West coast bagels {in Los Angeles} don’t even compare to those on the east coast. I’ve only had two in my life during my visits to the east coast, but dannng were they good.
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Description
A recipe for easy fluffy bagels with that authentic bagel flavor and texture. After making these at home, you won’t ever want to eat store-bought bagels again!
Ingredients
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 3 ½ cups (500g) bread flour + more for kneading
- 1 ½ tsp salt
Top with (optional):
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- Everything bagel seasoning
Stuff with:
- Vegan carrot lox
- Homemade cream cheese or store-bought (we like Kite Hill Chive Cream Cheese)
- Thinly sliced red onions
- Fresh dill
- Capers
Instructions
- Mix the sugar and 1/2 cup of warm water together, and then pour over the yeast. Gently mix it together, and then allow it to sit for 15 minutes to activate.
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle, then add in the yeast and sugar mixture along with 3/4 cup of the remaining warm water. Mix well until a smooth dough forms. If it is too dry, add 1 tablespoon of the remaining 1/4 cup warm water at a time as needed. If it is too wet, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time as needed.
- Flour a countertop or large cutting board, and knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.
- Wet the inside of a clean large non-metal bowl with water, place the dough inside, and turn to coat until the outside is moist. Cover with a damp dish towel and set it to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it has doubled in size. Once risen, punch down the dough and set it aside for 10 minutes.
- Cover a baking sheet with silicon baking mat or parchment paper and set aside. Remove the dough from the bowl, and divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball– an example is on this page). Repeat with all of the dough.
- Coat your finger in flour, then press into the center of ball to form a ring. Stretch the dough balls into a rings about ⅓ the diameter of the bagel, then place onto the baking sheet. Cover with a damp towel and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 425ºF, and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Get your seasonings and almond milk ready as you will need that next.
- Once the water has boiled, reduce the heat to medium, and use a slotted spoon to lower as many bagels that fit comfortably into the water (we did 3). Once they to float to the top (a couple seconds), boil for 2 minutes, flip, then boil for another 2 minutes.
- Once all the bagels have boiled, transfer them to your lined baking sheet. Brush the dough with almond milk, and sprinkle with your seasoning.
- Bake the bagels 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Store in an air tight container for 4-5 days.
Notes
Original recipe by Sophisticated Gourmet.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 40 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Breakfast, Baked Goods
- Cuisine: Vegan
What timing you have, I have been wanting a good bagel for weeks now! Spring time = bagel cravings?? Idk 😀 But I seriously have 3 recipes bookmarked right now and just haven’t gotten around to trying them. I wish so much that my stomach could handle gluten right now I’d be making these today because they look so fluffy and so simple ingredient wise! Pinning this for topping ideas, because you have so many ideas here. Yum!
Haha soul sista!! You NEED these in your life. I am bummed gluten hurts your tummy :/ But hopefully you will be able to make some bagels, maybe gluten-free ones!
If I use all purpose, how much would I need?
[…] Sweet Simple Vegan […]
LITERALLY THE BEST. BAGELS.EVER. NOT EVEN JOKING!!!
THANK YOU! 🙂
Hi! I don’t understand step 1 – the wording is confusing to me. Is it 1/2 cup or 1/2 cup plus 1/2 cup of warm water? Scanning the recipe doesn’t help me because I can’t get it to add up. Recipe mentions mentions 1 ¼ cups / 300ml warm water (you may need ¼ cup /60ml more but directions do not add up to that with step 3 adding 1/3 (90ml). Feeling crazy like I’m missing something, please help. 🙂
Great eye, recipe has been updated!
I’m definitely going to make these once I get bread flour. Thank you! Do you have a recipe for almond cream cheese? (I love Kite Hill, but eventually I want to be able to make everything from scratch.)
Hi Katy! We don’t, but we have one for cashew cream cheese here: https://sweetsimplevegan.com/2018/08/cultured-cashew-cream-cheese/
I’ve made bagels with your recipe twice now. First was everything bagel and they turned out great. Second time was cinnamon raisin (half cup raisins and 3-4 tsp cinnamon during step 2.)
I’ll be making these every week. They are SO good.
Thank you so much for the recipe. Coming from the east coast I missed having good bagels. Here in California it’s hard to come by. I’m so happy I never have to buy overpriced bagels from the store again. 🙂
Ahhh, that makes us so happy to hear 🙂 Actually, that was the reason we also made this recipe! after Chris moved to California from New Jersey, he was in need of some good bagels and apparently the store-bought ones weren’t cutting it haha. We will be sure to try the raisin ones!
Hello Jasmine and Chris, your recipes look great!
But.. do you know that at the same time there are ads on your side of WMF, a knife cutting into a big piece of meat! Not so nice for a Vegan www!
Thanks, will try out the great bagel recipe!
An
We were not aware, thanks for letting us know! We don’t have control over those things but we can let our ad provider know to try and get rid of those!
Made these today with gluten free flour and they turned out awesome! I think I’ll be making these on a weekly basis now.
★★★★★
I made these last week, and they turned out great. I, too, forgot the sugar in the water bath, but didn’t miss it. Today, I might try to make mini bagels…. the other ones were fantastic, but as large as you’d get at a premium bagel store, and we ended up eating half at a time.
