I made bagels for 4 Weeks To Fill Your Freezer a few weeks ago. So I thought I would post how I make them. If you have a bread machine you can follow the directions from this recipe here. If you don’t have a bread machine you can use the steps below. I used to have a bread machine and used it to make these but since it broke I have been making them by hand with my mixer.
Step By Step Instructions (recipe is below)
First I mix up all the dry ingredients together except the yeast.
Warm the water and add yeast stir to dissolve. Add in the honey and let sit a few minutes until foamy.
Then I add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well in my mixer. If you don’t have a mixer to use, mix with a spoon until all the ingredients come together and are mixed well.
Place dough on a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. About 8-10 minutes. Your dough should look like this when done kneading.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover and let rise until double about 1 hour.
Here it is before rising.
Here it is after rising about 1 hour. 
Once it is done rising I place it on a floured surface and divide into balls. I make 12 balls with this recipe.
Then I poke a hole in the center of each one and stretch it to a bagel shape.
I cover them and put them aside to rest while I heat up about 2 quarts of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling I add 2-3 bagels at a time to the boiling water and boil about 30 seconds on each side. Then I drain them on a cooling rack while I do the others.
They puff up nicely. I place them on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and brush them with egg wash(1 egg beaten with 1 T water).
Then I bake them for 15 minutes in a 425 degree oven.
Then cool on a wire rack. These turn out chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. These are so much better than the store bought ones.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 T gluten flour
- 1½ t salt
- 3 t yeast
- 2 T honey
- 1¼ c water
- 1 Egg (for egg wash)
- Mix up all the dry ingredients together except the yeast.
- Warm the water and add yeast, stir to dissolve. Add in the honey and let sit a few minutes until foamy.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well in my mixer. If you don’t have a mixer to use, mix with a spoon until all the ingredients come together and are mixed well.
- Place dough on a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. About 8-10 minutes.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover and let rise until double about 1 hour.
- After rising, punch down the dough and place the dough on a floured surface and divide the dough into 12 balls.
- Make a hole in the center of each ball and stretch it to a bagel shape.
- Cover the bagels and put them aside to rest.
- Heat up about 2 quarts of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add 2-3 bagels at a time to the boiling water and boil about 30 seconds on each side. Let the boiled bagels sit on a cooling rack while boiling the rest.
- Place them on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and brush them with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 T water).
- Bake them for 15 minutes in a 425 degree oven.
- Cool on a wire rack
Don’t let all the steps deter you from making this recipe. It is not hard just a little time-consuming but the end product is so good you won’t regret it at all.
Let me know if you make these and how they turn out.
I have never thought of making bagels before. I’m not sure why. I may need to give this a try because my son loves bagels as a snack. Thanks for the recipe!
Your welcome.
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at homemade bagels and was slightly intimidated–but you make it seem simple enough and they look delicious. I love a chewy bagel with a crunch on the outside. And what a great freezer item! Thank you!
We have actually already ate all of our out of the freeer so I will be making more soon. My family really likes these. Let me know how it goes if you make a batch.
Loved this recipe! I made it and they came out great! I even made a side batch of soft pretzels for fun… delish! Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Shona, I am so glad you liked the recipe.
I love this post and the pic are great but it is a very difficult format to print out. A print option that prints just the recipe would be a wonderful addition to your site.
Jane, I just updated the bagel recipe post so it has a print recipe button. I’ve been trying to get to my older recipes to updated to include the print button. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