Best Homemade Bagels: 8 Tips To Make Them Great!

Bagels are one of my husband's passions. He's been making them for 4-5 years, tweaking them along the way. This recipe below is the culmination of all that learning making countless batches of bagels enjoyed by family and friends.

Recipe for 8 good sized bagels or 12 smaller bagels
Dry Ingredients:
600g Bread Flour (King Arthur bread flour is fantastic if you can get it)
1 tsp of Instant Yeast
1 1/2 tsp of fine Sea Salt
1 tsp Diastatic Malt Powder ( Link below)
Wet Ingredients:
342g of Spring Water
1 tsp of Barley Malt Syrup ( Link below)
2 tsp of Honey
Optional Toppings
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with a little water)
Toppings: Poppy Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Everything Mix, Dried Onions, Corse Salt, Caraway Seeds, etc...

Instructions:
1. Combine Dry Ingredients and sift together
2. Bring Spring water to 100-110 Fahrenheit
3. Combine wet ingredients until dissolved
4. Add Wet Ingredients to stand mixer bowl
5. Add Dry Ingredients and set mixer to low speed and combine ingredients until they come away from the sides of the bowl. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes to allow the dough to hydrate. This dough is dense and stiff. My Kitchenaide Classic is only 325 Watts and is good making 1-2 batches, but by the third batch it starts to heat up. Letting the dough rest makes it much easier on the mixer or the baker if you are kneading by hand.
6. Knead the dough on Medium Low for 10 minutes. If kneading by hand, you may have to knead for 15-20 minutes.
7. Turn the dough out, form into a ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let proof for 30 minutes
8. Divide Dough into 8 pieces (120-122g each if you are using a scale) and form each one into a ball. Cover, let sit for 5 minutes.
9. Form each ball into bagel shape by piercing a hole through the center of the ball and then twirling and gently expanding the hole until it is 1-2" in diameter.
10. Place on lightly oiled parchment paper on a sheet pan and cover.
11. Place bagels in refrigerator over night (You can let them cold ferment in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. The longer you let them ferment, the better they will taste.)

Next Morning
1. Take the bagels out of the refrigerator and let them rest covered for 30 minutes
2. Set oven to 425
3. Bring a water to a boil (about 3 inches deep in a 10" diameter or larger pot)
Note: after 30 minutes, if your yeast is good and it's not freezing cold in your kitchen, the bagels should be ready. You can check them by doing a float test. Add cold water to a bowl and place a bagel in the water. If it floats, they are ready. If they don't float, let them rest until they do. If they never float, your yeast died.
4. When the bagels are ready, add 2 TBSP of salt to the water, and 1 TBSP of BAKED Baking Soda (or just plain baking soda). See below
5. Bring the water back to a gentle boil.
6. Place 3-4 bagels in the water, but do not crowd them, for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes. Then flip to the other side for an additional 1 1/2 -2 minutes.
7. Transfer to your baking sheet and continue boiling the bagels until your tray is full
8. If you are topping your bagels, brush with egg wash and sprinkle on your toppings
9. Bake for 20-22 minutes at 425, turning the sheet half way through the bake time
10 Allow to cool fully before eating

Enjoy!

Baked Baking Soda:
1. Line a baking sheet with Tin Foil
2. Spread a thin layer 1/8-1/4" of baking soda on tin foil
3. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour
4. Carefully put the baked baking soda in an airtight container. you may want to use gloves as this is a bit caustic. You can keep it for many months.

Links:
Diastatic Malt Powder
This is what I have

Barley Malt Syrup

Instant Yeast:
I recently bought 1lb package of SAF at Smart and Final on sale for $3.99. on Amazon it is a bit more expensive, but found Fleischmann's for a reasonable price:

Check out my Instagram Page for a few more pics of Bagels and other things

[caitlynmoreno]

I’ve been craving a real good bagel for sooo long and this video seemed the most helpful. After making my first batch they were amazing like crunchy outside and still chewy and soft inside I love them. i can’t take all the credit because you taught me how to make them. I appreciate you! Thank you!!

[mariloupalencia]

Thank you so much for this recipe. I made them and my family loves the bagels!

