This easy homemade bagel recipe is delicious! Top these chewy bagels with your favourite topping. This fun recipe makes a dozen of your favourite bagels.

A variety of homemade bagels with sesame seeds, everything bagel seasoning, shredded cheese and cinnamon raisin sitting on a wire cooling rack.

Our latest obsession

I tend to go on kicks and I can feel a bread-making kick coming on! As soon as the weather starts to turn a bit cooler, bread recipes start to drift through my mind at great speed.

Our boys have just returned to school and they have been delighted to walk in the door to the smell of homemade bagels warm from the oven. I mean, who wouldn't love that right? 🙂 A bagel with cream cheese is delicious for lunch or a snack!

Although the dough takes a bit of time to rise and they are a bit more tedious than the average baking project, they are super-easy to make!! Don't you love how you can mix and match the flavours and its feels like you've made ten recipes in one!!

In the competition of which bagel is best, the cheese ones definitely win for the boys. They are pretty darned delicious.

Cheese bagels sitting on a wire cooling rack.

The Cinnamon Raisin Bagels have whole wheat flour in the ingredients and I've listed that variation in the notes on the recipe card. They are to-die-for - at least, they're my favourite at the moment 🙂 Dipped in a little bit of honey when they are warm from the oven - just too good!!

A wire basket with several cinnamon-raisin bagels placed into the basket. To the right of the basket are a few cinnamon sticks sitting on wooden board and a white glass bowl with honey and a wooden honey spoon.

Routines

Is everyone settling into a back-to-school routine? Our boys are loving their new high school and although we have apprehensions about their health and safety, they are wonderful boys who follow the rules and think about others.

After working for so many years, it has been a joy to be home with them in the morning as they get ready to leave for school - and to be here when they come home from school. I do not miss the six-day grind one little bit!

I am getting into a routine with blogging and I must say that I LOVE it. There is SO MUCH to learn (like what I thought times one hundred) and I can easily fill my day from morning until night! With literally hundreds of recipes ready to go I think I will be busy for awhile :).

Tips for making Homemade Bagels

This recipe calls for Active Dry Yeast and should not be substituted with the Quick Rise Yeast as you will have different results. I tested it and wasn't as happy with the results.

A blue mixing bowl with yeast and water sitting in the bottom.

When you're kneading the dough, you can add up to half a cup of additional flour. The recipes calls from 3 cups but you may use up to 3 and ½ cups. You want a soft but not sticky dough like the photo below.

Set the dough to rise in a bowl that is twice the size of the dough as it will be doubling in size!

Homemade Bagel dough sitting in a beige coloured mixing bowl. The dough is ready to sit for an hour and half rising time.

I just had to share the photo below of this cute bowl cover for bread-making that I found at The Broken Kettle here in town. 🙂

A beige and red striped tea towel is sitting beside a bowl that is covered in a piece of cloth with the words "Rise to the Occasion" printed on the cloth.

Dividing the dough and shaping the bagels

Don't worry about perfection when making bagels! Try to cut the dough into 12 similar sized pieces. The beauty of bagels is that they look and taste terrific when they are odd-shaped.

Twelve pieces of bagel dough cut and ready to be shaped into bagels are sitting on a red silicone baking mat.

I have given instructions to roll out the pieces into ropes and then join the ends together. You have to pinch the ends together very tightly or they will come apart when you drop them into the boiling poaching liquid!

You can also shape then in a ball, poke a hole in the middle and shape them by hand. I use both methods and either will work.

I think the rope method is easiest if you are new to baking. 🙂

Bagel Toppings

Everything Bagel Seasoning

You can usually find this in the herbs and spices section in the grocery store but it is so easy to make from scratch!! Here's how:

In a small bowl combine:

1 tbsp dried minced garlic

1 tbsp. dried minced onion

2 tbsp. poppy seeds

2 tbsp. sesame seeds

½ tsp. coarsely ground sea salt

Mix well. You can play around with the amounts and you can also add black sesame seeds although they were sold out when I went to the store so I just left them out.

