Homemade bagels. Easy? Yep! It's true. Just 5 ingredients is all you need to make these baked bagels. Lower your carbs and get some protein plus flavor with the help of Greek yogurt.
Homemade bagels, really? That's possible?
Yep. Never in my life would I have thought I'd find myself making my own bagels. I don't know why the thought really never crossed my mind. Homemade bread? Sure. But bagels? That's a whole other level I thought was out of my reach. The boiling I think is what scared me. It sounded complicated and I like things that are easy.
Yet, here we are...
These bagels are baked, no boiling required.
Come to find out you don't need to boil bagels. You can learn more about why the pros boil bagels, but essentially it creates a thicker more chewy crust. And to be honest, I always toast my bagels anyway to get rid of the chewy crust. So my lazy brain says, why boil them then?
You don't need to. In fact you'll get a lighter, less dense bagel if you don't boil them and I actually prefer that as well. Dense bread makes me feel like I'm instantly gaining 5lbs with every bite so the lighter, the better in my opinion.
No lye required.
The second part about homemade bagel-making that was a little scary was the lye. It's so dangerous you need gloves and goggles to use it! That sounds kind of fun actually but not really something I want to get into if I'm making bagels on the reg. So I did a little research to find out if you need to use lye when making bagels.
Here's what I found out: Lye is what gives the bagel its brown color and unique flavor. Hmmm... sounds kind of important. But as I read more I discovered you can achieve those qualities in other ways. Baking soda, in fact, is supposed to have a very similar flavor as lye once baked.
"Great," I thought! You're going to need that to get the bagels to rise anyway. Two birds with one stone. I like it. And for the brown color. If color is really that important to you, then you can get that with an egg wash. The egg wash also serves to help your toppings stick so again, two birds with one stone. See, lazy cooking is all about efficiencies and making legit excuses for leaving out extra steps and ingredients. So, yes, you can make delicious bagels without lye and it'll be just fine.
No yeast required.
Finally, I thought there was yeast involved. And some bagel recipes do call for yeast. Me no likey yeast though. The fact that yeast is a living thing and that it may or may not activate is a risk I'm not very willing to take. It doesn't jive with my lazy ways of finding things in the cabinet about to expire and using them anyway.
Guess what though? Things rise without yeast. You just need to employ the magical powers of baking powder yet again. Magical yet humble. It just sits there, patiently, on the top shelf of the cabinet, not taking up much room then comes to rescue when you need flavor and air bubbles. Love it.
Easy to make on the first try.
So. How did I end up getting into all this bagel-making research? Well, I stumbled upon a recipe posted by Skinny Taste for 5-ingredient bagels. No yeast. No boiling. No lye. I liked the sound of that. I read her tips, (You can read them too here) and was able to make delicious homemade bagels on the first try! So, I'm confident you can too.
My ingredients are the same as her recipe but method slightly different (lazier). There's truly only five ingredients (plus toppings) and you can even reduce the ingredients down to TWO if you use self-rising flour. But that requires you to actually have self-rising flour and I typically only have regular flour. So, five it is.
Make it an Everything Bagel!
You can find Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel topping on Amazon or obviously, at Trader Joe's if you're lucky enough to live close to one.
Make these low-carb and gluten free with almond flour.
Looking to cut carbs without giving up your beloved bagels? These can be made low carb and gluten free. Yes, homemade low carb baked bagels will be your new best friend if you've previously had to give up eating bagels. They don't taste like a typical bagel, they are a bit chewier, more crumbly and almost have a cheesy flavor to them, but they are pretty darn close for a gluten free option.
Please note you will need twice as much almond flour as yo would all purpose flour to form the dough
Lower carb using all purpose flour as well.
These bagels can be made with all purpose flour, bread flour, or almond (gluten free flour). Just note the difference in amounts you'll need in the recipe ingredient list.
While these homemade bagels made with all purpose flour are are not a "low carb food" necessarily, they do have far fewer carbs than a traditional bagel. These bagels have approximate 15 grams of carbs compared to a traditional bagel with about 29 grams of carbs. (without toppings)
I love a hearty layer of whipped cream cheese.
For healthier toppings, you can go with avocado, egg white, light cream cheese or even just just a sprinkle of cheddar cheese and then toasted is good.
I also love these bagels topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon (lox), fresh dill and sliced red onion. Capers too if I want to get really fancy. So rich and delicious!
Shown here is one of these baked bagels topped with a poached egg. (You can learn how to poach an egg here.)
