This recipe is 5 basic pantry ingredients and about 2 hours’ time total (from mixing to boiling to baking), and if you can make a cake, you can make bread.

Here I go into tools you need, ingredients, and instructions on how to make bagels from scratch right at home, using yeast and not sourdough!

Let’s Dive In…

Basic Bagel Recipe, using Yeast

Tools you need

Stand Mixer with dough hook (can be done by hand if you want)
Cookie Sheet
Small Pot for boiling water
Parchment Paper

Ingredients

4 cups flour, all purpose, divided
1 tablespoon fast acting yeast or 2 packages of fast acting yeast
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1.5 cups warm water

Instructions

In your mixer bowl, add 2 cups of flour and yeast. Stir until well combined.
Add salt, and sugar to the flour, stirring until well combined.
Add water and mix, until just combined. Should be a thick, sticky, blob.
Slowly add the remaining two cups of flour. Kneading until you have a stiff, smooth dough. This takes about 3-5 minutes with the stand mixer.
Allow the dough to rest for 20-30 minutes, covered.
After that rest time, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Fill you stock pot 3/4 water, add one tablespoon of sugar, and bring to a rolling boil.
While that is all heating up, take your dough and divide it into 8 pieces.
Take those 8 pieces and form them into a ball, creating a hole in the center.
Place bagels on parchment paper on your cookie sheet when done. Allow them to rest for 10-15 minutes while you are waiting for the water to boil and oven to preheat.
Once water is at a rolling boil, drop 2-3 bagels in being careful to not overcrowd the pot.
Boil each bagel a full one minute each side. Place on a wire rack to let water drip off.
After they are all boiled, placed back on the parchment paper and bake for 35 minutes.
Allow to cool a bit before serving. Enjoy!

FAQs

What makes a bagel NY styled? By boiling before baking. They say NY styled bagels are also larger than normal bagels.

Can I skip boiling the bagels? You can, but you will not get the glossy crust if you skip boiling. They will turn out to be like any other loaf of bread just shaped in a bagel form. That glossy crust and chewy inside that you get from boiling, is what makes a bagel different from other breads. You also will have a hard time adding toppings to the bagel, like cheese and seasonings.

Can I use any sort of flour with bagels? This recipe is assuming you are using a wheat type flour: all purpose, whole wheat, einkorn, buckwheat, or even rye. You can use coconut flour or almond flour; however, you will need a different recipe with different measurements.

How to use bagels (other than breakfast)

Besides, the classic cream cheese, butter, or jam toppings here are a few ways to use up bagels (especially day-old ones):

Baked Pizza Bagels
French Toast Bakes
Sandwiches (done best with freshly baked ones)
“Garlic Bread” (baked with butter, garlic, oregano, cheese)

You can also freeze leftovers; make sure to pre slice the bagels and freeze within 12 hours of baking to make sure they toast up soft and fresh tasting.

That’s It!

Now, I am aware there are dozens of recipes out there to make bagels, and don’t expect mine to make some massive cultural shift in the bagel making industry.

But it’s frightening what they put into storebought bagels now a days! So, I want to help encourage you to make your own bagels at home.

Truly, these yeasted ones are my preferred way to make bagels, because they don’t take as long as sourdough (even though sourdough is delicious and offers probiotics don’t get me wrong).

That said, I do have sourdough recipe for bagels here: Sourdough Bagels

Enjoy!

-Chelsea, The Cottage Vegetable

The Cottage Vegetable website is an AI FREE zone! Everything is written and photographed by myself, Chelsea.