Homemade cinnamon sugar bagels. Mmm can you think of anything better?! This recipe is simple and easy and a great weekend baking project. Get the kids involved if you have them, by letting them form the bagel shapes and add their own toppings and you have a fun activity for a cold or rainy day with delicious results!

Traditional Bagels:

Ever wondered where these amazing breakfast commodities come from? Or maybe you know the general place but not much else? Well bagels are traditionally a Jewish thing originating in Poland and actually go back as far as the 17 century. They are formed from a yeast and wheat dough (like this recipe), and formed by hand. You boil them first and then bake them.

Commercial bagels are usually steamed instead of boiled but when you're making them at home, I think traditional is always the way to go plus who has a commercial steamer in their house just ready to go?! A pot of boiling water is much more likely.

So even though this is a pretty traditional bagel recipe, the toppings can be anything but. We LOVE our cinnamon sugar bagels. Warm, fresh out of the oven, and that classic sweet cinnamon caramelized on top- YES PLEASE!

You can definitely go a different route, though, if cinnamon sugar isn't your thing. Honestly, make a few different toppings and do them all so you can have a different one for every mood.

• Poppy Seeds
• Everything Bagels- so yummy!!
• Sesame Seeds or Black Sesame
• Sea Salt
• Onion Salt
• etc...

Homemade Bagels:

Let's make some bagels! This recipe is honestly, simple, easy, and to the point. It's a basic wheat and yeast dough. So:

• Make the dough.
• Knead to form gluten.
• Rise.
• Form the shape.

The part that's different and unique to bagels is the next step. Boiling the bagels in a sugar water. The longer you boil, the chewier the crust will turn out after baking them. The boiling water can have malt syrup, molasses, or even honey. This recipe calls for brown sugar to enhance that cinnamon sugar caramelized flavor and help them brown up beautifully in the oven, but feel free to switch it up with the same measurement. And don't forget the baking soda 😉 This helps them to get really soft and fluffy.

Bagel Dough and Shaping:

When you've made the dough, knead it for about 20 minutes or so until it doesn't break so easily (window pane test works here- stretch the dough between your fingers and if it rips right away keep going a little more until it stretches instead of breaking). Let it rise for about 2 hours or until it's doubled in size. I always cover the bowl in plastic wrap to really trap those gasses from the yeast in there well helping all the science-y stuff happen that makes a good bread.

Once that is done, punch the dough down- yes literally punch it down with your fist, and you can start cutting into pieces and forming that classic bagel shape.

Get your boiling water going and the oven preheated to 425 while you are having fun making bagel shapes and getting toppings ready.

Boil the bagels for about a minute on each side and remove with a slotted spoon.

Dip the tops of the bagels into the toppings of choice (our favorite is the cinnamon sugar of course). Once they are lined up on a baking sheet with parchment paper, bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they start to get golden brown.

Enjoy eating these delicious homemade bagels up!

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If you like this recipe try out our homemade Oatmeal Honey Bread Machine Bread!