Making bread machine bagels is a great way to reduce the time and effort for your favorite breakfast bread. With this recipe and tips, you can make them by hand or with your bread maker.
I love homemade fresh bagels from the oven but I hate all of the kneading and work that goes into them. Thankfully, with a bread machine by my side, I can have incredible bread maker bagels with a lot less effort! Which saves me a lot of wrist pain.
Bagels that are made fresh at home are so different than the ones you buy bagged in the store. They're fresher, crispy, chewy, and downright delicious. Like you'd expect from Panera or another bagel making company.
If you love bagels, make sure to check out my Banana Nut Bagels, Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, Blueberry Bagel Bread Pudding, and Mini Bagel Pizzas.
Why This Recipe Works
- By hand or by machine. Included in this recipe are the steps needed to make it using a bread machine and making it by hand so you can pick or choose whichever feels more convenient to you.
- Simple ingredients. This recipe requires very simple and basic ingredients like flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and water. This keeps our costs low and the shopping minimal.
- They're perfect! Fresh and hot from the oven, you won't be able to resist these homemade bagels. Made with a chewy exterior and soft center, every bite will have you wondering why you didn't make bagels from scratch before.
🥘 Ingredients
Warm water- You will need warm water that is about 110 degrees F to activate the yeast.
Salt- A natural flavor enhancer.
White sugar- Use granulated sugar to feed the yeast and make the bagels sweet.
Bread flour- This is the gluten structure and base of the recipe. You can use all purpose flour instead, but the taste and texture won't be exactly the same. AP flour may also require less water to hydrate, so add water slowly.
Active dry yeast- Make sure that your yeast has been properly stored and is not expired.
Boiling water- you will need a pot of boiling water to cook the bagels in.
Egg white- Brush the tops of boiled bagels with egg white to give them a golden color when baked.
For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.
🍽 Equipment Needed
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- Bread Machine or a large mixing bowl
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Large Pot
- Slotted spoon
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
🔪 Instructions
Check out how to make bread machine bagels with these simple step-by-step instructions:
- The by hand instructions are included on the recipe card below.
- Place all of your ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed by the owner's manual. Select the dough setting and wait for it to complete.
- Punch down the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Divide it into 6-9 equal sized bagels depending on how big or fluffy you want them.
- Roll the dough into balls. Flatten them and then use your thumb to create a hole in the center.
- Stretch the dough out and shape them into a nice looking bagel. Cover with a clean towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F degrees and bring a large pot of water and 3 tablespoons of sugar to a boil.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- When the water is to a full rolling boil, drop your bagels in 2 or 3 at a time for exactly 1 minute. Flip them over after 30 seconds.
- Remove the bagels and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
- Brush the tops of the bagels with beaten egg white and add seasonings if desired.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. They will feel hard straight out of the oven but soften as they cool.
🍴 Recipe Tips
So you might notice based on the photos shown that the bagels aren't all the same size. I chose to make 9 bagels of various sizes so that the kids can get smaller ones. You can do that too, or you can make them all the same size.
9 bagels makes them a bit chewier because there is less dough, whereas 6 bagels gets them fluffy.
You can let the dough rise after shaping for up to an hour, but 10 minutes in a warm spot is great if you want them to be chewy.
There are two ways you can shape your bagels. The first one is the one I highly recommend in the recipe card and the second is making the dough into long snakes and then joining them together in rounds. The reason I don't recommend this method is simply because it makes the bagel look funny.
The joined ends can't be smoothed down to look seamless and can result in a spot of the round where there is less dough or rise.
Also, whatever slotted spoon or device you use to pull the dough from the boiling water can leave lines in your bagels where it touches, so if you want to avoid those, look for something flat like a spatula instead.
💭 FAQs
Yes, you can, but there are a few things to note. Using all purpose flour will give you a completely different texture and taste in the bagels unless you add to it an ingredient called Vital Wheat Gluten. This should be added at a ratio of 1-3 teaspoons per cup of AP Flour.
This helps to give the regular flour enough protein to work with to form the gluten you would expect from a bread flour.
Unfortunately, over proofing dough is a very real thing and a possibility with any yeast dough. While recipe cards will give an estimate on how long to let things rise, you should trust your eyes. You know the dough has proofed enough when it has doubled in size.
Over proofing the dough can cause the bread to collapse on itself during the baking process and come out flat.
Other yeast bread recipes to try
📖 Recipe
Bread Machine Bagels
Equipment
- Bread Machine or a large mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1 cup Warm water (110F degrees) ($0.00)
- 1 ½ teaspoons Salt ($0.15)
- 2 Tablespoons Granulated sugar ($0.02)
- 3 cups Bread flour ($0.60)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons Active dry yeast ($0.54)
Other things needed:
- 3 quarts Water (for boiling) ($0.00)
- 3 Tablespoons Granulated sugar ($0.03)
- 1 Egg white, beaten ($0.08)
Instructions
- Place the water, salt, sugar, flour and yeast in your bread machine in the order specified by your bread machine manual. Select dough setting and wait.
By hand instructions
- Place the warm water and yeast in a bowl and wait 10 minutes for the yeast to froth.
- Add in the salt, sugar, and flour, kneading and adding the flour slowly until all (or almost all) is incorporated. You may need more or less flour.
- Knead the dough for about 8 minutes until it is elastic feeling. You should be able to poke the dough and have it spring back to fill in the hole fairly quickly.
- Place the dough in a covered bowl in a warm location and wait until it's doubled in size (about 1 hour).
Both follow along from this point:
- Punch down your dough and divide it into 6-9 equal sized bagels depending on how big you want them. 6 gives you fluffier ones whereas 9 will be thinner and chewier.
- Roll the dough into balls, flatten them and then use your thumb to poke a hole through each. Stretch them out and shape into a bagel. Cover and let rest.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- When the water is boiling, drop your bagels 2 or 3 at a time into the pot for exactly 1 minute flipping over at the 30 second mark. Remove bagels from the pot and place onto the baking sheet.
- Once all bagels have been boiled and placed on the sheet, brush the tops with beaten egg white. If you want to add everything seasoning, poppy seeds, or another topping of choice, now is the time to do so after the egg white has been brushed on.
- Bake in an oven that was preheated to 375F degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. They'll feel rock hard out of the oven, but will soften as they cool.
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