Easy Bagels Recipe for homemade bagels to make at home

Homemade Bagels are actually really easy to make. My kids love them. We do eat traditional bagels with gluten-based flour, I haven’t tried making gluten-free ones yet, but these are so easy, I might look at how to adapt the recipe.

Bagels are great for snacks, with all sorts of fillings, in lunchboxes or when you just are bored of bread (as if that is possible) and these are simple to make and are a great baking activity with kids too.

You will need

450 g (1 lb) strong white flour

1½ tsp salt

1/2 a tsp of yeast , about 7 g

3 eggs

1 tsp clear honey

2 tsp sunflower oil

200 ml (7 fl oz) tepid water

Sesame or poppy seeds if you like to add crunch to the topping.

A pan of salted, boiling water.

Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt and yeast. Make a well in the centre.

Lightly whisk 2 of the eggs with the honey and oil, and pour into the well in the flour. Add the water and mix to a soft dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover with a damp tea-towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

We then gave the children a small bowl of dough each, and let them make small balls, which they flattened and poked a hole in, to form the bagel shape. If you are doing the bagels “properly” you can roll the dough into a sausage shape and form a ring, but the children found this a bit fiddly, the hole poking was much more fun!

Take 2 or 3 bagels at a time and drop them gently into the boiling water, and let them cook for 20 seconds. This was great fun too, the children can do the counting. Take them out and place them on a tray lined with baking paper. Repeat until all the bagels are poached.

Using the last egg, which you can beat lightly, brush each bagel, and if you like, sprinkle with some poppy or sesame seeds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 for 20 minutes or so, until the bagels are golden and firm.

Allow to cool, and then enjoy. They keep for about 2 day in a bread bin but don’t last that long in our house.

You will be surprised like I was at how easy homemade bagels are to make, and also to eat… 😉