Sourdough bagels are savory, chewy, crusty, and deliciously tangy. These are an amazing way to start your morning or to enjoy for a yummy brunch.
Sourdough may be one of my favorite ways to start the morning, whether it be breakfast strata, pancakes, English muffins, crepes, or these delicious bagels.
It’s a delicious, easy, and filling way to start our busy days, fueled up.
Bagels may seem intimidating, but I promise that they really aren’t that difficult. It’s much like making any baked sourdough recipe, with the added step of cooking it in boiling water for a few minutes before baking.
These sourdough bagels have a yummy and tangy flavor, pairing really well with sweet or savory dishes. They’re a wonderful comfort food.
I love slathering cream cheese or homemade butter all over them.
Below, I share a few different variations and a bunch of bagel sandwich ideas.
Sourdough Bagel FAQ
Are all bagels sourdough?
No. They are typically leavened with either sourdough or commercial yeast. Unless they are specifically labeled as sourdough, you can expect bagels to be made with commercial yeast.
Why is there a hole in a bagel?
There is a hole for more even cooking throughout. This also helps with crust development.
Are bagels bad for you?
While they tend to be higher in calories, these simple sourdough bagels are made with wholesome ingredients and healthy fermented grains.
What do you eat bagels with?
There are so many ways to eat bagels. Most commonly, they are served with cream cheese. See below for sandwich recommendations.
Why are bagels boiled at first?
You boil bagels first to set the crust, which allows them to hold their shape in the oven. The longer you boil them, the thicker the crust. Boiling for 60 seconds on each side yields the perfect result. Although this step may seem silly, don’t skip it – it is one of the most important.
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Tips:
- Use a slotted spoon or ‘spider’ strainer to flip and pull the bagels out of the boiling water.
- If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can check out this post, where I show you exactly how to make a starter from scratch.
- Cook 2-4 bagels in the baking soda water at a time. Don’t overcrowd your pot.
- You can knead the dough by hand or use a stand mixer. A stand mixer is much easier and less time consuming.
Tools you may need:
Measuring cups and spoons
Large pot or dutch oven
Parchment paper
Topping ideas
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Sesame seeds
- Dried onion/dried garlic flakes
- Poppy seeds
- Everything But The Bagel seasoning
- Cinnamon sugar topping
Additional Bagel Add-Ins:
Mix in these extras into the dough right before forming into bagels:
Blueberries – add fresh blueberries
Cinnamon and raisins
Chocolate chips
How To Make Sourdough Bagels From Scratch
Add sourdough starter, water, honey, salt, and two cups of flour to a stand mixer.
Mix until it comes together, about 10 minutes on low speed. The dough will be really stiff and difficult to incorporate.
Add remaining flour, half a cup at a time. Use a dough hook and knead until it is smooth and pliable. You could also knead by hand, but the stand mixer makes this process much easier.
Cover dough with wet tea towel, plastic wrap, or beeswax wrap; allow to ferment for 8 to 12 hours. Don’t just cover with a dry towel, because it will create a hard skin on the top of your dough, which you don’t want.
After the dough has fermented, divide into 8 equal pieces.
Roll the dough into balls, flatten them down a bit, and poke a hole in the middle with your finger. Stretch the hole a bit to widen.
Cover with a tea towel and allow the dough to rise in a warm spot for two hours or until puffy. The time will depend on how warm your house is. It could take 1 to 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the baking soda and sugar.
Using a slotted spoon, gently add bagels to the water and boil for one minute, flip, then boil for another minute.
Shake off excess water and dip into desired toppings (optional).
Place boiled bagels on parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden on top.
Sourdough Bagel Sandwich Ideas
Truly, a sourdough bagel is a vessel for the yummy toppings you want to add.
- Breakfast sandwich – add a fried egg, bacon or sausage, cheese, and some lettuce for a yummy way to start your morning.
- Cream cheese and veggie. Spread cream cheese on bagel, add slices of tomato, cucumber, avocado (optional). Sprinkle with salt and enjoy.
- Avocado… bagel. Rather than toast. Add sliced avocado and sprinkle with salt.
- Locks – cream cheese and smoked salmon (locks) make a really delicious sandwich any time of day.
- Turkey club. Really any of your favorite lunch meat will do; top with slices of cheese, tomato, avocado, and an egg.
- Ham and cheese. Top with ham and a slice of Swiss or cheddar cheese. Bake it in the oven until the cheese starts to melt. Honey mustard takes this up a notch.
- Add chicken salad
Find More Sourdough Recipes:
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars!
Sourdough Bagels
Ingredients
- ½ cup sourdough starter, bubbly and active (113 grams)
- 1 cup water, 236 grams
- 2 tablespoons honey, 21 grams
- 2 teaspoons salt, 10 grams
- 4 cups unbleached all purpose flour, 560 grams
For boiling the bagels
- 2 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- Add sourdough starter, water, honey, salt, and two cups flour to a stand mixer.
- Mix until it comes together, about 10 minutes on low speed. The dough will be really stiff and difficult to incorporate.
- Add remaining flour, half a cup at a time. Use a dough hook and knead until it is smooth and pliable.
