The Best Homemade Sourdough Bagels

I'm always thinking up creative ways to use my unfed sourdough starter after feeding it, like Sourdough Crumpets or Sourdough Gingerbread. When inspiration hits, experimentation follows.

Instead of making pizza dough or focaccia, some of my go-to recipes for sourdough starter discard, I thought about bagels. What if I substitute in my unfed sourdough starter for some of the flour and water and make Sourdough Bagels? Challenge accepted!

However, there’s some calculations to be done.

(Wait, there's math?) No worries, mate!

Altering a recipe for sourdough

The trick for adapting a recipe for sourdough is to weigh the amount of sourdough starter discard you have using a kitchen scale, then divide it by half. The result is the amount of flour and water, by weight, that you need to remove from the recipe.

(Side Note: this calculation is based on a sourdough starter that's 50/50 flour and water. If your sourdough starter has a different makeup, use your ratio to figure out how much flour and water you'll be replacing.)

The bagel recipe I adapted called for 4 cups of flour and 1½ cups of water (that’s 17 ounces of flour and 12 fluid ounces, respectively). A week's worth of sourdough starter discard is about 8 ounces, so for this sourdough bagel recipe, I need to remove 4 ounces (1 cup, about 113 grams) of flour and 4 ounces (½ cup, 113 grams) of water and replace it with the discard.

Does your brain hurt? I’m sorry. Here, have a sourdough bagel.

What you need

After making the necessary flour and water substitutions, the rest of a homemade bagels recipe, as they say, is history.

Ok, that's not what they say.

The ingredients for bagel making include the usuals, like bread flour, yeast, sugar (brown sugar, in this case), and salt, in addition to the starter discard.

Honey is used in a water bath to boil the bagels (more on that later), and an egg is used with a tablespoon of water to brush on the dough before baking for a shiny finish. The bagels can also be enhanced with optional toppings, like sesame seeds or a seasoning blend.

How to make bagels at home

Step 1: Prove the yeast (optional)

This first step is optional if you want to prove (aka proof) the yeast (i.e. making sure it's alive and well). I don't normally do this step when I make bread dough because I use instant yeast which doesn't need it (as opposed to Active Dry yeast, which does). I usually just dump everything into the mixing bowl.

Whether you choose to prove your yeast is up to you, and I've included it here for demonstration purposes. For more detail on proving yeast, head to Pro Tip #2 on my Cranberry Cinnamon Babka post.

Heat ¾ cup (170 grams) of water until it’s warm to the touch, about 100 to 110°F as read on a digital thermometer. Stir in 1 teaspoon of the sugar, then sprinkle the yeast over the water and set aside to proof for about 5 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface of the water (photo 1).

Step 2: Make the bagel dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, combine the flour, sourdough starter discard, brown sugar, yeast (if you didn't prove the yeast earlier), and salt. Pour in the water (or the water/yeast mixture) into the bowl (photo 2).

Beat on low speed for 2 minutes, then knead for 4 to 5 minutes. Add in additional flour or water in one tablespoon increments to get the dough to the right texture. The amount of flour or water in your dough will depend on the humidity of your kitchen and the hydration of your starter. As you mix your dough, you might need to add more flour or water in one tablespoon increments to get the dough to the right consistency.

Once you've got the dough to a smooth and slightly sticky texture that springs back up when lightly pressed, it's time to let it rise.

Lightly grease a large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes or until double in size (photo 3). The inside of the oven with just the light on works well.

For an overnight bagel recipe, prepare the bagel dough as directed. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, leave on the counter for about 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to rise overnight. This slow rise allows the bagels to develop more flavor. In the morning, allow the dough to come to room temperature for an hour on the counter before continuing with shaping. I don't recommend allowing shaped bagels to rise overnight as they may puff up too much in the refrigerator.

Step 3: Shape the bagel dough

After making the bagel dough and letting it rise, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a hole about 1½ to 2 inches in diameter (photo 4).

Widen the hole to about 1- to 2-inches in diameter (photo 5). It's a similar process to making Jerusalem Bagels, just with not such a big hole.

Loosely cover the shaped bagels with a kitchen towel and rest for a few minutes as you prepare the water bath.

Step 4: Boil the bagels

Fill a 4- to 8-quart stock pot with 2 quarts of water and whisk in the honey. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-high.

Drop the bagels in, 2 to 4 at a time, making sure they have enough room to float around. Cook the bagels for 1 minute on each side, or 2 minutes per side if you want a chewier bagel (photo 6). This step pre-cooks the dough, giving the bagel its characteristic chewiness.

Step 5: Bake the bagels

Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. Dip the bagel in any toppings, if desired (see the Pro Tip below for more). Place 4 bagels onto each lined baking pan.

Bake at 425°F for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. You want the bagels to be a dark golden brown (photo 8). Remove from the oven and allow bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Questions asked and answered

Here are some questions you might have...

Pro tip: Make a variety of bagel flavors

You can enhance plain sourdough bagels by adding mix-ins (like cinnamon and raisins) while creating the dough. You can also top the bagels by rolling or dunking them into a topping after brushing them with the egg wash before baking. Here are some ideas for different bagel flavors to get you started:

• Cheese Bagels (Asiago, Cheddar, etc): Fold in ½ cup of shredded cheese to the dough ingredients right after kneading (like I do when making Sourdough Jalapeño Chedder Bread). Sprinkle the shaped bagels with extra shredded cheese after the egg wash
• Cinnamon Raisin bagels: Add 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the bagel ingredients when making the dough. Fold in ½ cup raisins to the dough after kneading
• Whole wheat bagels: Replace half of the bread flour with whole wheat flour when making the dough
• Everything Bagels: use ⅓ cup Everything bagel seasoning
• Sesame Seed Bagels: use ⅓ cup sesame seeds
• Poppy Seed Bagels: use ⅓ cup poppy seeds
• Salt Bagels: use ⅓ cup coarse salt. These are pretty salty, so feel free to go lighter on the salt

Soft, chewy, and delicious

These sourdough bagels have a wonderful sourdough tang from the sourdough starter discard, yet still retain that bagel chewiness. The inside is soft and tender, and toasts up beautifully.

Also, my kitchen smells like a bagel shop when I make them. That alone is worth it!

You can toast your bagels with a shmear of cream cheese (my way) or eat them warm and whole (my husband's way). Or another way entirely. I won't judge.

However you enjoy your sourdough bagels, try making them yourself!