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Home » Bread » Yeast Bread » How To Make Classic Bagels (Soft, Chewy, Crisp)

How To Make Classic Bagels (Soft, Chewy, Crisp)

February 5, 2022 by Victor @ Taste of Artisan 15 Comments

Freshly baked bagels make me feel good and happy. They remind me of childhood. French baguettes have been my all-time favorite breakfast food for years but these homemade bagels are changing that. Chewy and pillowy-soft on the inside, slightly sweet, crisp and dark golden brown on the outside, covered with toasted seeds - it's so hard to resist fresh bagels with some cream cheese.

Sesame and poppy seed bagels on a plate.

It would seem as though bagels are such a simple bread to make - and they are compared to French baguettes which took me a long time to master - yet many of my initial attempts at making them failed.

Not that my bagels tasted bad or looked bad, no, that wasn't the case. They simply were nothing to write home about. Plain. Boring. Unexciting.

The magic of exceptionally tasty, chewy bagels hides in the little details, like the amount of malt or honey and oil you use, the level of dough hydration, and how you bake them. Mind you, tastes differ so these details may vary from person to person but I have yet to meet a person who did not absolutely love these bagels.

Freshly baked bagels on a cooling rack.

What bagels are made of?

Unlike typical bread which consists of wheat flour, water, yeast, and salt, bagels include oil and sweeteners like sugar, treacle, honey, or barley malt syrup. Some older recipes used margarine or a combination of oil and margarine.

The sweetness makes bagels tasty and highly addictive. I like my bagels slightly sweet but not overly so. This is the reason why I am not a big fan of Montreal-style bagels which I find overly sweet.

The oil makes bagels more tender on the inside and more crisp on the outside. Fats work as tenderizers by inhibiting excessive gluten development which leads to toughness.

Bagel making process

This bagel recipe uses instant baker's yeast - also known as Quick Rise or Rapid Rise yeast - which I found to be highly effective and reliable in this recipe.

The dough undergoes several stages of fermentation and proofing at both room temperate and in the fridge to develop a proper structure and exceptional flavor.

The ingredients

A great bagel must have a great chew. The best, and probably the only good way to get that is to use high gluten flour. My favorite is King Arthur's high gluten flour, also known as sir Lancelot.

Other equivalents of this flour would be extra-strong bread flour, Italian type 1 flour, French T65 flour, and Euro 650 flour. All-purpose flour will not give you that chew that you will find in a good bagel. Even regular bread flour falls short.

The rest of the ingredients in this recipe are fairly straightforward. I would only advise using flavorless oil which wouldn't impart unwanted flavors. You can't go wrong with canola oil. Other suitable oils are corn oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, and vegetable oil.

The equipment

Unlike bread, bagels do not require any special baking equipment like a baking stone, a couche, a lame, or a cloche. Instead, bagels are baked on a baking sheet. Wood-fired oven bagels are baked on the stone bottom of a wood-fired oven so if you want, you can bake them on a pizza/baking stone. This will produce bagels with crispier bottoms.

The only piece of equipment that I would highly recommend using when making bagels is a stand mixer with a dough hook. Kneading dough by hand is a chore that a stand mixer will simplify greatly.

For boiling bagels, you will need a large, wide boiling pot and a slotted spoon/skimmer, which every kitchen should have.

Mixing/kneading the dough

Bagel dough requires no stretch and folds or long bulk fermentation. All you have to do is put the ingredients into a bowl of a stand mixer and let the mixer do its thing. The dough will be ready in under 10 minutes.

You can mix and knead the dough by hand if you don't have access to a stand mixer.

Fermentation

Bagel dough fermentation consists of several steps. First, the dough undergoes a one-hour bulk fermentation at room temperature. Next, the dough is shaped into balls and cold-retarded in the fridge for an hour.

Shaping bagel dough into balls.

You will not see much of a rise during cold retarding but this is normal. The dough will have an opportunity to rise more during the next steps.

Shaping and proofing

Once the dough has firmed up in the fridge, it's time to give the bagels their final shape. Using your finger, poke a hole through the center of a dough ball. Next, stretch the dough into a ring and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.

Shaped bagels need to be proofed, like any other bread. You can do this two ways: leave them sitting for an hour at room temperature or refrigerate overnight. Both methods will result in the same minor rise of the dough, the big difference being in the flavor. Cold-retarded bagels will have more of it.

Bagel dough shaped into rings.

