3-Hour Homemade Plain Bagels

4.95 from 78 votes

Published by Rebecca Eisenberg ⁠— August 7, 2019 (updated May 29, 2026) — 170 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links

Learn how to make light, chewy homemade plain bagels with this easy recipe. Made with instant yeast and ready in under 3 hours, you’ll have warm-from-the-oven bagels on your countertop in no time — and ready for slathering with butter, cream cheese, and more. Once you know how to make your own homemade plain bagels, you’ll want to make them again and again (and again!).

a bagel and cream cheese sandwich has been sliced in half and is sitting on a small plate.

5 star reader review

“These bagels came out so good! This felt pretty ambitious for me (I’ve tried making bread exactly twice with not a ton of success), but the gifs of how to shape the bagels were super helpful in making them come out amazing. I cannot wait to make these again!!”
—Leann

Add your review →

Is there anything better in the morning than freshly toasted bagels slathered in cream cheese? If you answered yes, then you must know that the correct answer is freshly toasted homemade bagels slathered in homemade cream cheese. Congrats, you win points.

But how hard is it to make homemade bagels, really?

The answer is VERY EASY. Like, SHOCKINGLY EASY.

Once you know how to make my quick and easy plain bagels, you'll make them over and over again because, while you know how secretly easy they are to make, your friends don't — and getting to bask in those impressed reactions? Priceless.

Soon you'll feel confident enough to try all my other easy bagel recipes with different bagel flavors and toppings. You can even take your bagel-making skills to the next level with my overnight New York-style bagel recipe, which uses more traditional ingredients and a different shaping technique.

a bagel and cream cheese sandwich has been sliced in half. the two halves are stacked one on top of the other, the inside facing the camera.

Making bagels is what started my love of bread-making. You can draw a direct line from me learning how to make homemade bagels from a recipe I found on Tumblr back in 2014, to me going to pastry school in 2020, to you reading this blog post right now.

That very first bagel recipe I made was from the Sophisticated Gourmet and though the bagels I made were lumpy and misshapen, they tasted amazing. I was hooked. The more I made bagels, the prettier they became.

I've made my own adjustments to that recipe over the years to streamline and simplify the process wherever possible, finally landing on a version of this easy bagel recipe that is very much my own.

Also, even though homemade bagels are way easier to make if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, I've made bagels many times without a mixer (I JUST LOVE HOMEMADE BAGELS THAT MUCH, OK?) and, while it requires a bit more upper-body strength for kneading, they turn out great that way too.

There are some recipes I'd go nowhere near if I couldn't use a mixer, and I would tell you if I didn't think they were worth doing without a mixer, but that's not this recipe. This easy bagel recipe is worth making, with or without a mixer.

To Make Bagels You Will Need...

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make your very own homemade plain bagels. See the recipe card at the end of this blog post for the quantities!

A smooth ball of lightly greased dough sits in the bottom of a lightly greased stainless steel mixing bowl.

I use all-purpose flour to make my bagels, even though bagels are traditionally made with a high protein/high gluten bread flour. I use King Arthur Baking's all-purpose flour, which has a relatively high protein content for an all-purpose flour. If you're using another brand of flour (like a generic store-brand flour) you may have better results with their bread flour.

How to Make Homemade Bagels

To make the bagel dough, whisk all the dry ingredients together in the mixer bowl.

a mixer bowl with water in the middle of the dry ingredients. — Pour the warm water into the center of the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Start the mixer on low and let the dough hook do the work for you. Be patient.

At first, you're just mixing the dough. The goal is to get the ingredients to combine and collect on the dough hook. Then, once the dough comes together on the dough hook, increase the speed slightly and knead until the dough is smooth.

bagel dough after mixing but before lumping has pulled clean from the sides of the bowl but is lumpy and shaggy and slightly torn.

After mixing, the dough will look rough but will pull clean from the sides of bowl.

smooth bagel dough after kneading in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook.

After kneading the bagel dough, it will be smooth and elastic.

Bagel dough is a low-hydration dough, meaning the ratio of water to flour is relatively low. Bagels have a tight crumb with small air pockets. That density comes from the way the dough is kneaded to create a tight web of gluten that traps smaller air bubbles, and from the relatively low amount of water in the dough.

This homemade bagel recipe has a hydration level of 60%. It's a dense, smooth, and cohesive dough that should easily form a ball. You're looking for something that is smooth and slightly tacky to the touch, but that doesn't stick or cling to your fingers.

The "Roll and Poke" Shaping Method

For this plain bagel recipe, I like to use a simple bagel shaping technique known as the "roll and poke" method.