- Cover dough with wet tea towel, plastic wrap, or beeswax wrap and allow to ferment for 8 to 12 hours.
- After fermentation, divide into 8 equal pieces.
- Roll the dough into balls, flatten them down a bit, and poke a hole in the middle with your finger. Stretch the hole a bit to widen.
- Cover with a tea towel and allow the dough to rise in a warm spot for 1-4 hours or until puffy.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the baking soda and sugar.
- Using a slotted spoon, gently add bagels to the water and boil for one minute, flip, then boil for another minute.
- Shake off excess water and dip into desired toppings (optional).
- Place boiled bagels on parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden on top.
Notes
- Use a slotted spoon or ‘spider’ strainer to flip and to pull the bagels out of the boiling water.
- Cook 2-4 bagels in the baking soda water at a time. Don’t overcrowd your pot.
- You can knead the dough by hand or use a stand mixer. A stand mixer is much easier and less time consuming.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi, if I would like to freeze some is it better to do so after boiling or after they vome out of the oven?
Thank youfor the great recipe!
After they bake and cool I slice them in half and freeze some. They toast up great.
I am excited to try this recipe! Do you recommend feeding the starter before using in this recipe?
I use the starter when it as it’s peak, usually about 5 hours after feeding.
My timing was off with this recipe, I made it at 4:00pm. I am considering letting it ferment overnight, opinions? Should I just do 6 hours and put in fridge? Thanks Lisa!
You may have to stick it in the fridge. An overnight rise would be ok if you started the recipe at like 8 or 9 pm. But 4pm would likely be too long to wait until the next morning and you run the risk of over fermentation.
Great idea, thanks! Is the sourdough starter used in this recipe discard or “young”? Thank you.
I use the starter when it as it’s peak, usually about 5 hours after feeding.
Turned pretty good. I had to help my initial dough with adding yeast and water and then I had an experimental mishap…however, being the first time I will definitely give it another whirl!
Good luck! Hope the second round works for you.
I haven’t used my starter in a while, but these sound amazing! Definitely want to give them a try.
I’m learning about the lowered carbs in long fermented sourdough and tried to understand how many carbs are in each bagel. 1004 mg Carbohydrates equals just a tad over 1 gram?! If I’m right, this is a great bread for keto, or Trim Healthy Mama diets!
I know a blog takes a lot of work and I really have been praying for you! When I listened to your podcast where you talked about curbing your cell phone usage I praised the Lord! These years will fly by(people told me that a lot but with 13 children it didn’t feel like it to me till lately when we have only 2 teenagers at home) and the phone, others expectations for your family/business can rob you and your family of everything important. Be on guard for things that drain you. We had a family run farm with 300 CSA members that taught us this lesson. Keep your focus sweetheart!
Thanks for your recipes and helping me stay in touch with young moms! Sometimes I wish we were neighbors so I could come over and share what the Lord has taught me… Well I guess you can. I have a(not for profit) blog where I do just that.
Val Colvin
For thm they would recommend a whole wheat or spelt flour…. but even with white flour I would use it occasionally because it’s fermented!
It’s 61G carbs, sorry. Wouldn’t 1G be lovely though? 🙂
The 1004MG was for sodium.
Have you ever tried bagels with fresh ground flour? I have hard red, hard white and soft white. Which would you use? Possibly autolyse the flour and water for a hour before hand?
Thanks so much
I am wondering the same thing about fresh ground flour. I have loved and been so thankful for many of your recipes and how you use fresh ground flour. Curious if you have tried this recipe with fresh ground flour or not?
I have found that when it calls for the unbleached white flour a combination of hard and soft white wheat works really well! Thats what I do for her recipes and so far they have all turned out great, even the no knead sourdough bread!
Just half and half?
Really excited to try these! Thanks for the tutorial.
During the long fermentation does the dough double?
Boy does it ever
Mine didn’t. I’ve made em twice. The bagels still turn out great, and the proper size. 🤷🏻♀️
They’re in the oven! I’m so excited! My boiling process was a bit messy, cause I didn’t have the right spider tool so I had to improvise.. They’re smelling good… Thanks so much
Mine didn’t during the first fermentation, but for the second rise they still got big and puffy.
I can’t wait to make these! I fed my starter so I can get these going this evening!
These look sooo yummy, especially with all the toppings! I love TJ’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning. Bagels always intimidate me, I guess because of the boiling step, but going to have to try.
I just made these for the first time and the boiling was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be! They turned out great!
Wonderful to hear!
Hello. I have 3 kiddos and we are trying to get more into the all real foods swing of things.. but they are crazy picky so its been hard! Would these bagels and your other baked goods type recipes be good to freeze? Just trying to make things a bit easier and batch cook more things at a time, and we love bagels! Thank you
Yes! I often double this recipe and freeze half for later!
These taste amazing but mine keep coming out flat after boiling. Would that be due to under or over proofing? Thank you for all of these amazing recipes!
Yes. It could be. I had some come out flat because I didn’t allow them to rise enough for the second rise. They still came out ok, but not puffy like usual.