★★★★★
Can I use soy milk instead of almond milk?
Yes!
[…] full recipe can be accessed here. The bagels can be topped with almond milk and Everything bagel seasoning to make it more […]
I love baking and cooking, however I’m very inexperienced with breads and bagels. First time ever making bagels and I used this recipe and they turned out AMAZING!! Thank you so much for this recipe, I will definitely recommend it to family and friends!!
★★★★★
Hello!! Looking to try this as my country is in lockdown and the supermarket is a bit scary right now. Can these be frozen like store-bought?
Yes, they can be frozen. Stay safe and enjoy 🙂
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! I’ve never made bagels at home before, but since we’re all under quarantine here, I thought I’d give it a go. They were so fun to make (I never knew bagels were boiled prior to baking!), and I’m so pleased with how they came out. They taste just like bagels I would buy at the store, but with a much simpler ingredient list. Can’t wait to try flavor variations of this recipe in the future!
★★★★★
Do you know if I can substitute the sugar for coconut sugar?
Thank you
We’ve never tested it, but it should work 🙂
Just made these yesterday – wow! Delicious!! They’re soft and chewy on the inside and nicely crispy (when toasted) on the outside. Do you have a recipe or recommendations for making these with whole wheat flour (or 50/50)?
Glad you enjoyed them! If you want to use whole wheat flour, I would swap with up to 50% of the all-purpose flour!
Has anyone tried this with regular all-purpose flour, or is bread flour necessary?
All purpose will work!
Great recipe! Easy to follow but mine didnt fluff up much 🙁 They taste good though! Any suggestions or tips to making them fluff? Maybe I kneaded too much?
Thanks!
Hey! Glad you enjoyed the recipe, sorry to hear they didn’t fluff up as you wanted them to. A few things to try would be to let them rise in a warmer area or try a different yeast. Sometimes they don’t activate properly, which would cause the un-fluffiness.
Hope this helps 🙂
I just made these bagels and they are delicious! Wow, they definitely reminds me of the bagels I had in NYC. Great recipe as usual!
★★★★★
Have you tried these with whole wheat flour? Or almond flour? Just wondering about alternatives! Thank you!
You can substitute up to 50% of the flour with whole wheat flour. Wouldn’t recommend using almond flour, though!
Made these for the fist time today! So easy and so delicious, this will be regular addition in our home, so much better than store bought! Thank you!
★★★★★
[…] dells in search of wild garlic to make pesto. Back in the kitchen, she’s also been baking New York-style Bagels (I do loves me a bagel, so I might have to try these), Fruit Scones and Oatmeal & Raisin […]
Would love to try this recipe but can I use wholewheat flour
Whole wheat flour should work, but it may be denser than all-purpose flour. You can also cut the all-purpose flour by half with whole wheat so it will still be light and fluffy. Hope this helps 🙂
Hmmm…mine got stuck to the parchment paper. Was I supposed to spray it with nonstick spray? A real shame too because they were chewy and crisp.
So sorry to hear about that. Not sure why it stuck! We’ve made these so many times and haven’t had that issue. 🙁
Somehow when I click on five stars, it doesn’t let me, but…long overdue review, but these bagels are the best. Just like NYC and easy to make. No bread flour so used APF and 1 tbsp vital wheat gluten. I’m regularly asked to make these for the household and now make two batches at a time to last a couple weeks. Thanks for such an excellent recipe!
We live in Brooklyn. bagels have been a part of our life, though my 4 year old usually doesn’t finish hers because they can get a little tough for her teeth.
I have never made bagels before so was nervous when I made these ones for the first time for Father’s Day. They were a family hit. Everyone loved them, including the 4 year old who has asked me to make them twice this week. Amazing texture, great taste and easy to make. We used all purpose because when I sent my husband to the store to get baking flour, he didn’t realize it was different and brought me all purpose. They turned out good anyway.
★★★★★
I keep coming back to this recipe because it is the BEST! Thank you so much.
★★★★★
How many ml of water? I’m from Australia and our cup measurements are different haha would hate to use the wrong amount.
According to our calculations, it would be 354.882 ml – hope this helps!
Looking forward to trying these! Question…should the rise time be adjusted if using quick rise yeast?
We’ve never tested the recipe with quick yeast, so it’s hard to say. Sorry about that!
I am plant based, no oil, no sugar. Can I use white whole wheat flour and/or whole wheat flour in place of the bread flour? Also, can I leave out the sugar or substitute applesauce or banana in place of the sugar? Or maybe Pure Maple syrup in place of the sugar?
We typically recommend subtituing only to half of the flour with whole wheat flour, otherwise it will be more dense than desireable. As for the sugar, it’s essential for activating the yeast in order for the dough to rise. Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Chris
These are so delicious!y new go to recipe!
★★★★★
Delicious!
★★★★★
This was AMAZING!!!!!!
My husband literally cried when he tried them!
We live in Sweden and he is from the US but he hasn’t been able to have a fresh, warm bagel for 4 years!
He said he felt at home!
Thank you so much for making this recipe.
★★★★★
I have made this recipe for a couple of year and it never fails. It’s literally fail-proof. And they come out delicious. I made this for friends and family constantly. Thank you!!
★★★★★