Quick & Easy Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Cinnamon raisin bagels are the perfect combination of warm cinnamon spice and sweet, slightly tart raisin flavor. This recipe makes eight bagels in just a few hours and is a great bagel recipe for beginners since it uses all-purpose flour and other basic ingredients. I truly can't believe it's taken me this long to add such a classic bagel flavor to my collection of easy bagel recipes, I am so excited for you give this bagel recipe a try.

I am so thrilled to finally share this cinnamon raisin bagel recipe with you. I've done so many bagel recipes over the years, but I've definitely missed some of the most classic flavors... cinnamon raisin was long overdue.

This is an easy beginner-friendly cinnamon raisin bagel recipe that can be made in just a couple of hours with no fancy equipment needed. Soaking the raisins in water before adding them to the dough gets them to incorporate smoothly for the best chewy bagel texture!

These are my personal ideal cinnamon raisin bagels. The cinnamon is pronounced in every bite, and they have just the right amount of raisins for my liking. If you like more raisins in your bagels, you can add more, and if you prefer smaller raisin pieces, you can run them through a food processor or chop them up before soaking them in the water.

Just like all my bagel recipes, these cinnamon raisin bagels freeze beautifully. If you're not going to eat them all right away (bagels are best within the first 24 hours), I do recommend freezing them!

Special Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make these homemade cinnamon raisin bagels! See recipe card for ingredient quantities.

All-Purpose Flour - Bagels are traditionally made with a higher protein (high gluten) bread flour for extra chewy texture, but I use all-purpose flour in most of my bagel recipes. You can use bread flour, just know the dough might need a bit more water to reach the right texture since bread flour absorbs more water than all-purpose flour does.

Brown Sugar - Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses in it. The molasses adds extra sweetness and a more complex flavor that is so good with the warm cinnamon spices and sweet raisins. That said, if you don't have brown sugar, white sugar will work just fine!

Soak The Raisins for Best Results

Raisins are dry. Like really, really dry. And really, really chewy. And they can be pretty hard, too! When you try to knead hard, dry raisins into a dense bagel dough, they struggle to incorporate. The dough might even try to push the raisins back out as it rests. And you don't want hard, dry raisins in your cinnamon raisin bagels!

The solution? Soak the raisins in warm water for about 10 minutes before adding them to the dough. This rehydrates the raisins, making them softer and more pliable. They stay whole but are more prone to bursting open, streaking through the dough and adding lots more raisin flavor.

The rest of this cinnamon raisin bagel recipe follows my usual bagel-making process. I've written the recipe to use a stand mixer with a dough hook, but you can mix and knead this cinnamon raisin bagel dough by hand if you don't have a mixer (see recipe notes).

If the dough doesn't clear the sides of the bowl completely while kneading, dust in a more flour as needed. The dough should be smooth, soft, stretchy, and just slightly tacky to the touch. If you've made my plain bagel recipe, it's maybe a little stickier than that dough just because of the raisins.

Once the dough has been kneaded, tuck the edges under to shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm spot until just about doubled in size or until it passes the fingerprint test, about an hour.

How to Shape a Bagel

Divide the dough into equal portions using a kitchen scale. In this case, each piece should weigh around 106 grams. If you're combining a few pieces together, stack the smaller pieces on top of the bigger pieces so they end up inside.

On an unfloured surface, tuck the edges up so the dough is smooth against the counter with the seam pinched together on top. Repeat until the dough ball feels nice and tight. Be gentle but firm with the dough — you're stretching the dough, not tearing it.

Flip the dough over so the seam side is down against the counter. Cup your hand around the dough and slide it toward you. The dough will take on an oval shape. Rotate it 90 degrees and repeat the slide to turn the oval into a round ball.

You can also cup your hand around the dough with your pinkie flush against the counter and your thumb and forefinger making an O- or C-like shape above the dough. Move your hand in quick circles without picking your pinkie off the counter, and the dough will quickly shape itself into a nice ball of dough with a smooth top.

Shape all the portions of dough into balls, then go back to poke the holes through, starting with the first dough ball you shaped. This gives them a chance to rest and get used to the round shape before you stretch them into bagels.

To poke the hole at the bottom, dust the bottom of the bagel with flour and stick a thumb through the bottom seam of the dough to push any loose edges through.

Slide your other thumb in and gently squeeze and stretch, rotating the dough through your hands until the bagel hole is at least twice as wide as the sides of the bagel.

You *Must* Boil Your Bagels

Boiling gives bagels their characteristic shiny, chewy crusts and is a step that cannot be skipped. Boiling is crucial to making bagels. The hot water gets the yeast moving, allowing the bagels to begin expanding while also gelatinizing the starches in the crust to set them in place so the bagels don't expand too much.

If they're not boiled, they're not bagels!

I boil these cinnamon raisin bagels for one minute per side, using a wire spider to flip the bagels and transfer them out of the boiling water to avoid splashing.

After the cinnamon raisin bagels have been boiled, arrange them on a lined sheet pan slightly offset in rows of two to give them room to expand in the oven without bumping into each other.

After baking, let the cinnamon raisin bagels cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. If you slice in too early, the steam inside the bagels will turn the starches into mush. If you can't wait for them to cool completely however, I can't blame you. Give them at least 10 minutes on the rack. Warm, fresh-baked bagels are great.

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• If your kitchen is cold, the bagel dough may take longer to rise. If your kitchen is very warm, it may rise faster.
• Bagels should float almost immediately when you add them to the boiling water but I find the added weight of the raisins makes them sink at first. It takes about 30 seconds for them to bob to the top; sometimes it helps to use the edge of the wire spider to give them a little nudge in the pan to get them floating!
• I prefer using a pastry brush with real bristles for the most even egg wash coverage, though a silicone basting brush will also work.
• This method will also work with dried blueberries, cranberries, etc!
• If you like extra sweetness on your cinnamon raisin bagels, sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar after the egg wash but before baking.

📖 Recipe