WAKE UP! This is a breakfast-lovers dream: a classic, fluffy, delicious bagel! After tons of tries and tries, we’ve mastered making the best bagels in your own home. This recipe was inspired by not wanting to take a long trip to the grocery store only to buy a bag of bagels that have been sitting on the shelf for weeks. Instead, we’re making our own amazing bagels at home! The best part about making bagels is you don’t need a lot of ingredients for the dough. Plus, these ingredients are commonly found in your pantry. You’ll need flour, water, yeast, sugar, & salt. Yep! That’s the dough. We made the classic everything bagels (using a pre-made everything seasoning blend) from ingredients in our cabinets. Here’s our recipe for the easiest and best tasting Homemade Everything Bagels!
More breakfast treats:
the best Bagels at home
If you ever wanted to try baking with yeast, leave the breads, cinnamon rolls, and pretzels alone! Bagels are the easiest way to learn how to bake with yeast. We’ve compiled our list of the best tips to help you make the best homemade everything bagels ever:
- Mix your Yeast & Water together. Before tossing everything into a bowl, mix the water with the yeast first. This isn’t a must, but we’ve found our end result to be much better when we combine the two ingredients and them pour it in to the flour mix.
- Place the dough in the microwave or the oven to rise. We found that cooler, enclosed spaces really help the dough rise. It’s not a must, but definitely has worked in the past!
- Use honey or malt syrup in your water bath. Adding malt syrup or honey to your boiling water makes the bagel a little sweeter & adds more flavor to the dough. The water bath is the most important part of making bagels (pretty similar to the water bath when making pretzels). It contributes to their appearance and flavor by creating a lighter and fluffier dough! Talk about an AMAZING bagel!
- Let your bagels COOL. This is another huge one! Try not to cut into your bagel immediately. Letting it sit for some time gives it that perfect texture! Food52 has an amazing article on why we should resist the urge to tear into hot bread.
If you’re like us, and always wanting to try something new: top these bagels off with whatever you like! Sesame seeds, nuts, poppyseeds, or cinnamon sugar! There’s no end to making the best bagels to tackle your mornings!
Key Ingredients
All Purpose Flour: All purpose flour is the gold standard in baking. It’s the most utilized type of flour for everything. If you’d like to flex your baking muscle a bit with this recipe, use higher protein flour. The best substitute with even better results is bread flour!
Water: Serves as the liquid portion of the dough. Using warm water is a MUST. No exceptions!
Instant Yeast: No one likes long rise times, especially if shorter rise times will give you the exact same result.
Brown Sugar: Brown sugar sweetens the dough just perfectly! Using this in combination with the added honey (or malt syrup) in your water bath is the best combination.
Everything Seasoning Blend: Our favorite blend is from Trader Joes. If you want to make your own, combine 2 tbsp poppyseeds, 1 1/2 tbsp white sesame seeds, 1 tbsp black sesame seeds, 1 tbsp dried minced garlic, 1 tbsp dried minced onion, & 2 tsp sea salt (flaky is the best). Mix everything together & sprinkle on your bagels!
Let’s bake these super easy and delicious homemade everything bagels!
Homemade Everything Bagels
INGREDIENTS
- 3½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 1½ cup lukewarm water
- 1 package Instant Yeast
Water Bath
- 4 quarts water
- 3 tbsp honey
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- Everything Bagel Seasoning
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, and salt together.
- In a separate bowl combine lukewarm water & yeast together. Add the water mixture to the flour and mix until a tacky dough forms.
- Hand knead the dough for 6-8 minutes. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rise for 30-60 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.
- Cut/divide the dough into 7-8 parts. Shape the dough into round balls. Press your index finger on one side of the dough until it forms a hole. Swivel the dough around your finger until a ½-1 inch diameter forms. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Cover the dough with a towel & let it rise for 15-20 minutes.
Water Bath
- While your dough is covered, preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Once the water is boiling, add the honey.
- Drop in 2 bagels at a time into the water. Let the bagels cook for 30 seconds on each side. Lay out the bagels onto non-stick parchment paper.
Egg Wash
- Whisk an egg in a small bowl. Brush the top side of the bagel with the egg wash. Sprinkle everything bagel seasoning on the bagels.
- Bake the bagels for 21-22 minutes.
- Let the bagels cool for 10 minutes before cutting open & enjoying!
If you loved this breakfast treat, go ahead & try a tasty mid-day treat too:
