How to make Bagel at home? (Easy to make, Delicious, Chewy)

• Food: Bagel
• Writer: Nicolas Wilson
• Content-Type: Food Blog

My mouth is watering just thinking about this homemade bagel recipe. It’s quite simple to make, and it always results in excellent, chewy bagels.

Jack’s new favorite item to bake is this homemade bagel recipe, and I couldn’t be happier! He’s been baking like crazy recently, turning out crusty sourdough loaves packed with dried fruit, nuts, or roasted garlic, just like many of you.

I adore everything about it, but I get giddy every time he starts a new batch of bagels.

Although these are homemade, they have all of the key characteristics of a good bagel: a shining appearance, a little sweet and salty flavor, and the perfect chewy bite.

We coat them in crispy, garlicky Everything Seasoning to take them to the next level. Just thinking about it makes my mouth swim!

Give this bagel recipe a try if you’re looking for a fun weekend endeavor. It’s very simple to create and only requires a few basic ingredients. It’s also a terrific recipe to cook with someone you care about because you can shape the bagels together and boil them while the other loads on the bagel topping.

Then, if you’re like Jack and me, you’ll watch them bake through the oven window, anticipating the warm, puffy homemade bagels straight from the oven.

Ingredients for a Bagel Recipe

There are three stages to this bagel recipe: the dough, the poaching liquid, and the bagel topping. What you’ll need for each one is as follows:

The Crust

• Bread flour – Bread flour adds a chewy texture to these homemade bagels because of their high protein content. This recipe also works with all-purpose flour; however, the bagels will be slightly less chewy than those made using bread flour.
• Maple syrup — It stimulates the yeast and adds a sense of sweetness to the bagels.
• Warm water — This, together with the maple syrup, activates the yeast and helps the dough come together.
• They couldn’t rise without active dry yeast!
• Sea salt is essential for making very tasty handmade bagels.

The Poaching Liquid

Did you know that bagels must be boiled before being baked? It gives them their chewy, glistening finish and prevents them from blowing up too much in the oven and losing their holes.

I give them a light golden brown color, a crave-worthy chewy exterior, and a wonderful shining finish by boiling them in a mixture of maple syrup, baking soda, salt, and water.

What about the garnishes?

Everyone has a favorite bagel topping, and Jack and I are firmly in the Everything camp. Our bagels are topped with a handmade Everything Bagel Seasoning, but you can top them with whatever you want! They’re delicious simply or topped with sesame or poppy seeds.

The toppings can be attached in two ways: with or without an egg wash. I think the egg wash provides a nice crunch to the topping and helps it stick to the baked bagels better.

However, the boiling bagels can also be dipped directly into the topping. This bagel recipe is vegan because it does not use an egg wash.

Bagels: A Quick Guide

Are you interested in learning how to make bagels? Check out this step-by-step instruction first, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page for the full recipe!

Make the dough first. Mix the yeast with warm water and maple syrup to activate it.

When it foams up, pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix it with the flour and salt for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and not sticky.

Then, on a clean work area, knead the dough by hand for 2 to 3 minutes. Make a ball out of it and set it in a large bowl. Cover the bowl and leave it aside for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the dough has approximately doubled in size.

Now comes the most enjoyable part: shaping the bagels! Divide the dough into 8 pieces and place it on an unfloured work surface. Make a ball out of each piece.

Apply a few drops of water to the work area and roll each dough ball into a 9-inch-long rope.

Place one hand palm up on top of the rope so that your four fingers are centered. Fold each edge of the dough across your fingers approximately 2 inches so that the ends overlap.

To bind the two ends together, turn the dough over in your hand and roll it on the tabletop.

Place the finished bagels on two baking pans coated with parchment paper, cover them with plastic wrap, and chill overnight.

Boil and bake the next morning! While you preheat the oven and bring the poaching liquid to a boil, remove the dough from the fridge and let it remain at room temperature for 1 hour.

Add the bagels to the boiling water in batches and cook for 1 minute on each side. Return them to the baking sheets, brush them with the bagel topping of your choice, and bake for 14 to 18 minutes, or until softly golden brown. Enjoy!

Bagel Recipe Suggestions

Prepare your flour by weighing it. Because this bagel recipe calls for a lot of flour, you should weigh it if at all possible. You’ll know exactly how much flour you’re using this way.

Cup measurements are less precise because they might change depending on several factors (your specific measuring cups, how tightly you pack your flour, etc.). I

f you don’t have a kitchen scale, read this post for my best recommendations on how to measure flour with measuring cups if you don’t have one.

