Homemade Sourdough Everything Bagels
I just posted a Bagel recipe the other day. My Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bagels. And today I am posting these Homemade Sourdough Everything Bagels.
The thing is that I just found the most perfect bagel recipe!
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I didn’t really find it, more like I conquered it, after so many attempts over the years.
It’s not that I was making awful bagels. They just weren’t perfect. Or up to my standards.
But not anymore!
Because I nailed it this time!
You can check out some tips about making homemade bagels on my Cinnamon Raisin Bagels post.
After I posted that recipe, I made these bagels again, in the savory version.
We enjoyed them in sandwiches, and mainly avocado toasts.
Making homemade bagels is a work of love, specially sourdough bagels.
Shape the dough into perfectly round balls.
To shape the bagels, simply cut a hole in the middle of the bagels with your thumb. Stretch the hole gently, as you roll the bagel around in your hands, making sure to stretch the dough evenly on all sides.
After letting the shaped bagels rise, brush it with milk.
Sprinkle bagels with seasoning. And you’re ready to bake.
About the seasoning for the top, I just used a bunch of stuff I had in my pantry. And you should do the same. Don’t be strict and limited, you can add anything to your bagel seasoning.
I used sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onions, dried garlic, coarse sea salt, and even some Za’atar I had in my spice cupboard. Za’atar is a tangy spice blend you will love, once you try it.
So, these bagels were super delicious! I hope you check out my recipes, and once again, my tips for making the perfect bagels can be found right on this post.
Check out that perfect crumb!!
And these bagels kept really well for a couple of days, actually. Bagels tend to get hard and tough after a day or so, however, on the third day, I had a bagel sandwich and they were still awesome!!
Remember you can also freeze the bagels, split or whole, in a zip loc bag for up to 2 months.
If you freeze the bagels cut in half, all you have to do when it’s bagel time, is to just pop these in the toaster, and that’s it. It will feel like you just went to the best bakery in town and grabbed some fresh bagels for breakfast!
If you like baking with sourdough, here are some other recipes you can check out.
Sourdough Everything Bagels
Ingredients
- 300 grams sourdough starter 1 1/2 cups, 10.6 oz.
- 295-350 grams warm water 90-100F (1 1/4 cup- 1 1/2 cup, 10-12 oz.)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon barley malt syrup or honey
- 2 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (13.5 oz, 382 grams)
- 3 cups whole wheat flour (13.5 oz, 382 grams)
- To boil bagels
- 1 tablespoon baking soda for boiling bagels
Topping
- 1/4 cup milk
Everything Bagel Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon dried onions
- 1 teaspoon dried garlic
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt I use Maldon
- 1 teaspoon Za’atar.
Instructions
- Start by mixing the sourdough starter, 1 1/4 cup of water, vegetable oil, malt syrup, sea salt, and flours together in a bowl.
- Mixture will seem extremely stiff. That’s ok. Just make sure all the flour is getting hydrated. If necessary, pour that remaining 1/4 cup of water in, if you see too much dry flour that won’t incorporate into the dough.
- Cover bowl with a damp towel and let dough sit for 10 minutes.
- Kneading: I would recommend a stand mixer to knead this dough. Or a lot of elbow grease.
- Bagel dough should be kneaded at least 7 minutes by machine, probably double by hand. And it’s a very stiff dough, so it’s not the easiest to knead.
- It’s very important that you knead this dough properly, so the bagels will have their proper texture and gluten development.
- At the end of kneading, dough should be smooth, but still pretty stiff and dense.
- Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl.
- Cover with a damp towel.
- Let it rise in a warm place for about 4 hours.
- If your place is cold, let it rise 5 hours.
- Transfer dough to the counter.
- I split mine into 100 g (3.5 oz.) pieces, and ended up with 14 pieces.
- Turn pieces into balls by rolling them against the counter, with your hand in a cup shape.
- Use the counter to push the dough against itself and turn into a perfect round.
- There are plenty of videos on youtube that show this technique properly. Very easy, and you’ll always end up with perfectly shaped rolls, bagels.
- Now that you’ve rolled all the pieces into balls, start by making a hole in the center of each ball with your finger. Expand the center out with your hands, by rotating the bagel as you shape the hole in the middle.
- Check pics above to see how I did it.
- Then, place bagels in 2 baking mat or parchment paper lined baking sheets.
- I put 7 bagels in each baking sheet.
- Cover both trays with a damp towel. Let them sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
- Once the dough is springing back as you touch it, means your bagels are ready to go.
- Pre-heat oven to 425F.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Once water comes to a boil, add baking soda to the pot.
- Boil bagels in batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.
- You should boil bagels about 20 seconds on each side. I don’t like to boil them over 1 min total, or their crust might turn out too hard.
- Remove bagels with a slotted spoon after they have boiled about 20 seconds on each side.
- Place boiled bagels in a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper or a silicon mat, and sprinkled with semolina/cornmeal, if you’d like.
- Brush bagels with milk.
- Sprinkle with whatever seasoning of your preference. I used sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onions, dried garlic, coarse sea salt, and even some Za’atar I had in my spice cupboard. Za’atar is a tangy spice blend you will love, once you try it.
- I made a big batch of this seasoning to keep on my cupboard.
- I just keep it in a shaker, and shake on top of toasts and other savory goodies.
- After sprinkling your bagels with the seasoning, place trays in the oven.
- Bake for about 10 minutes. Rotate pans. Bake for another 5-15 minutes. It will really depend on your oven and what size bagels you decided to make.
- Once bagels have a deep golden color, remove them from the oven. Let them cool and enjoy them fresh. STORAGE: I like to enjoy the bagels when they are very fresh. That’s when they are the best. However, nothing wrong with leftover bagel toast in the morning. Keep bagels in an air-tight container for up to a couple of days, I wouldn’t go longer than that. You can also freeze them wrapped in foil and inside of a ziplock bag or freezer container for up to 2 months.
- For variations: For other variations, check out this Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bagels.
- For bagel topping ideas: Seeds (Sesame, poppy, flax, sunflower, fennel), cheese (asiago is a big favorite), coarse salt, spice blends.
Nutrition
After rising for the four hours, they hadn’t risen at all. My starter was fed and active. Is something wrong? I’ve put the bowl, well covered, in the refrigerator for the night. Right now I’m discouraged. Any suggestions?
It can take longer than 4 hours depending on your starter, the weather, etc. Give it a few more hours, or rising in the fridge overnight might also help. Take it out tomorrow, let it sit on the counter for an hour or so, and proceed with step 12 of the recipe
Thank you for that quick response. I’m hoping they will turn out fine tomorrow. Another question. When I feed my starter, I use a 1:3:3 ratio. Could this be affecting my starters response? Thank you again.
Thank you again. I just took them out of the oven and they are delicious and look beautiful. It took quite a while for them to rise, but our air conditioner is on now so it may have been too cool. I appreciate your help.
I used your recipe as my first attempt at sourdough bagels because you list measurements by weight as well as volume. I figured weighing would be more accurate, and I was rewarded with success. I had a lot of trouble with the shaping. I had to resort to rolling the dough into “snakes” then trying to glue the ends together with water and lots of pinching. The came out with a great crust, and nice flavor even though they look a bit wonky.
awesome!! thank you so much!!
This was my first try at making bagels and I am so pleased! I will definitely make these often and hope to get better at forming the bagel–the first ones came out a bit “unusual”.
I did the process up through step 9 (kneading) and then put the dough into the fridge overnight. I let it proof in a warm spot for about 5 hours and proceeded. I did not make the hole in the bagel shape large enough and will remember this the next time–and I will make this recipe frequently. Thanks for this great recipe!
Awesome to hear! Thank you Andy!
Halved the recipe cause I was worried I’d mess up on my first attempt.
Used bread flour instead of AP and could have added a little more water to compensate for the higher protein.
The dough was extra dry and was hard to bake into smooth balls cause of it. I’ll adjust next time!
Used oat milk instead of regular milk to “brush” (used my fingers since I didn’t have a brush, worked great! Sprinkled TJ’s Everything But The Bagel Sesame Seasoning. I think instead of sprinkling, I’ll roll the bagels in the seasoning next time to coat it all the way.
Otherwise, they just came out of the oven and I LOVE them. As a native New Yorker who is currently quarantined in another city, I’ve been craving a solid bagel and this definitely has done the trick for me!
Excited to try it again with more hydration and more seasoning. Thanks for the awesome recipe!!!
I just took these out of the oven! I halved the recipe and got 7 bagels. I must say I was so pleased with the results! I did use all white flour. I tried a different recipe for my first two batches ever and wasn’t too pleased. Decided to give it one more try using your recipe. So happy I could cry! Third times a charm! I will stick to this recipe. Thank you so much for the tips and great step-by-step instructions.
I had some of the same questions as some of the commenters above regarding leaving the dough overnight. I put mine in the fridge overnight right after the kneeding. Took the dough out in the morning and let it sit to come to room temperature . Worked out wonderfully!
Loved this recipe. I have ried several others and was not totally 100 percent happy. These were like I bought them at my favorite bagel shop in New England. I did make a few changes. I used all white bread flout since my family is not fond of wheat flour in their bagels only insandwhich bread. I made my own everything mix with what they like. I also have an oven that does proofing and sped the process up to a total of 6 hours which was really nice from start to eating one. Thanks for the info on storing the bagels in freezer. In future I will slice and place a piece of wax paper between the piece then wrap with foil and place in ziplock. Makes it easier to take straight from freezer to toaster. Today I plan to make more and a batch of the sourdough cinnmon raise ones.
Amazing!! Thank you so much for this awesome review and for the tips 🙂
I also don’t enjoy wheat flour, nor do I have it on hand. So the recipe worked fine with all AP flour? that’s what I plan on using!
yes! It works fine with just all purpose flour!! Lots of people made it that way
I got my starter going a few months ago and was ready to try bagels. I looked around decided to try this recipe. It was GREAT! I used the Trader Joe’s :Everything Bagel Seasoning which did the trick. I will be making them again soon. Thanks!!
thank you so much Lisa! I am so happy to hear 🙂
These were so good my kids and husband devoured them in a day! Thank you!
Yay! I am so happy to hear that 🙂
Can I use all whole wheat flour?
Yes you can, but have in mind that whole wheat flour tends to produce denser, and drier baked goods. But I think it should turn out fine, just a bit less fluffy.
Hello!
I’m eager to try this recipe after all of the amazing reviews, but I’m not sure if the starter needs to be fed/active or if discard is okay. Please let me know. Thanks!
It does need to be active! Thank you!
Really good recipe, I followed it steps by steps and my sourdough bagels are amazing. Thanks for the recipe
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you!!
Can I use all AP flour? Excited to try these! Noted the wheat has a nice nutty flavor, I just have a lot of AP flour I need to go through! These look delicious, cannot wait to try!
Yes you absolutely can 👍
Just tried this recipe today – so good! This is the first time a bread recipe has actually turned out the way it said it would throughout the various stages! My all purpose white starter was at its prime (fed it in the morning and it double by noon) when I used it and once I mixed and kneaded everything I let the dough rise in the oven (turned off of course) and it was about 4-5 hours. I did forget to flour my baking pan and put parchment paper so my bagels got stuck to the bottom but that was my own fault. Honestly a great recipe to follow!
Yay thank you for this awesome review!! 🙂
These bagels came out SO PERFECT. I have made a lot of different bagel recipes but this one is by far the best. They are addicting and I just ate two after dinner. Thank you thank you thank you!
That’s awesome to hear! Thank you so much!!! 🙂
I made these bagels last night and they are wonderfully delicious! The dough was actually much easier to knead than other bagel recipes I’ve tried before. Love the taste with the slight hint of sweetness. I didn’t have bart marley syrup or honey, so I used molasses instead. Still turned out so, so good!
That sounds lovely! Thank you so much Kieu! And sounds like a nice substitution with the molasses! Great stuff! 🙂