Easy Gluten Free Bagels

• servings: 8 servings
• active time: 45 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

30 g (6 tbsp) whole psyllium husk (If using psyllium husk powder, use only 25g.)

540 g (2¼ cups) lukewarm water

220 g (1¾ cups + 2½ tbsp) tapioca starch

220 g (1½ cups + 2 tbsp) millet flour, plus extra for flouring the surface

80 g (½ cup + 2 tbsp) sorghum flour

20 g (1½ tbsp) caster/superfine or granulated sugar

12 g (2 tsp) salt

8 g (2½ tsp) instant yeast (If using active dry yeast, use 10g.) **6 g for high altitude

20 g (1½ tbsp) olive oil or a neutral-tasting oil, such as sunflower oil

2-3 tbsp molasses, for boiling the bagels

1 US large/UK medium egg, whisked, for brushing the bagels before baking

2-3 tbsp sesame seeds, or other toppings of choice (such as poppy seeds, flaky sea salt or everything bagel seasoning)

Directions

Oven setup & preheating the oven:

Start preheating the oven before you start making the bagels – it needs to be thoroughly preheated by the time the bagels are ready to be baked.

If you can fit all eight bagels onto a single, large baking sheet (large oven): Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, preheat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC) and line a large baking sheet with parchment/baking paper.

If you need to bake two trays at once (smaller oven): Adjust one oven rack to the middle position and the other one to the lowest position. Preheat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.

Making the dough:

You can prepare the dough using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment or by hand.

Make the psyllium gel: In a bowl, mix together the psyllium husk and lukewarm water. After about 30-45 seconds, a gel will form.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer (if using), whisk together the tapioca starch, millet flour, sorghum flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast.Tip: If using active dry yeast instead, you need to activate it first. Mix it together with the sugar and 120g (½ cup) of the water listed in the recipe (note that that means you'll use less water to make the psyllium gel). Set aside for 5-10 minutes, or until the mixture starts frothing. Then, add it to the dry ingredients along with the psyllium gel and oil.

Add the oil to the psyllium gel, and mix well to combine.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the psyllium gel-oil mixture.

Knead the dough until it's smooth and all the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to occasionally scrape along the sides and bottom of the bowl to prevent any dry patches of unmixed flour.The final dough should be smooth, supple and quite firm, with no lumps of un-mixed flour or psyllium gel, and it should come away from the sides of the mixing bowl. It shouldn’t be sticky to the touch.

Shaping the bagels (the rope method):

I usually don’t flour my work surface at all when shaping the bagels, but you can lightly sprinkle it with some millet flour if needed. When it comes to shaping the bagels, you can use either the rope method or the "poke-a-hole-in-a-ball" method (see blog post for details and step-by-step photos). I prefer to use the rope method, which is detailed below.

Turn out the dough onto your work surface, give it a gentle knead, shape it into a ball and divide it into 8 equal portions, each should weigh about 142g.

Flatten a portion of dough into a small rectangle or oval (the exact dimensions don’t matter). Working along the wider end, fold the dough over itself and press down gently to seal. Continue folding the dough over itself (and pressing down to seal) so that you’re essentially rolling it up into a small log.

Use the palms of your hands to roll the dough back and forth until you get a roughly 10-inch (25cm) rope. It should be of equal thickness all the way across (from the middle right to the ends).

If you floured your work surface, wet the ends of the rope slightly so they’ll be able to stick to each other. (If you didn’t flour your work surface, the surface of your dough rope should be slightly tacky, which allows the dough to stick to itself.)Overlap the ends by about 1 inch (2.5cm) and gently press them together. Put two or three fingers through the hole in the centre and use them to roll the dough back and forth where the ends overlap to seal them.

Transfer the shaped bagels onto a lightly floured baking sheet. Make sure to space them apart, as they will puff up during proofing.