Boiling

Boiling pre-shaped bagel dough in water with a little bit of baking soda effectively sets the crust before it goes into the oven. As a result, bagel crust has a unique peculiar sheen and smoothness to it. Pretzels are made in a similar way.

The key to boiling bagel dough is to do so in a large pot with a lot of water so when you drop the dough in it, the water temperature won't drop.

Often, the advice is to boil one bagel at a time.  That's 30 seconds per side times 12 bagels or 12 minutes total boiling time. I boil my bagels in threes and have not found any adverse effects. Just make sure to load and unload them quickly enough so you don't over-boil some of them.

Baking

Boiled bagels are placed on a baking sheet lined with parchment papers, sprinkled with sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds, and baked straight away. The seeds will stick better if you sprinkle them on while the bagels are still wet.

Boiled bagel dough rings sprinkled with poppy seeds and sesame seeds.

The typical baking time is 12-15 minutes at 450F (235C).

I've made this recipe in both an electric and a gas oven and I could never get that rich, dark golden brown color that I like. I could bake them for longer but that dries the bagels out and they come out less moist and more slightly tough. Using an egg wash is an option, but bagels do not use egg wash traditionally.

Instead, what I do is bake them for 10 minutes in regular baking mode and the remaining 5 minutes with convection. That gives me the perfect texture and beautiful color.

Bagels baking on oven with convection on baking sheet lined with parchment paper at 450F.

Storing Bagels

Place hot bagels on a cooling rack and let them cool down completely. Depending on the ambient temperature, this will take a couple of hours or so.

A dozen of sesame and poppy seed bagels.

Once the bagels are cool, place them in a plastic bag, expel as much air as possible, and store them at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Do not refrigerate your bagels as that will harden them.

Sesame and poppy seed bagels on a plate.

How To Make Classic Bagels (Soft, Chewy, Crisp)

5 from 6 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Bread, Breakfast
Cuisine: American, European
Keyword: bagel recipe, how to make bagels
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Rest time: 3 hours
Total Time: 4 hours
Servings: 12 One bagel per serving
Calories: 314kcal
Author: Victor

Ingredients

  • 850 g High gluten flour I bake with King Arthur's Sir Lancelot HG flour. See notes. If measuring in cups, use the 'scoop and sweep' method.
  • 475 g water
  • 48 g canola oil See notes.
  • 36 g sugar
  • 9 g instant yeast Also known as Quick Rise or Rapid Rise yeast.
  • 18 g kosher salt You may also use sea salt. If measuring in tablespoons, use a level tablespoon.
  • 21 g honey Use rye malt syrup if you have access to it.
  • 5 g baking soda
  • Poppy and sesame seeds for topping
Metric - US Customary

Instructions

  • To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the following ingredients in the following order: water, yeast, salt, sugar, oil, honey (or rye malt syrup), then flour.
  • Mix on the lowest speed for 2-3 minutes or until the ingredients are mixed together. Switch the speed to the second-lowest and continue mixing for another 5-7 minutes. The dough should pull away from the walls of the bowl and become strong and elastic/stretchy.
    Testing dough for elasticity and stretchiness.
  • Cover the bowl and let the dough ferment for 1 to 1.5 hours at room temperature (1 hour if the ambient temperature is warmer and 1.5 if it is cooler).
  • Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape them into balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet or a large platter. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  • Next, take the dough balls out of the fridge and shape them into bagels. Use your finger to poke a hole through the center of each ball, then, using your fingers, stretch the dough into a ring about 5" in diameter.
  • Place the pre-shaped bagels on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let the bagels proof at room temperature, uncovered, for 1 to 1.5 hours. The bagels should firm up and slightly increase in volume but not much.
    If baking the next day, refrigerate right away until ready to bake. You can keep them in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
  • Preheat the oven to 450F (235C) without fan/convection.
  • Bring a large, wide pot of water to a boil. Add a teaspoon of baking soda and stir well.
  • Carefully add 1 bagel to the pot. Boil for 30 seconds, flip and boil for another 30 seconds. Using a wide slotted spoon/skimmer, remove the bagel from the boiling water and place it back on the lined baking sheet.
    Repeat until all bagels are done. If you are comfortable with it, you can boil 2-3 bagels at a time.
  • Sprinkle bagels with poppy seeds and/or sesame seeds, or any other seeds that you like, or leave them plain.
  • Bake the bagels for 12 to 15 minutes in total, with the last 5 minutes with a fan/convection to give them a nice color.
    All ovens bake differently so keep a close eye on your bagels the first time around and make adjustments if necessary.
  • Carefully transfer the bagels to a large cooling rack and let them cool for 20 or so minutes before serving.

