Easy Homemade Sourdough Bagels

Picture this: homemade sourdough bagels that are perfect for breakfast, toasted and slathered with cream cheese. Or make yourself a delicious bagel sandwich for lunch. That is in your future with this easy-to-follow sourdough bagel recipe. This recipe walks you through making sourdough bagels that are mixed, fermented, boiled and baked to perfection. Now, I know the three-day thing might sound a bit much, but trust me, these bagels are worth every second. They are easy to make and taste like the real deal. Easy homemade sourdough bagels are so yummy. I can’t wait for you to try them.

Sample Sourdough Schedule for Easy Homemade Sourdough Bagels

Bread made with 100% natural yeast takes extra time. Because of this I like to start my sourdough recipes with a sample schedule so I can get an idea for what the timing looks like for making this bread. This sample schedule assumes you are using a ripe/active sourdough starter and keeping your dough at a temperature of 76-78ºFahrenheit.

Ingredients in Easy Homemade Sourdough Bagels

• Ripe Sourdough Starter: Use an active/ripe sourdough starter (doubled in size/bubbly/mild sour aroma) to mix the levain
• Pure Maple Syrup: Barley Malt Syrup is traditionally used in bagels, but it’s not an ingredient I often have on hand. I use pure maple syrup instead with great results.
• Bread Flour: I almost always use bread flour for any bread that I am kneading. It’s especially important in bagels to use a bread flour (12.5% protein) combined with vital wheat gluten OR a high protein flour (around 14% protein). The higher protein content and properly activating the gluten results in a lighter/springy bagel
• Vital Wheat Gluten: Vital wheat gluten is an easy way to increase the protein content needed for bagels. You can use high protein flour in place of the bread flour and vital wheat gluten if desired (use 850 grams high protein flour instead).
• Diastatic Malt Powder: A small amount of this powder helps encourage fermentation, impart flavor and gives a caramelization color to the bagel dough. If you want to make bagels without it, you can leave it out.
• Salt: Salt is important to balance the flavors. Don’t leave it out.

Stiff Sweet Levain

One of the reasons I commonly advocate for making a levain instead of using straight sourdough starter is especially for cases like these easy homemade sourdough bagels. Maintaining a sourdough starter at 100% hydration makes it easy for me to create a stiff sweet levain when I need it for an enriched dough. I use a stiff sweet levain for enriched breads like this cinnamon sugar babka and these delicious red velvet cinnamon rolls. A stiff levain is a levain that mixes up to a firm consistency and is anywhere from 50%-65% hydration. It adds elasticity to dough and helps temper the acid in the sourdough which gives all the benefit of sourdough fermentation but not the tang. The sugar in the levain helps counteract the acidity and creates a more mild flavor. My picky kids are especially grateful for this! To make a stiff sweet levain:

• Use 100% hydration sourdough starter at its peak
• Add 24 grams of ripe sourdough starter to 120 grams of all purpose flour, 60 grams of water and 20 grams of sugar. Mix together.
• A stiff levain will be a little more difficult to mix together because it forms a dough ball instead of a batter. Knead the ball of dough a few times until smooth.
• Place the stiff sweet levain in a clear jar, cover it and set in a warm (76-78 degree F) spot for 12 hours.
• Stiff Sweet Levain is ready to use when it has doubled in size and has a rounded top. Using it right when it reaches its peak will help decrease the acidity in the dough.

Mix Sourdough Bagel Dough

Set the bowl of a stand mixer on a kitchen scale and add the ripe levain and all the ingredients to the bowl. This bagel dough is strong, I prefer using a Bosch mixer to mix it. If you use a KitchenAid Mixer, be careful not to stress and overheat your motor. You can start it out in the mixer and then finish kneading by hand if desired. You can also knead this dough completely by hand for about 8-10 minutes until smooth. Start the mixer and knead the dough together for about 8 minutes until smooth. The dough should pass the windowpane test and be smooth before moving to the bulk fermentation.

Bulk Fermentation

Move the dough to a container for the bulk fermentation. Do your best to keep the temperature of the dough at 78 degrees F. I use a bread proofer in the winter to help the dough develop at the right temperature. Cover the container. The entire bulk fermentation will take about 3 hours. By the end of bulk fermentation, you may have noticed the dough is more cohesive and strong. It will not have risen very much but may have expanded to fill the container.

