Homemade Sourdough Bagels

• servings: 12 servings
• active time: 1 hour
• total time: 13 hours 22 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups (460 g) room temperature water

3/4 cup (170 g) ripe and bubbly sourdough starter (see note)

6 cups (850 g)bread flour

1 tablespoon (15 g) salt

3 tablespoons (60 g) honey

3 quarts water

3 to 4 tablespoons honey

1 large egg white

1 tablespoon water

Sesame seeds, Everything Bagel seasoning, grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese, coarse salt, cinnamon and sugar, etc.

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine all the dough ingredients and knead for 5 to 7 minutes until a smooth, stiff ball of dough forms that clears the bottom and sides of the bowl. The dough will likely be thicker and stiffer than other traditional bread doughs; that's normal. The dough will soften as it ferments and rises overnight. Add additional flour only if the dough is very sticky. Add additional water only if the dough is struggling to come together in a ball and has dry floury patches. (See note below about how the consistency of the sourdough starter may impact the dough.)

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased large bowl, cover, and let the dough rest at room temperature (ideally around 70 to 72 degrees F) for 12 to 14 hours until doubled and very puffy.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased countertop and cut into 12 equal pieces, about 128 g/4.5 ounces each. Form each piece of dough into a taut, round ball. Let the dough balls rest for 15 to 30 minutes to relax the gluten (this will make them easier to form into bagel shape without the dough springing back).

Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly grease with cooking spray.

Take each dough ball and press a hole through the center. Using your two thumbs and middle fingers, stretch and turn the dough until the hole widens and the dough forms a bagel shape. Place each shaped bagel on the prepared baking pans (six bagels per half sheet pan).

For the water bath, bring the water and honey to a boil in a large saucepan.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Transfer the bagels, three or four at a time, to the simmering water. I like to gently re-stretch the center of the bagel if it has closed up while the bagels have rested. This is optional; if you do the same, make sure to stretch gently so as not to deflate and compress the bagel.

Cook the bagels for 1 minute. Flip and cook for another minute. Use a wide spatula to lift each bagel up, letting the excess water drain back into the pot. Place the boiled bagels onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them several inches apart. I bake six bagels per half sheet pan.

Repeat with the remaining bagels.

For the egg wash, whisk together the egg and water. Brush the top and sides of each bagel and then sprinkle with desired toppings: sesame seeds, everything bagel seasoning, cinnamon and sugar, coarse salt, grated Asiago or Parmesan cheese, or other toppings of choice. If leaving the bagels plain, the egg wash is optional. (I think it helps with the color so use it even if leaving plain.)

Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove the bagels from the oven, and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely (don't let them cool completely on the baking sheet as they have a tendency to stick due to the sugar/water bath).

Notes

10/13/25. Made levain at 1:45 pm, 57, 57, 57 g each, but that isn’t enough since you can’t get it all out of the jar. Try 61 g each. I mixed the dough at 6:30 pm using Bosch but used 505 g flour vs 580. At 6:44 took downstairs in 6 qt cambro bucket but brought it up to kitchen at 9:30 pm. At 5 am on Tuesday (10/14) it was ready so divided into 12 bagels of 123 g each approx since I used less flour. I worked the wholes with my fingers several times to keep them open before letting them rest (try 10 minute rest) and boiling them. Preheated oven to 450 degrees. After boiling the bagels I put them on frying rack lightly greased with cookie sheet underneath to drain for a minute before putting them on the pan to bake. When I put the pans in the oven I reduced the temperature to 435 (for high altitude). Baked one pan on the lowest bottom rack and the other on 4th rung from the bottom. After cooking 14 minutes, I changed the pans from top to bottom and cooked another 15 minutes. Then I switched the pans again and cooked another 3 min. The internal temperature was 201.

*Next time try making cinnamon raisin by adding 1 TBS cinnamon to dough before mixing. The last 1 to 1 1/2 minutes of mixing add 3/4 cup raisins (rinsed in hot water) and 1 tsp additional cinnamon.

Sourdough Starter/Flour Amount: I make these bagels using a sourdough starter with a 1:1:1 ratio. It is thick but pourable. If the sourdough starter you are using is thinner or thicker, you may need to adjust the flour amount for the bagel dough up or down. Judge the amount of flour by the look and feel of the dough – the dough should form a stiff ball that is not overly soft and sticky (but it shouldn’t have any dry patches of flour). If you live in a really dry climate, at high elevation, or have a super thick starter, start with 5 cups flour and add the rest gradually (and only if needed).

Make sure the sourdough starter has been fed and is ripe and bubbly before using in the recipe.

Timing: For a sourdough starter with a 1:1:1 ratio, I use the following timeline for this recipe:

-Day 1: between 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. feed sourdough starter

-Day 1: 9:00 p.m. make dough, cover, leave out at room temperature.

-Day 2: 9:00 a.m. (give or take an hour) form dough into balls and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

-Day 2: 9:30 a.m. shape bagels, boil water.

-Day 2: 10:00 a.m. boil bagels, add toppings, bake bagels.

The dough can rest in bulk for 12 to 14 hours at room temperature. If your schedule requires the dough to rest longer, refrigerate and cold ferment the dough (up to 3 days).

Hi Bonnie, you can do either. I’ve let the bagels go through the long ferment at room temp and towards the end, I’ve put them in the fridge for a day because I didn’t have time to shape and bake them. You can also put the dough in the refrigerator right away after making it and it can stay in the fridge for several days. In that case, the dough likely won’t rise very much in the fridge, so take it out a day before shaping the bagels so it has time to come to room temperature and rise.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 bagel
• Calories: 257 kcal
• Total Fat: 1 g
• Saturated Fat: 0.2 g
• Sodium: 601 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 53 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2 g
• Total Sugars: 5 g
• Protein: 8 g