[schnder]

Great video. Wonderful instruction and tips. I just started making homemade bagels. I will never go back to store bought, so superior. Life is too short for store bought bagels! Thank you

[MomofKreus]

I used your recipe and made bagels for the first time. Turned out great! The hubster loved them. Thanks for the video.

[rosieblough]

Made these today😊waiting to cook them up tomorrow! Best recipe and video I found after looking at over 30 YouTube videos for bagels- thank you!

[ronmans]

So wanted to bake my own Bagels...looked at a dozen vids before I came across your's! Thanks Pat...the explanations and content were awesome, I immediately started the process (Sat-afternoon)and the hardest part was waiting for the next day...(Sunday moring)..Lol!....They came out awesome (My wife's a bagel-nut!) and my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the tastiest Bagels "Ever!!"...Thanks once again for sharing...Ron

[DirahLovesYou]

This is amazing. The only good bagel recipe I have ever found. I can't wait to try it. Thank you!

[ginabisaillon]

I don't have space in my fridge to overnight them when they're shaped so I do it with just the dough and then I shape them the next morning. Works for me!

[orvillemeek]

Nice presentation with some tips I am going to incorporate into my bagel making...I appreciate the effort you and many other YouTube presenters make to pass on their knowledge and skills...keep up the good work!

[private]

THANK YOU JANE FOR SHARING! I’ve seen tons of recipes but your husband’s is the one ☝️ I’m trying!….NO PRESSURE

[jeffreycave]

I can't seem to find the bake baking powder recipe. BTW your vid was perfect. I followed to the letter and it worked. Thanks

[jeffreyjohn]

Thank you for uploading. I’m definitely gonna try this recipe.

[CHICOB]

My granddaughter (8) and I have been trying different recipes to make bagels and so far this recipe has been the best! We do the cream cheese, smoked salmon, purple onion, and tomato on an everything bagel and it is the best. Thank you Pat (& Jane) for sharing this with us.

[cherylwilliams]

Just made this recipe for the second time. First time was a disaster, I did the overnight ferment, they ended up looking like bialys! This time I baked them after proofing for 1hr., they came out perfect! Thank you for this easy-to-use recipe!

[oliviatan]

My husband loves bagels. Will try to make them this weekend. Thanks for the recipe and the clear detailed tips.

[mamszczury]

Hi Pat. Thank you for the recipe. A hint - thermal decomposition of baking soda starts at 80 deg C, so you can skip soda baking step and just throw it to the boiling water.

[marygmack]

this is marvelous! what a recipe! thank you for sharring.. i have been trying my best over here to nail the NYC style bagel down. your recipe looks very close to what i have been doing..

A Few recipe questions:
Have you tried 3tsp of malted barley syrup instead of the 2 tsp honey and 1 tsp malted barley syrup in the recipe dough?.. i am wondering why the honey? sometimes recipe have sugar in addition to the malted barley syrup- i am just wondering what the other sweeteners do to the dough? i know NYC bagel's just use the Malted barley syrup.

Has anyone converted this recipe into a sourdough yeasted one? i have seen other recipes swap the tsp of yeast for 70g stiff Sourdough starter?

have you tried bagel boards? what are your thoughts on this..
have you wanted or needed to add steam to your oven?
My recipes have me baking at 475F for 4 mins on bagel boards on a pizza steel with a steam tray underneath on a bottom rack, then flip the bagels onto a pizza steal and bake for 6 more mins, then its time to remove the steam tray and bake for 5 more minutes.. then drop the temp to 450F for 5 additional minutes. every time i do that my bagels turn out like rock hard. i cooked for less time but they are still not IT, ya know?
this recipe i am speaking of has me boiling for 40seconds perside- you think thats the problem?
1.5-2mins perside (like your recipe says) seems so long! but maybe thats what i am doing wrong!

Thanks for anyone's help with these thoughts and questions!

[JimmyJaymes]

can you go into more detail and maybe make a video to show how specifically how you roll the balls thank you!

[JimmyJaymes]

HI Thank you for this!~ Will you please go into more detail (perhaps make a video) and show how you roll the balls? thank you!

[kimberlydrew-morris]

Woo My husband LOVES them! Grand babies too!!! Gonna try to make some lox and pickled red onion to go with the next batch :)