Divide the dough into eight equal pieces using a kitchen scale. If you combined a few pieces of dough to get the right size dough ball, stack the smaller piece(s) on top of the largest piece. Gently flatten the piece of dough against your work surface, then tuck all the edges up into the middle, pinching them together to form a smooth surface on the underside of the dough.

animated gif: pieces of dough stacked on top of each other with the smaller pieces on top of the bigger ones — Stack smaller pieces on top.

animated gif: the edges of the bagel dough being tucked up hiding the smaller pieces in the center — Stack smaller pieces on top.

Flip the dough ball over and cup your hand around it, with your pinkie-finger flush against the counter. Slide your hand toward your body, dragging the dough ball with it. You'll see the front of the dough snag on the counter slightly, pushing the edge under itself and creating surface tension on top of the dough.

The dough will form an oval shape, so rotate it 90 degrees and repeat to get a nice round ball with a smooth top and the edges pinched together underneath.

Once you've shaped all eight pieces of dough into little boules and let them rest for a few minutes, dust your thumb with flour and poke it through the bottom of the dough ball until it comes out the other side.

animated gif: a hand cupped around a ball of dough. the dough is dragged forward, the surface tension shaping it into a smooth ball. — Create surface tension.

[gif] a thumb pokes a hole through the bottom of a round ball of dough — Create surface tension.

When you poke your thumb through the bottom, use it to push any extra edges or seams on the bottom of the dough ball into the center of the bagel, sealing them shut.

Once your thumb is all the way through, wiggle your other thumb in as well so the backs of your thumbs are pressed against each other, and gently stretch and squeeze the ring of dough until the center hole is at least the same width as the sides of the bagel.

[gif] two thumbs through the hole in the bagel dough rotating it and gentle stretching it — Squeeze and rotate.

[gif] a fully stretched out round of bagel dough — Squeeze and rotate.

The bagel dough shrinks back slightly before boiling and will shrink again when the dough expands during boiling and baking, so don't be stingy in your stretching.

poking a thumb through a bagel dough ball.

Boiling Homemade Bagels

The boiling process gelatinizes the starches in the crust, setting them in place while also activating the yeast and air inside the dough to encourage the bagels to expand. The gelatinized crust will also prevent the bagels from expanding too much in the oven.

Think of it like "bagel botox." Boiling is what gives homemade bagels their smooth, shiny, taut bagel crust. The boiled bagels will have a slight texture to them, but will smooth out in the oven.

Right before boiling, stretch the bagels one more time. This will help keep the bagel holes from open as they bake!

Four shaped bagels float in boiling water. They're in a wide, flat royal blue cast-iron enameled braising dish with a white interior. A metal wire spider and the lid to the pot sit on the stovetop to the right. — A wire spider makes flipping bagels and removing them from the water easy.

Two bagels sit side-by-side. The smaller one, on the left, still has a light dusting of flour on it and hasn't been boiled yet. The bigger one is on the right and has a lightly dimpled texture from being boiled. They're sitting on a gray quartz counter top. — The bagel on the left hasn't been boiled yet. The bagel on the right was boiled for 2 minutes on each side.

The longer you boil the bagels, the thicker the crust will be and the chewier the texture of the bagels will be. You can control the texture and size of your finished bagels depending on how long you choose to boil them. I like to boil my bagels for 1 minute per side, but you can do as little as 30 seconds/side or as long as 2 minutes/side.

Get Creative By Adding Bagel Toppings

To get your toppings to stick to the bagels while they bake, vigorously whisk an egg to make an egg wash.

Eight bagels sit on a sheet pan with a grey and beige silpat liner. The bagels are shiny and glistening with an egg wash. In the background there are containers of everything bagel topping, fennel seeds, and garlic powder. — Use a pastry brush to brush the boiled bagels with the egg wash.

Bake immediately or sprinkle with any toppings you like. Even if you aren't going to use a topping, I still recommend using an egg wash to get the beautiful shiny crust.

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

Be careful not to tear the dough when you stretch the bagels. Bagel dough isn't like play-dough or pie dough, where you can simply combine all the scraps and stick 'em back together. Tearing your dough destroys those beautiful strong gluten strands you spent so much time kneading. When the dough rests, those raw edges and seams will begin forming new gluten connections, so don't worry about them not being perfectly smooth all the way around. This is one of the hardest things to get right (and honestly, your bagels will still taste great even if you don't get this perfectly) so just know that it's something you'll get better at with practice.
If you want the full history of bagel making history and tradition, check out Maria Baliska's excellent book The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread which charts the bagel's turbulent sociopolitical and socioeconomic journey from Jewish bagel peddlers in 17th century Poland to Europe, eventually crossing the Atlantic to New York City and the United States (did you know that the bagel didn't enter into mainstream popularity in the U.S. until the 1970s???). Fascinating!

💭 Have More Bagel Questions?

