Simple step by step tutorial for homemade sourdough bagels made with whole grains – mix with your favorite ingredients or toppings to make your own. If you like this recipe, you’ll also like the Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread recipe on the Best Bread Recipes page.
After many attempts at making bagels, I finally found a great whole wheat-yeast bagel recipe from my friend Gina. But then my sourdough started taking off and I found I was making most of our bread with my sourdough starter, so I needed to create a way to replicate the successful recipe to work with my starter.
I tweaked two sourdough recipes and combined them with Gina’s method to develop what I think are the perfect sourdough bagels- in fact, my family loves it when I make these!
Simple Sourdough Bagels Tutorial
It’s always best to start with a really active sourdough starter. I’ve written previously about how I grew my sourdough starter and the tips I use to keep it active without a lot of work and I’ve managed to keep it alive for many years doing this.
The picture above was taken in the morning after I had gotten the starter out of the fridge the night before, fed it and left it on the counter so it was ready to go in the morning.
When all the ingredients are mixed, you will notice that this dough is much stiffer than other doughs, pulling cleanly away from the bowl. It really gives the mixer a work out!
TIP: Sourdough does take longer to rise, though, so I usually plan to mix it in the morning and finish it in the evening right before dinner.
When it’s ready to shape, transfer it to a floured surface (I use a towel whenever I’m dealing with bread- it’s easy clean-up and less flour needed).
Separate the dough into 12-18 pieces.
TIP: In order to get somewhat equal pieces, I like to flatten the dough with a rolling pin- approximately a 10×13-inch rectangle is good – and use a sharp knife to cut into equal (or as equal as you can) pieces. Then it’s easy to cut a little from the bigger pieces and add to the corners.
I used to make a dozen, but found that the bagels just were too big (I think store-bought ones are too big, too – it’s part of my real-food-in-moderation philosophy), so now I cut the dough into 18 pieces.
There are two ways to form bagels:
- The first is to roll each piece of dough into a rope and pinch the ends together creating the bagel.
- I find the second way to be the quickest: pinch each piece together creating a ball, like my Soft 100% Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls, and then:
Simply use your thumb to punch through the center of the dough ball, stretching a bit as you do in order to create the classic bagel shape.
It’s not perfect (but that’s hardly ever my goal, remember?), but it will puff more during the boiling and baking stages.
After all the bagels have been shaped, set them aside to rest for about an hour under a dampened towel.
The classic ingredient to add to the water for bagels is malt syrup. Right. Obviously most of us never have that around.
That’s one of the reasons I loved Gina’s yeast recipe- she used baking soda and it turned out wonderful bagels that weren’t all misshapen like the others I had tried that used honey as a replacement. For some reason using just soda alone creates the most uniform bagels for me.
Boil the bagels for one minute, turning them at the halfway mark.
The bagels on the right have been boiled, those on the left not. You can see that they puff up a bit during this stage. It’s OK to put them close together on the baking sheet, as they won’t puff up much more during baking.
Bake as is, or coat with a bit of milk or an egg glaze (water+beaten egg) and the topping of your choice- sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion flakes. Even a bit of kosher salt is yummy on these sourdough bagels.
Easy Sourdough Bagels
Ingredients
- 2 cups sourdough starter
- 1 ¼ cups warm water if your starter is thick, use 1/4 cup more
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 5 ½ to 6 cups flour*
- 1 tablespoon salt
- optional ingredients for bagel dough**
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
For Topping:
- 1 egg***
- 1 tablespoon water
- Toppings of Choice sesame or poppy seeds, dried onion flakes, cheese, etc.
Instructions
- Mix starter, water, oil, flour, and salt together and then let rest for 10 minutes.
- Knead the dough with a dough hook on low speed for about 4 minutes - the dough will be very stiff.
- Transfer to a greased large bowl and let rise for 4 hours. Fold the dough over on itself 2 times (or try to- sometimes I don't always remember both folds)
- Pour out the dough onto a floured surface (a lightly floured tea-towel works great), knead a couple of times, flatten and cut into 12-18 equal pieces (about 5 oz. each).
- Shape the bagels by making each piece into a ball and using your thumb to punch a hole through the middle of the ball, stretching to make the center hole. Set the shaped bagels on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet (12 will fit on one large sheet, if making 18, use two smaller sheets) - they are known for sticking, so this will make removing them much easier.
- Cover the shaped bagels with a damp towel (the one used for cutting works great) and let sit for about an hour.
- Fill a large 12-inch skillet 1/2 to 3/4 full with water and add the tablespoon of soda. Bring it to a boil. Start the oven preheating to 450 degrees at this time.
- When the water is boiling, drop as many bagels as will fit, one at a time, into the boiling water. Boil for 1 minute, turning at the halfway mark. Use a slotted spoon to place the bagels back on the baking sheet. Continue until all the bagels have been boiled.
- Brush the bagels with an egg glaze (or milk) at this point if you wish, and top with your desired toppings.
- Bake for 14 to 15 minutes, alternating pans at the halfway point if needed. Cool on a rack.
Notes
- onion powder & dried flakes for onion bagels
- grated cheese for cheese bagels
- herbs
- raisins & cinnamon
Nutrition
More sourdough recipes you may like:
Easy and Delicious Sourdough Artisan Bread
Easy Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins
Sourdough Whole Wheat Crackers
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Lara says
Thank you for this recipe—it was easy and delicious and a great way to use up a lot of starter rather than discarding!
Jami says
Yay, so glad you tried these, Lara!
Rachel says
Your soft dinner rolls are my absolute favorite and when I delved into sourdough, I converted that tried and true recipe to use my starter. So now that I’ve come upon this bagel recipe, I can’t wait to try it!
Jami says
Wow, that’s awesome, Rachel! Would you care to share the sourdough conversion for the rolls? Are they still as soft? I’d love to try it!
Andrea says
I’m making these for the second day in a row. They’re fantastic and SO EASY to make.
Question: could I shape the bagels and then let them sit overnight in the fridge? Then take them out, boil them, and then bake? I’d love to have fresh bagels in the morning. Thanks!
Jami says
I’m so glad you like these, Andrea! I haven’t tried that with the bagels, though you certainly can – I’d just let the sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before boiling.
Lorna Greene says
Jami you don’t mention what size cutter to use when cutting the dough for bagels. Also you don’t mention 1 1/4 cup “warm” water you just say water. I’m really enjoying your recipes.
Thanks Lorna
Jami says
Hi Lorna, I don’t use a cutter – I show in the tutorial photos how I measure and cut the dough, shaping the bagels with my hands. I’ve updated the recipe to say warm water – thanks!