Shaping Easy Homemade Sourdough Bagels

Proofing Sourdough Bagels

Cover the bagels with a kitchen towel and let the bagels rise on the baking sheet for about 2 hours at 78 degrees F. They will puff up a little and rise. After about 2 hours, check on the bagels. They should puff up a little and not feel dense. If they do, give them another 30 minutes to an hour and check them again. Stick the sheet of bagels into the refrigerator for a cold bulk fermentation. If you prefer to boil and bake the bagels right away, let them rise another hour or two until puffed up and very soft. Then boil and bake.

Cold Bulk Fermentation

A cold bulk fermentation allows the dough to increase in flavor and helps you plan your bake. I love using my refrigerator so I can bake things like these bagels in the morning when we want to eat them fresh and hot! Place the covered bagels in the refrigerator overnight for a cold bulk fermentation. This dough can stay in the refrigerator for up to about 20 hours, longer than that and the bagels may overproof. They’ll still taste good if you bake them but may not get quite so puffy. I typically mix up the bagel dough the day before and then place in the refrigerator overnight to bake the following morning. Works great every time!

Boil and Top Easy Homemade Sourdough Bagels

Pull the bagels out of the refrigerator while you get the oven ready and water bath boiling. 

Prepare the Oven: Place a baking stone in the bottom of your oven. You can bake these without a baking stone, but they will be more susceptible to burn on the bottom. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.

Boil: Place a large pot of water, about half full, on the stove and turn the heat to high. Have a slotted spoon ready (I often use a large spatula) and a cooling rack. As soon as the water comes to a boil, place a bagel into the water. It should float within the first 10 seconds or so of placing in the water. If it doesn’t, this is a sign of being under-proved. Allow the rest of the bagels to proof and rise a little bit longer. Add as many bagels to the pot of water as you can without stacking bagels on top of each other (they should each have a little personal space in the water). Boil for about 40 seconds per side. This will give the bagels a nice and chewy crust. Using the slotted spoon, remove the bagel from the boiling water and place on the cooling rack to drip dry for a minute before topping and placing on a baking sheet.

Toppings: We love topping bagels with shredded cheese, Maldon Flaky Sea Salt and of course our favorite Everything but the Bagel Seasoning. You can top them with whatever your favorite toppings are.

Baking Homemade Sourdough Bagels

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the boiled and topped bagels about 6 to a pan to give them room to expand as they bake. Take 1/2 – 1 cup of ice cubes and put them in a baking pan. Place the baking pan on a lower rack of the oven to produce steam. Place the sheet pan of bagels directly into the oven and close the oven door. These ice cubes quickly turn into steam with the hot oven, encouraging the bagels to rise and giving a nice crispy crust to the exterior of the bagel. If you don’t want a crispy crust, you can leave out the ice cubes and bake without the steam they provide. After 10 minutes of baking, open the oven door and rotate the pan of bagels 180 degrees. Turn the oven temperature down to 450 degrees F and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the bagels are sufficiently browned and baked all the way through. Let the bagels cool for about 20 minutes before slicing and enjoying–slathered with cream cheese is my favorite.

If you liked this recipe, you’ll also like…

• Sourdough Blueberry Bagels
• Pretzel Bites with Sourdough Discard
• Soft Sourdough Pretzels
• Sourdough Pretzel Rolls
• Sourdough English Muffins

Frequently Asked Questions

My bagels sunk in the water and never floated. What happened?

This can be a sign of under-proved dough. That means your dough needed to rise a little longer. Make sure your bagel dough is puffy and soft before putting the bagels in the fridge for cold bulk fermentation. If you notice your bagel sinks, let the rest of the bagels warm up a bit and rise longer before boiling and baking.

How do you store leftover homemade sourdough bagels?

I place them in a ziplock bag after they have cooled completely and freeze them for up to 3 months. We love pulling one out of the freezer, toasting it up and enjoying a bagel that tastes like it was just pulled out of the oven.

I don’t have vital wheat gluten. Can I still make these?

Yes. Use a high quality bread flour and substitute bread flour for the vital wheat gluten. You may also want to reduce the water by 20-30 grams to account for the lower protein content. OR even better use a high protein flour as a substitute for the bread flour and vital wheat gluten.

Should I add sugar or baking soda to the boiling water?

These bagels do not require anything extra added to the boiling water. The water itself gives the chewy crust to these easy homemade sourdough bagels. No sweetener required!

I don’t want crispy bagels. How can I make them more soft?

If you don’t like the crispier outside – decrease the oven temperature to 425ºF. Do not add the ice (steam) to the oven and bake bagels for about 20-25 minutes.