
out of 10
I love making bread!
These turned out great! I have never made bagels before but this made it look super easy, why not give it a shot? I made them with home ground wheat berries and added a tablespoon of dough enhancer. They taste delish! I can see making these more often now that I am not so scared of the process. It really was very easy and didn't take any more time than regular bread really. If you are like me and have been leary I would suggest trying these...they were so easy Shorty