If you like bread recipes then you might also like this recipe:

Cheddar & Herb Soda Bread

Homemade Bagel Recipe

Author: Sandra
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Yield: 12 1x

Print Recipe

Description

This easy homemade bagel recipe is delicious! Top these chewy bagels with your favourite topping. This fun recipe makes a dozen of your favourite bagels.

Ingredients

Scale

DISSOLVE YEAST

1 tsp. granulated sugar

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp. active dry yeast

DOUGH

2 large eggs

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

3 and ½ cups bread flour

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 and tsp. salt

POACHING LIQUID

16 cups water

1 and ½ tbsp. granulated sugar

EGG WASH

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp. water

TOPPINGS

½ cup of sesame seeds, poppyseeds or everything bagel seasoning

Instructions

TO DISSOLVE YEAST

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve 1 tsp. of sugar in warm water. Water temperature should be between 110F and 115F.

2. Sprinkle yeast over top of water mixture and let stand for 10 minutes. (Yeast should be frothy - if not, wait another two to three minutes).

3. Whisk in eggs and vegetable oil.

4. Add in sugar and salt.

5. Gradually stir in 2 cups of the flour and continue to stir until dough is smooth. Gradually add another cup of the flour and continue to mix. The dough should be soft but not sticky.

6. Turn out the dough onto a very lightly floured surface. If the dough is a little sticky when you are kneading it, you can work up to ½ cup of additional flour into the dough but not more than that as it will upset the balance.

7. Knead dough for 10 minutes. To knead dough, place dough in front of you and fold the back half of the dough towards you. Use heel of your hand to press dough down into itself. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat. (Turn, knead, turn, knead). When kneading is completed, the dough should spring back when you poke it with your finger.

8. Using a different large mixing bowl, coat the bowl lightly with olive oil.

9. Place dough in bowl and turn dough through the oil once to grease.

10. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size for 1 to 1 and ½ hours.

11. Punch down the dough and knead 10 times.

12. Divide dough into 12 equal portions.

13. In a large, wide saucepan, bring 16 cups of water and the 2 tbsp. of sugar to a boil. (you will be shaping the bagels while the water is coming to a boil).

14. Roll into a 10-inch long rope. Bring the end together to form a circle, overlapping, then pinch the edges to seal the dough.(Pinch the edges tightly)! Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise for 15 minutes.

14. Gently add the bagels to the boiling water four at a time. Cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Turn over with slotted spoon and cook for 1 minute more. Move bagels to a baking sheet that is freshly-lined with parchment paper. Continue with the remaining bagels until all 12 have been completed.

EGG WASH AND TOPPINGS

15. Beat one egg with 1 tsp. water in a small bowl.

16. Using small bowls at least the width of your bagels, place whichever toppings you are going to use for your bagels. I like a variety of sesame seeds, everything bagel seasoning, poppyseeds. For cheese bagels, brush the bagel tops with eggs, then place the bagels on parchment paper-lined baking sheet and sprinkle the cheese on top. If you do not have parchment paper, you can grease and lightly flour the baking sheets.

17. For all other toppings, brush beaten egg over the bagels, then dip each bagel top (the side covered with egg) into the topping of your choice and return to baking sheet.

18. Bake in 400F for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden.

19. Transfer to cooling racks.

Store bagels in a plastic storage container or plastic zip top bag for a few days.

Bagels can be frozen in plastic zip top bags for up to three months.

Notes

VARIATIONS:

WHOLE WHEAT CINNAMON RAISIN BAGELS

Use 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 2 and ½ cups of bread flour

Increase sugar from 2 tbsp. to ¼ cup granulated sugar for the dough

Add 2 and ½ tsp. cinnamon to the flour mixture

After the dough has risen, punch down and gently knead in 1 cup raisins

CHEESE BAGELS

Shred 1 to 1 and ½ cups of shredded cheese (old cheddar, asiago, Monterey Jack with jalapeño) and sprinkle on bagels before baking.

EVERYTHING BAGEL SEASONING

In a mixing bowl combine: