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–+ servings

The Best Sourdough Bagels!

Mandy Jackson
The BEST homemade bagels - The sourdough and the slow rise give these great flavor, and the brown sugar in the dough and brown sugar and baking soda in the water bath mimic an authentic New York style bagel, all with ingredients you have at home.
Alternate timelines and ideas for toppings can be found in the recipe notes.
Makes 12 (very large!) bagels.
5 from 2 votes
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Rise Time 14 hours
Total Time 15 hours 10 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

For the Bagels

  • 500 grams warm water
  • 250 grams active sourdough starter
  • 50 grams light brown sugar
  • 1000 grams flour (bread flour will give you the chewiest bagels, but all purpose works too!)
  • 18 grams salt

For the Toppings

  • Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tablespoon water
  • Additional toppings, if you're using them (see the post for toppings ideas)

For the Water Bath

  • 1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking soda

Instructions
 

Making the Dough + First Rise

  • Combine the water, starter, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the flour and salt and combine until no dry flour remains. Mix with your hands when it becomes too difficult with a fork. Mix this VERY well until the dough is completely cohesive. This is much easier to do in a stand mixer but you can do it by hand if you're up for a workout! Once mixing is done, I like to pick the dough up and squish it around to ensure there are no dry pockets.
    Cover and let the dough rest for 45 minutes, then perform a round of stretch and folds to form the into a ball. Cover and let rise until doubled in size (anywhere from 8-12 hours).

Shaping Bagels + Second Rise

  • Cut a sheet of parchment paper into 12 pieces, roughly 3" square each. Get out a large baking sheet.
    Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured work surface. Deflate the dough and divide into 12 pieces, roughly 150 grams each. Form each piece into a ball, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest on the countertop 15-30 minutes to relax the gluten.
    For this next step, you'll be working with one ball of dough at a time and you want to be sure to keep all the other pieces of dough covered - it tends to dry out quickly. 
    With one ball of dough at a time, poke a hole in the center all the way through to the countertop. Lift the dough off the countertop and gently stretch out the hole. Using both hands, roll in the air on your pointer fingers to stretch further. Make this about 2x as big as you want it in your finished bagels - they will shrink a lot during baking! Place on a square of parchment paper on a baking sheet and cover. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
    Cover very well with plastic wrap and let rise 2-3 hours, until significantly puffed up. (You can also refrigerate at this point and let them do the second rise overnight!)

Boiling + Baking

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees with both racks toward the center. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
    Make the egg wash by whisking together 1 egg + 1 tablespoon water in a bowl.
    Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Whisk in the sugar/honey and baking soda.
    Add 2-3 bagels - parchment paper and all - to the water and boil for 30 seconds, flipping halfway through. The parchment paper will easily peel off the bagels after they've been in the water for a bit. Remove the parchment squares with tongs and discard or set aside to dry and reuse for future bagels. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bagels to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, rounded side up. You can fit 6 bagels per pan once they're boiled. Continue until all bagels have been boiled. Brush the tops of the bagels with the egg wash if needed (see notes) and sprinkle with any toppings.
    Bake bagels for 20-25 minutes. I like to swap the baking sheets halfway through baking for even browning. Bagels are done when they're cooked to an internal temperature of 200 degrees and browned to your liking. Transfer bagels to a wire rack to cool. Let them cool for at least 20 minutes before eating, and definitely enjoy one warm!
    Leftovers can be stored in plastic bags for up to 3 days. Keep at room temperature unless your toppings need to be refrigerated.

Notes

Alternate timelines:
Chill the dough near the end of the first rise, then proceed with shaping when you're ready.
You can refrigerate after shaping, and let the bagels do the second rise overnight. Proceed with boiling in the morning.
Toppings
    • Everything bagel seasoning 
    • Sesame seeds
    • Salt (MUST be a flakey salt such as Maldon)
    • Cheddar/jalapeño
    • Cinnamon/sugar
Of course, plain bagels are amazing, too!
The egg wash - This is optional. I use an egg wash for dry bagel toppings (seeds and salt). For "wet" toppings (AKA, anything that will melt, like cheese or sugar), you can go ahead and skip it.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!