Homemade Bagels | Sunday Brunch Baking - TheUniCook - Sunday Brunch

Making homemade bagels is so much fun! I couldn’t believe how easy and quick it was to make these bagels – I cannot wait to make them again! This is a great recipe for wheat flour homemade bagels that you can top with any kind of seed that you like! And then serve them with your favourite toppings/fillings! If in doubt I always go for the classic smoked salmon and soft cheese, but I have plenty more suggestions for you below if you’re looking for something different to try!

Check out the Recipe Video here:

How to make Homemade Bagels

There are four main stages to homemade bagel making: the dough, the shaping, the boiling and finally the baking. Let’s talk through the different parts of the recipe so that you know what underlies each of the stages of the process! I’ll share with you some tips and tricks for success, but if you’re more of a “wing it and see” person, feel free to just skip to the recipe below!

MAKING AND PROVING THE DOUGH

I used fresh yeast in this recipe to make the dough. If you haven’t tried baking with fresh yeast before I highly recommend you give it a try! While you could use dried yeast instead, if you can find fresh yeast try using that instead – I think it gives the dough a much better rise and also flavour! You can now buy fresh yeast quite easily in the UK, I know that Morrisons sells it in the fridge section (near the ready-to-roll puff pastry etc) or you can ask a baker at the in-store bakery in Morrisons or ASDA if they can give you some! It’s also extremely cheap (cheaper even than dried yeast!) so no excuses!

Check out the video on my blog to see how to work and knead the ingredients together to form a smooth and stretchy dough! Once kneaded, the dough needs to be proved until doubled in size and I have a fancy trick up my sleeve for you to help the process! Especially if you have a cold kitchen (mine is always freezing) this might be your way around waiting for hours for your dough to rise! Sometimes a slow rise is nice because it helps develop the flavour more, but when you are baking in the morning and want to speed up the process, I would recommend turning your oven into a proving drawer! How may you ask? Place a bowl of boiling water at the bottom of the oven and then set the bowl with your dough on a rack above. Close the oven door and this will create a warm, humid environment which is absolutely perfect for your bread to rise!

SHAPING THE DOUGH INTO BAGELS

Shaping the dough to make the bagels is probably the most fun part of this recipe! Once the dough has doubled in size, knock it back on a lightly floured surface and separate into 8 roughly equal pieces. Tuck the sides of each piece into the middle, turn around and then roll it into a smooth ball by cupping the palm of your hand over the dough (see video).

Using the thin end of a wooden spoon (or similar), you then poke a hole through the middle. Then poke your two index fingers through the hole and spin the dough around your fingers to open up the hole. You should make the hole bigger than you think it has to be, as it will close up again a little as the dough expands whilst boiling and also when in the oven. If the hole has started to close up already before you drop it in the water to boil, you may want to open it up again slightly beforehand.

BOILING THE BAGELS

Bagels are boiled before they are baked in water than contains a bit of honey (this will help them colour in the oven). Boiling the bagels cooks the starches in the flour of the dough making them gelatinise. This leads to the formation of a skin around the bagels and gives them that classic chewy texture. Make sure to only boil the bagels for about 1.5 minutes, giving them 45 seconds on each side so that the skin stays fairly thin, allowing the bagels to still rise and puff up a bit in the oven.

Although boiling bread before baking it may seem unusual, it’s actually done for other types of bread, too! For example, when you make German Pretzels (or any other “Laugengebäck” as it is called in German)! Pretzels are boiled in water mixed with sodium bicarbonate (to make it alkaline, which gives the pretzels their iconic colour) before baking! I absolutely love the look and flavour of them – if you want to give the recipe a go check it out here!

BAKING THE BAGELS

After you have boiled them and before you bake the bagels, use a little egg white mixed with water to brush the tops. This will once again help create the chewy texture and will also help the seeds stick to the bagel.

If you are using sunflower or pumpkin seeds, I would recommend soaking the seeds in water beforehand. This is something I also do before adding seeds to any of my breads (e.g. this Pumpkin Seed Sourdough Loaf) to prevent the seeds from burning. If they have soaked in water beforehand, the water evaporating from the seeds during the baking process stops them from burning as quickly. Plus, as the seeds will have plumped up by absorbing the water, once it evaporates in the oven the seeds are almost “hollow” giving them an extremely crispy texture! Amazing!

Once baked, you can enjoy the bagels when still warm from the oven! Or I would recommend toasting them once they have cooled! Leave them to cool completely before storing them in a plastic bag (I use a freezer bag). They can easily be kept for 2-3 days (if they last that long!) or you can freeze them.

How to serve and store your Homemade Bagels

There are so many different ways you can serve these Homemade Bagels! While there is always the old classic of smoked salmon and cream cheese, I also like to do a few other sweet and savoury variations.

For the saviour version, I sometimes like to mash some avocado, season it with salt and pepper, and then spread that over the bagel to enjoy with smoked salmon on top! I also made a BLT version with bacon, lettuce, and tomato! My flatmate spread some cream cheese and red pesto onto her bagel and then topped it with freshly sliced tomato – also a very nice combination! For a breakfast version, adding a fried egg to your bagel is also very nice, either with bacon or the mashed avocado! Make sure the egg yolk is still runny so that it runs all over the bagel when you push down the top ❤❤❤! For a sweet version, I like to toast the bagel so that the spread melts, and then I put either Nutella or Biscoff spread on and occasionally even top it with some sliced banana! Deeeelicious!

These are just some of my ideas, but please let me know in the comments what you do! I am always looking for inspiration and new combinations!

Smoked Salmon Bagel — Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese

BLT bagel — Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese

More Bread Recipes

Baking bread is my favourite thing to do and I have many different bread recipes on my blog! Some recipes require no kneading at all like my overnight twist breads or classic soda bread, others are made with fresh and dried yeasts, while others again are made from my lovely sourdough starter Henry! Make sure to check out some of the below recipes if you are interested!

Homemade Bagels | Sunday Brunch Recipe

Recipe

Ingredients (makes 8 bagels):

FOR THE DOUGH:

500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g fine sea salt
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 cube (42g) fresh yeast (or 1 sachet (7g) dried fast-action yeast)
300-320ml lukewarm water

TO FINISH:

2 tbsp runny, clear honey
1 egg white
Seeds of your choice (poppy seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, linseeds, etc. – or a mix of different kinds!)

Method:

To make the dough, combine the bread flour, salt, and brown sugar in a bowl and mix. Measure out 300 ml of lukewarm water, then crumble in the yeast and stir to dissolve.
Pour the yeast water into the bowl with the flour and start mixing the ingredients together using your hands until they come together into a rough dough, adding a tiny bit more water if needed. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is stretchy and smooth. Check out the recipe video for some tips on how to knead dough and how to tell once it has been kneaded enough.
Leave the dough to prove for about an hour until doubled in size. If your kitchen is quite cool, check out my tips above for making your own “proofing drawer” to speed up the process!
Once the dough has doubled in size, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knock the air our by pushing down on it with your knuckles (this is called “knocking back”). Roughly divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.
Shape each of the 8 pieces into a ball by tucking the sides of each piece into the middle, turning it around and then rolling it into a smooth ball by cupping the palm of your hand over the dough (see video).
Using the thin end of a wooden spoon (or similar) poke a hole through the middle. Then poke your two index fingers through the hole and spin the dough around your fingers to widen it. Make the hole bigger than you think it has to be, as it will close up again a little as the dough expands whilst boiling and also when in the oven. Then set aside to rest whilst you prepare the water for boiling and preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 220°C and line 1 or 2 large baking sheets with baking paper. Bring 2 litres of water to the boil on the hob and stir in the honey until dissolved.
If the holes in the bagels have started to close up already open it up again slightly before boiling. Carefully drop the bagels (I’d recommend doing 1 or 2 at a time) into the boiling water and boil each one for 1.5 minutes, flipping halfway through. Remove from the water using a slotted spoon and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Repeat this until you have boiled all of the bagels.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg white with a little water (½ tsp) and brush over the bagels. Then add the seeds (drain them first if you have soaked them) on top.
Bake the bagels in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack! These homemade bagels are best enjoyed when still warm from the oven or toasted the next day!