Proofing:

Lightly cover the bagels with a sheet of plastic wrap/cling film (to prevent them from drying out) and proof them for 30-40 minutes, until they’re slightly puffed up but not yet doubled in size. I usually proof them in a warm spot on the kitchen counter.Tip: These bagels require a relatively short proofing time. It’s very important that you *don’t* proof them until they’ve doubled in size – such bagels are overproofed and will collapse during boiling and baking, giving you a very tight, dense crumb and a sad, pancake-like final appearance.

Boiling the bagels:

Fill a large, wide pot with water and mix in the molasses. The exact amount of water will depend on the size of your pot, just make sure that it's at least 2½ inches (6-7cm) deep, so you can easily flip the bagels over (if it's shallower than that, it can be tricky to flip them over).

Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-high.

Drop in the proofed bagels, 2-4 at a time, depending on the size of your pot. Make sure that they have enough space around them to float around.

Boil the bagels for 30-45 seconds on the first side, then flip them over and boil on the other side for a further 30-45 seconds.

Remove the bagels from the boiling water with a skimmer spoon (or similar) and place them onto a wire rack placed over a baking sheet to drain for about a minute or two. Then, transfer them to a lined baking sheet – make sure that they’re well spaced out (by at least 2-2½ inches/5-6cm), as they’ll expand during baking due to oven spring.

Brush the bagels with the egg wash and sprinkle generously with toppings of choice.

Baking the bagels:

If you can fit all eight bagels onto a single, large baking sheet (large oven): Place the bagels into the oven, on the middle oven rack, and immediately reduce the oven temperature from 450ºF (230ºC) to 400ºF (200ºC). Bake for about 26-30 minutes, until the bagels are deep golden brown.

If you need to bake two trays at once (smaller oven): Place one baking sheet on the middle oven rack and the other on the lowest oven rack, and immediately reduce the oven temperature from 450ºF (230ºC) to 400ºF (200ºC).Bake for about 13-14 minutes, or until the top bagels are light golden. Then, swap the two trays and bake for 16-17 minutes longer, about 30 minutes in total, until all the bagels are evenly deep golden brown. If necessary, you can swap the trays again for the last minute or two of the bake.

Once baked, transfer the bagels to a wire rack to cool at least until warm. Don’t be tempted to cut into them while they’re still super hot from the oven – their crumb needs some time to properly set, and if you cut into them straight away, you’ll find their interior quite sticky.

Storage & toasting:

These gluten free bagels are at their very best on the day of baking. However, they keep really well for up to 3 days in a closed container at room temperature (or in a cool, dry place), you just need to toast them before serving.I usually toast them sliced in half in a regular toaster. That returns the interior crumb back to its original soft yet chewy texture and, at the same time, crisps up the crust.

Notes

10/13/25 I added 15 g water for high altitude. I boiled 2 at a time for 45 seconds on each side. I cooked on 2 pans as directed with the pizza stone on the rack 4th from bottom. Cooked 13 minutes, then rotated pans and cooked 16 minutes, rotated pans again and cooked 2 more minutes. They looked good but I don’t think they cooked long enough as they were a bit gummy. Maybe due to high altitude only reduce temperature to 425. I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on the tops of some after the egg wash.

**See Sally’s recipe for cinnamon raisin bagels and add 3/4 cup raisins, 3 Tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. See her directions for the way she does it.

* If that doesn’t work then MAYBE try adding 1 TBS cinnamon to dough when mixing and add 1/2 cup raisins (rinsed in hot water) the last few minutes of mixing. Maybe increase sugar a bit for cinnamon raisin???? One person posted they added 1 TBS cinnamon sugar per bagel so 8 TBS cinnamon sugar. Mix 1 TBS cinnamon with 1/4 cup sugar so try just adding that total amount vs just cinnamon.

Optional: If you want to improve oven spring even further, you can preheat your oven with a baking steel or baking stone inside. Then, place the baking sheet with the bagels directly onto the hot baking steel/stone and bake as per the recipe above.