Allow the dough to rise in a warm place. Warmth encourages yeast to grow, so place the dough somewhere warm for a faster rise. Ours looks great on a sunny windowsill!

Keep it covered. When you’re not dealing with the bagel dough, wrap it in plastic wrap to keep it wet and malleable. Cover the dough completely during the initial rise and overnight rise, as well as any dough you aren’t dealing with while shaping the bagels.

Boil the bagels until they float, but don’t overcook them. Place one of the bagels in a small dish of water to see if it floats before you start cooking them. If that’s the case, the bagels are ready to bake! If it doesn’t, continue to proof the bagel dough for another 30 minutes, or until one floats.

This test guarantees that the dough is airy; if you cook your homemade bagels too soon, they will be dense.

Serving Ideas for Homemade Bagel

These homemade bagels make a delicious weekend brunch when topped with my vegan carrot lox (or traditional lox), cream cheese, and standard fixings like cucumbers, capers, and dill.

For a quick breakfast or lunch, I like to toast one. Then I put cream cheese, mashed avocado, hummus, or baba ganoush on top, or I create a sandwich out of it.

With my egg salad, vegan egg salad, and chickpea salad sandwich fillings, I’ve been loving these handmade bagels lately.

Keep the homemade bagels at room temperature for up to 3 days in an airtight container. Freeze them for up to 2 months for longer storage.

Bagels

Time to Prepare: 1 hr 30 minutes to cook 8 servings

This handmade bagel recipe necessitates an overnight rest period, as well as 1 hour of proofing time in the morning. We prefer to create the dough the night before and then boil and bake the bagels the next morning.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or barley malt syrup
• 1 pkg. (¼-ounce) active dry yeast, (2¼ teaspoons)
• 1¼ cup warm water
• 540 grams of bread flour
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

For the poaching water

• 1½ tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ tablespoon salt

For the toppings

• 1 egg white plus 1 tablespoon water, optional
• Bagel Seasoning, for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Prepare the dough by combining the maple syrup, yeast, and water in a small basin and proofing for 5 minutes or until frothy.
2. Place the flour, salt, and yeast mixture in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. 5–7 minutes on medium-low speed, until the dough is well-formed around the hook. After 3 minutes, if the dough is still very dry, add 1 tablespoon of water. (Note: I don’t advocate preparing this dough without a stand mixer because it’s a hard dough that needs to be smoothed out.)
3. Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and knead it for 2 to 3 minutes, or until smooth and slightly sticky, then roll it into a ball and place it in a large mixing bowl. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in a warm place for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it has risen (it may double in size or slightly less).
4. Set aside 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper and lightly greased with oil. Divide the dough into eight pieces on a clean, flourless work surface. Roll each piece into a ball with a cupped hand on the countertop. Keep the dough you’re not working with wrapped in plastic wrap while you work with each piece through the next few steps.
5. Several drops of water should be splattered across the counter. Each dough ball should be rolled into a 9-inch long rope. Place one hand palm up on top of the rope so that your four fingers are centered. Fold each edge of the dough across your fingers approximately 2 inches so that the ends overlap. (See the image above). Turn your palm over and roll it on the tabletop to seal the two ends of the dough together.
6. Place each completed piece on a baking pan to cool. To protect the plastic wrap from adhering to the dough, lightly dust the tops with flour. Refrigerate overnight, covered in plastic wrap.
7. Remove the pans from the fridge the next morning and set them aside for 1 hour to come to room temperature.
8. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. To make sure one bagel floats, place it in a small bowl of water. If the dough sinks, let it rest for another 30 minutes or until it floats.
10. Prepare the poaching water by bringing two quarts of water, maple syrup, baking soda, and salt to a boil in a big pot.
11. Add 3 bagels to the saucepan (or as many as will fit comfortably) and reduce the heat if the water starts to boil over. 1 minute per side at a boil Return the bagels to the baking sheet and flip them over to expose the smooth side. Continue with the remaining bagels.
12. To make the toppings, follow these steps: If desired, whisk together the egg white and water in a small bowl. Brush the bagels with the egg wash and season with salt and pepper. You can also skip the egg wash and just dip the top of the bagel into the seasoning, but the egg wash helps the seasoning stick to the bagel better.
13. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, or until a light golden brown color is achieved.

Notes

•  For this recipe, I highly recommend weighing your flour because it calls for a large amount of flour, and measuring with measuring cups can frequently result in too much flour, resulting in dry dough. The cup conversion is 4 1/3 cups, but without precisely weighed flour, I can’t guarantee outcomes.
• Bagels produced using all-purpose flour (540 grams) are slightly less chewy than bagels made with bread flour.