A fully stocked bagel bar is as entertaining as it gets! Perfect for brunch, bridal or baby showers, or any time you want to wow your visitors with a colorful display of bagels and every sweet and savory topping you can think of.
It’s also really simple to put together!
A Complete Game-Changer for Your Party
So, a few years back, I put together one of these incredible fully-loaded bagel bars for my daughter’s 100-days birthday.
A 100-days party is a gathering where the new infant is officially introduced to the rest of the family 100 days after birth.
Because my daughter’s celebration was a brunch, we also had a mimosa bar and a yogurt parfait bar in addition to the bagel bar.
Everything looked great together, and it was a lot of fun — after all, who doesn’t enjoy a build-your-own-anything bar? Furthermore, it meant that I had to do very little actual cooking. Everybody wins!
What Makes This So Fantastic?
Food: Bagel Bar (Source: 40 Aprons)- A bagel bar is ideal for not only brunches, but also baby and bridal showers, Christmas mornings, potlucks, bachelorette parties, and any other occasion when you need to serve a large group and want to show off a little.
- This baby can be loaded with all of your favorite flavors and textures! On my bagel bar, I use a mix of sweet and savory ingredients, but you can go all-sweet or all-savory if you want.
My Top Bagel Combinations
As I previously stated, you can put almost anything you want on a bagel bar! There are countless toppings, spreads, and bagels that complement each other. These are only a few of my personal favorites.
- Apple slices + peanut butter + chocolate chunks
- caramelized pecans + chocolate-hazelnut spread + raspberries + crumbled goat cheese
- smoked salmon/lox + red onion slices + capers + plain cream cheese
- Hummus, turkey slices, avocado slices, and tomato slices
- sliced prosciutto + chopped walnuts + walnut & honey cream cheese
- Hard-boiled eggs + grainy mustard + chicken salad
- sliced strawberries + chopped chocolate + strawberry cream cheese
- Scallion cream cheese + prosciutto slices + arugula leaves
- Cream cheese with scallions, bacon, tomato slices, and chopped arugula
Chef’s Advice
- To make everything match, I bought a set of ramekins to use for the spreads. Highly recommended! They’re quite useful to have on hand, especially if you enjoy bagel bars and charcuterie boards, or simply entertaining in general.
- For easier spreading, serve the cream cheese at room temperature. At room temperature, the flavors are also a little more intense.
- In addition to regular-sized bagels, I prefer to offer small bagels and bagel thins when putting together a bagel bar. That way, consumers may experiment with different topping combinations without committing to a single large bagel.
Bagel Bar
| 30 minutes to prepare 0 minutes to cook 30 minutes total |
A fully stocked bagel bar is as entertaining as it gets! Perfect for brunch, bridal or baby showers, or any time you want to wow your visitors with a colorful display of bagels and every sweet and savory topping you can think of.
It’s also really simple to put together!
Ingredients
Suggested Spreads
- plain cream cheese see Notes for vegan
- scallion cream cheese
- walnut cream cheese
- strawberry cream cheese
- nutella see Notes for vegan
- jam or compote
- butter plain or flavored, regular or whipped
- peanut butter or almond butter
- honey
- grainy mustard
Suggested Sweet Toppings
- raspberries
- strawberries
- blueberries
- blackberries
- apples thinly sliced
- sliced almonds
- glazed pecans
- chopped walnuts
- chopped chocolate bars
- cinnamon
- brown sugar cinnamon
Suggested Savory Toppings
- capers
- red onions thinly sliced
- tomatoes thinly sliced
- cucumbers thinly sliced
- green onions chopped
- avocadoes sliced
- arugula chopped
Suggested Proteins
Food: Bagel Bar (Source: 40 Aprons)- smoked salmon
- bacon cooked, chopped
- prosciutto sliced
- turkey sliced
- hard-boiled eggs diced
- chicken salad see Notes
- hummus
Suggested Cheeses
- goat cheese
- blue cheese
- mozzarella
- cheddar
- spreadable cheese
Suggested Bagels
- bagel thins
- mini bagels sliced
- a variety of full-size bagels sliced, see Notes
Equipment
- Large serving board, platter, or baking sheet, or smaller trays and bowls
- Small bowls, cups, and ramekins
- Serving utensils
Instructions For Bagel Bar
- Place bagels in the center of the board, in bowls or baskets, or on trays or plates on the table to begin.
- Fill individual dishes, cups, and ramekins with desired spreads and arrange them around bagels.
- Fill in any empty spaces with remaining toppings — I like to divide mine into salty and sweet sections, but you can arrange them as you want.
- Serve and have fun!
Notes
- Cream Cheese: Use this recipe to make your own vegan cream cheese.
- Nutella: Use this recipe to make your own vegan Nutella.
- Use store-bought chicken salad or make your own savory, sweet, and/or buffalo variants.
- Bagels: I prefer to have a variety of standard-sized bagels on hand, such as “Everything,” cinnamon raisin, chocolate chip, asiago cheese, blueberry, plain, and so on.