Make Your Own Bagels At Home!

Making your own bagels is surprisingly simple and is a fun way to switch up a common breakfast staple! Check out this recipe to learn how.

Key Takeaways

• Making your own bagels only takes a few easy steps, and anyone can do it regardless of your experience in the kitchen.

• Although there are only a few steps, this recipe requires several hours of resting time, including one overnight resting period. Make sure you have plenty of time before starting!

• We’re making cinnamon sugar bagels and Cabot cheddar bagels, but you can easily adapt this recipe to include any toppings you’d prefer!

Recipe

Making homemade bagels is rewarding and delicious. While store-bought bagels are tasty, taking the time to make your own homemade bagels can be even better. With just a few simple ingredients, you can create a variety of flavors right in your own kitchen. With so many flavors and toppings to choose from, bagels are one of our all-time favorite breakfasts. 

In this recipe, we divide the dough in half to make two varieties - Cabot cheddar and cinnamon sugar. Feel free to get creative with different add-ins and toppings! The process involves making a poolish, letting the dough rest, shaping, boiling, and baking.

Adapted from: King Arthur Flour

Overview:

First, you’ll make the poolish, which is a mixture of flour, yeast, and water. After letting it sit, you’ll combine it with more water, flour, salt, and yeast to create the dough. This has to sit for several hours before being divided. Once you divide and shape the dough, all that’s left to do is boil each bagel in the water bath, bake them in the oven, and enjoy!

Poolish:

• 1 ¼ cups + 2 tablespoons (166 grams) All-Purpose Flour
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (198 grams) water, 75-80°F

1. Weigh your flour, or measure it out by spooning it into a cup and sweeping off the excess. Use a medium bowl to stir together the flour and yeast. Add in the water and mix until smooth. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 2 to 8 hours. More time will give more flavor to your bagels, but if you’re in a hurry, 2 hours will be enough!

Dough:

• 1 ½ cups (340 grams) water, 75-80°F
• 5 ½ cups (660 grams) All-Purpose Flour
• 2 ¾ teaspoons (17 grams) salt
• ¾ teaspoon instant yeast

2. Combine the water with the poolish you made in step 1, mixing by hand in a large bowl to break up the poolish. Add the flour, salt, and yeast. Stir by hand or on low speed of a mixer until the dough forms a cohesive, shaggy, tacky ball. You may feel like it needs more flour, but it should be fairly sticky, so it likely does not need it.

3. Put the dough in a bowl, cover it, and allow it to rest for one hour. After this hour, stretch and fold the dough onto itself three to four times. Then, let it sit for another hour.

4. Without touching the dough again, place the covered bowl in the fridge overnight (or for 8 to 12 hours).

5. In the morning, remove the dough from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. 

6. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. If you want to be precise, each piece will weigh about 110 to 115 grams. 

7. Roll each piece of dough into a tight ball, and then place on a lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes.

8. Poke a hole in the middle of each ball with your finger, gently expanding until it’s about 1 inch in diameter.

9. Return your shaped bagels to your floured surface, cover them, and allow them to rest once more for 20 to 30 minutes.

10. While the bagels are resting, preheat your oven to 475°F. If you’d like to use a baking stone, place it on the middle rack of the oven while preheating and prepare two pieces of parchment paper large enough to fit the stone. We instead use two baking sheets lined with parchment. Make sure that the parchment paper you’re using is rated to withstand the temperature you’re baking at. Once your baking stone or sheets are prepared, make the water bath.

Water bath:

• 2 tablespoons (43 grams) molasses or barley malt syrup
• 1 tablespoon (18g) salt

11. Add 4 inches of water in a shallow, wide 6-quart pot. Then, add the molasses or barley malt syrup. We prefer molasses because it gives a delicious sweet flavor to the bagels, but you can use either type of syrup! Add the salt and stir until combined. Bring to a medium boil. This is a good time to pick out your toppings.

12. Once your bagels are done resting, place 2 to 3 at a time in the water bath. Boil for about 30 seconds on the first side, then flip using a slotted spatula. Boil for another 60 to 90 seconds. (This timing doesn’t have to be exact, but each bagel should be in the water for 1 ½ to 2 minutes total.)

13. Remove the bagels one at a time, allowing them to drip dry for a few seconds. Place a couple inches apart on your prepared baking sheet.

14. Now for the fun part: sprinkle your chosen toppings over your bagels while they’re still damp from the water bath. If it’s easier, you can pour your toppings into a bowl and dip the bagels in. At this stage, we also like to trim the edges of the parchment paper so that they don’t char in the oven.

15. Once all your bagels have been through the water bath and gotten their toppings, place them in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. If you’re using a stone, you’ll have to do two batches. If you’re using baking sheets, rotate the sheets in the oven after about 10 to 12 minutes. The bagels are done when the bottoms and sides are a deep golden brown and firm. 

16. Remove the bagels from the oven and use tongs to transfer them to a cooling rack.

These bagels can be stored at room temperature for up to one day. You can also wrap them up and put them in the fridge for a few days, or freeze them for longer storage. 

Get creative with flavors - sesame, blueberry, everything, and more! Enjoy these tasty homemade bagels and let us know how yours turn out! @VermontRealEstateCompany #MadeWithVTRECO