I've rounded up answers to common bagel questions and how-to guides, including:

How to knead bagel dough by hand and what it should feel like
Why bagels are always boiled
Step-by-step guides for bagel shaping and baking techniques

See my bagel-making 101 guide for more!

Want this recipe, only smaller?

A cookbook titled Small-Batch Breads by Rebecca Eisenberg, featuring various loaves, buns, flatbreads, and rolls on the cover. The book promises 50 recipes made with one cup of flour.

Find it in my Small-Batch Breads cookbook, available for pre-order now!

Featuring fifty easy-to-follow bread recipes made using 1 cup of flour.

Pre-order Now!

📖 Recipe

plain homemade bagels on a cooling rack.

Homemade Plain Bagels in Less Than 3 Hours

Servings bagels

Author Rebecca Eisenberg

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Resting time 1 30

Total Time 2 10

Recipe Notes

To test if your dough is ready after it rests for an hour, gently press into it with one finger. If it immediately fills in the indentation when you remove your finger, your dough needs more time to rise. If the indentation only fills in part way or fills in very slowly, your dough is ready. If it doesn’t fill in at all or the dough seems to collapse, your dough has overproofed.
You can mix in a ¼ cup of your preferred topping right into the dough to infuse your bagels with maximum flavor. Just make sure your topping doesn’t include salt, or it can throw off the chemistry of the dough.
Store in an airtight bag with a paper towel to absorb moisture. Stored properly, they will stay good for 3-4 days. They’ll get a bit hard after the first day or so, but soften up if you toast them. You can also run them briefly under water (!!!), then microwave them for 10 seconds, slice them, and toast them (or put them on a rack in your regular oven for 10 minutes at 350°F).
*If measuring salt by weight, you can use any type of salt. If measuring by volume, and using any brand that is NOT Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, cut the amount of salt in half.
If you cut the bagels before they have time to cool the steam inside will turn the starches to mush. I know fresh-baked bagels are tempting but you really will be a lot happier if you give them some time to cool before slicing!

Ingredients

500 grams all-purpose flour
18 grams sugar
10 grams diamond crystal kosher salt
6 grams instant yeast
300 grams warm water (90°F)
1 egg (for egg wash)
2 tablespoons bagel toppings (optional)

Instructions

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Mix. Mix flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Make a well in the middle and pour the water into the center. Use the dough hook on low speed to mix the dough until it comes together in a shaggy mass, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. This can take 3-5 minutes.

If the dough looks dry, add up to an additional ⅛ cup water 1 teaspoon at a time, mixing or kneading well between additions to give the water time to absorb. If the dough is too wet and sticky, dust in flour 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Knead. Increase the mixer to low-medium speed and knead the dough for 3-5 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky to the touch. It shouldn’t cling to your hands or the bowl.
First rise. Tuck the dough into a smooth round ball, and place it in a lightly oiled bowl (you can use the mixer bowl). Let it rise in a warm spot (70°F-ish) until about doubled in size, about an hour.
Preheat. Preheat your oven to 425°F and fill a pan with at least 2 inches of water. Bring it to a low boil on the stove while you shape the bagels. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat and set it aside.
Pre-shape (roll). Deflate the dough and divide it into eight equal pieces (use a kitchen scale for precision) and shape them into balls. Gently flatten the piece of dough against a lightly floured surface, then tuck the edges up into the middle, pinching them together to form a smooth surface on the underside of the dough. Then flip the dough over, cup your hand around it, pinkie against the counter, and drag your hand towards your body. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat as needed until you have a nice round ball with a smooth surface on top and a pinched-together seam underneath.
Shape (poke). Starting with the first dough ball you shaped, dust your thumb in flour and poke it through the underneath seam-side of the dough ball, pushing any rough edges into the middle. Slide your other thumb in and gently stretch the dough out until the hole in the middle is at least the same width as the sides. The hole will close as the dough rests and will close again as it boils and bakes, so don’t be stingy.
Cover the shaped bagels with a damp paper towel and let them rest for 5-10 minutes until the water is ready to boil.
Boil. Briefly stretch each bagel again, then gently drop them into the boiling water, top-side down. Work in batches as needed (I can usually do 4 at a time). The bagels will expand, so don’t crowd them.
Boil bagels for 30 seconds to 2 minutes per side, then remove to the prepared sheet pan.

The longer you boil the bagels, the bigger, airier, and chewier they will be.

Bake. Brush each bagel with egg wash, making sure to get the sides and centers. Add any desired toppings. Bake until golden brown, 20 minutes.
Cool. Remove the bagels from the oven. Let cool on the sheet pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Try to wait at least 20 minutes before cutting them open, but I honestly can’t blame you if you crack after five.

Video

Bagels

« Recipes for Beginner Bread Makers

How Many Cookies Are in a Batch? »

Comments

4.95 from 78 votes (6 ratings without comment)