Notes

If you don't have access to King Arthur's high gluten (Sir Lancelot) flour, look for extra-strong bread flour, Italian type 1 flour, French T65 flour, or Euro 650 flour, depending on where you live.
Instead of canola (rapeseed oil), you may use any other flavorless/low flavor oil such as corn oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, or vegetable oil.

Nutrition

Calories: 314kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 698mg | Potassium: 8mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg

 

 

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  1. Robert M Bell

    December 12, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    REAL!! bagels are NOT made by sticking your thumb through a ball of bagel dough!!! Real bagels are made by rolling the dough into a log, pinching the ends to make them smaller and then joining and tying the ends together. Anything short of that is just a poor imitation of an already poor imitation, those mass produced bread-in-the-shape-of-a-bagel "bagels" sold in grocery stores.
    And I'll take a Montreal bagel over a N.Y. "bagel" any day.
    [email protected],
    Oakville, ON., Canada

    Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      December 14, 2022 at 4:31 pm

      There are many ways/techniques to make a bagel, just as there are many ways to make baguettes, sourdough bread, etc. I think it's very limiting to think that there is only one right way to make a "REAL" bagel or anything else.

      Reply
  2. Oana

    November 14, 2022 at 7:37 pm

    Hi, I just made bagels and was the first time in my life. They look great and nice color.

    Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      November 14, 2022 at 9:30 pm

      Glad to hear it, Oana. Enjoy! You are welcome to try my other recipe, plenty of good ones here. Happy baking!

      Reply
  3. Reva

    October 31, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    Hi Victor
    Why does the bottom of my bread and bagels come out pale and soft. How do I get a coloured better textured underneath?

    Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      October 31, 2022 at 3:55 pm

      No idea. But you could bake them in a lower position in the oven provided the heat source is on the bottom, or bake them on a thick pizza/baking stone. Convection may help as well. Happy baking!

      Reply
  4. Traci Sharrock

    September 05, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    I’ve been trying out different bagel recipes the last few weeks and hadn’t found the winner until this one. I made some with Asiago cheese and some with everything seasoning. When my husband tried it last night he told me that it was the best bagel he’d ever had and I needed to open a shop haha. That said, I would love to see some of the ingredients in tsp/tbsp also, as I don’t have a micro kitchen scale and had to try my best to convert.

    Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      September 05, 2022 at 8:55 pm

      Traci, thank you for the feedback. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed my recipe. I will do the conversion for those who want to use imperial measures but I have to warn you, those are imprecise and results may be different. Enjoy!

      Reply
  5. Kelley

    September 05, 2022 at 4:14 pm

    This is the best bagel recipe I've tried and I've tried many. Seldom do I come across a recipe that just works, and let me tell you, you've hit the nail on the head with this one. It just works. I followed it to the tee and my bagels came out perfect. The best bagels I've ever tried, I am not kidding. They look so good too, I wish I could attach the picture. I'm very happy that I found this recipe, it's a keeper. Thank you so much for sharing it.

    Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      September 05, 2022 at 9:18 pm

      Hi Kelley,

      you are very welcome, glad you liked my recipe. I emailed you about the picture. Send it to me and I will attach to your comment. Enjoy!

      Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      September 05, 2022 at 9:40 pm

      Thanks for sending a picture of your bagels, they look fantastic. Such wonderful golden-brown crust. I need to bake a batch asap;)

      Reply
  6. Anastasia

    August 08, 2022 at 11:53 pm

    I've made these twice already with excellent results. I really like the texture of these bagels. Haven't tried cold retarding the dough in the fridge for 24 hours but will do on my next attempt. I hope that it improves the flavor even more but they are delicious as is. This is my go to bagel recipe now. Thanks a lot of sharing.

    Reply
    • Victor @ Taste of Artisan

      August 10, 2022 at 1:17 pm

      You are very welcome. Enjoy!

      Reply
  7. Stefanie

    August 02, 2022 at 7:19 pm

    The flavor of these is really good, and the ratio of water to flour was right for me, which I always struggled with when I tried other bagel recipes. the dough is silky and slightly tacky. Will be making these again.

    Reply
  8. Chris David

    March 15, 2022 at 9:27 am

    Its really a nice recipe and mouth watering.

    Reply

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