What's best, all purpose flour, bread flour or almond flour?
All Purpose Flour
This is the most common flour people have on hand and it works great to make these bagels. The dough is easy to work with and the texture is dense yet airy.
Bread Flour
Bread flour is the best choice for making these. However, it's not common that you stock this in your pantry unless you make a lot of homemade bread. When you use bread flour, your bagels will be chewier and more like a traditional bagel. So if you have time and space in your pantry to get this special flour, you'll get the best results.
Almond Flour
Almond flour is going to be a great gluten-free option and will produce a lower carb bagel. The texture is going to be more grainy and has a flavor that's different than a typical bagel. To me it has a cheesy flavor to it. Not bad! But just different than what you expect from a bagel. You also need TWICE AS MUCH almond flour as you do bread or all purpose flour.
You can also try a half and half blend of regular flour and almond flour. Just keep in mind, you'll need substitute twice as much almond flour as regular flour to make these come together.
Do you recommend using bread flour then?
Yes. I do. Bread flour creates a chewier texture than all purpose flour which makes these taste more like a traditional bagel. However, if you don't have time to run to the store or don't want another bag of flour in your pantry, all purpose flour works well too.
Could you use self-rising flour?
I have heard you can and eliminate the need to add baking powder. I have not tried it myself though so please comment if you have and let me know how it turned out. My concern would be, these require a lot of baking powder to puff up, so there may not be enough in self-rising flour.
How does the nutrition vary based on type of flour used?
Greatly! Check out this comparison I created using Nutrition facts generated but ReciPal. This recipe is shown made with bread flour vs. almond flour vs. a Lender's brand bagel for comparison. Please note nutrition facts may vary by brand of ingredients used. To generate your own brand-specific nutrition facts, go to ReciPal.com.
Note: All purpose flour results not shown but do vary most significantly by calories (190), carbs (35g), fiber (0g), and protein (9g).
Helpful tools for making these bagels
You really don't need anything special to make these other than a little bold confidence and trust. It does help if you have silicon baking sheets or parchment paper though.
Watch the how-to video to see how to make these step-by-step:
Other Breakfast Ideas
Are you a breakfast person? Browse all my breakfast recipes
These 5 ingredient easy baked bagels were featured on Make Life Pretty, Wow Me Wednesday and South your Mouth!
Easy Baked Bagels (5 Ingredients)
Ingredients
- 2 cups bread flour recommended -or- all purpose flour -or- 4 cups almond flour
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups plain Greek Yogurt
- 1 egg
- Topping ideas: Everything bagel topping dried onions, poppyseeds, sesame seed, salt, etc.!
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add Greek yogurt and blend just until lumpy dough forms. *Do not over mix the dough or this may result in flat bagels*
- Divide dough into 8 equal parts.
- Grab the first chunk of dough and roll it around using your hands, pressing it together to compact it. Then poke a hole in the center and gently squeeze the dough all the way around to enlarge the circle. The hole in the center should be about 2" wide.
- Place the bagel-shaped dough onto a lined lightly floured baking pan. Repeat until all bagels are formed and placed onto the baking sheet, leaving space between each so they have room to expand. I put four bagels on each baking sheet.
- In a small bowl or cup, beat the egg then brush it onto each bagel. Add your toppings.
- Bake on the upper rack at 400˚ in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes before cutting. Toast and add toppings as desired.
Loved your recipe I have tried the boiling method and although it was successful I do prefer your method so much less work. I did however experience the sticky dough, I know it is supposed to be it was overly sticky I couldn't work with it at all without adding more flour but then I was concerned about overworking the dough. I'm not sure why mine was so sticky.
Thanks for the feedback Karen. You could try flouring your hands or even just your finger tips to work with the dough to help prevent sticking. You could also try working the dough on parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet.Hope this helps. Thanks again for sharing your experience. 🙂
I’ve been making these as needed and my family really likes them. I’ve added cheese to some, dried blueberries to others, and white chocolate chips and dried raspberries to some others. And did chocolate chips. My 10 month old loves the cheese bagels and my fiancé loves the other flavours (he suggested them). I also made everything bagels to and those were just amazing.
Hi,
Thanks for the awesome recipe! Unfortunately the calories are underestimated for the bread flour version 🙁
Per bagel, It would be around 379 kcal, 11g protein, 31g carb, 2g fat
Hi Johnny, What did you use to calculate the nutrition facts? I used an app which calculates nutrition based on ingredients and amount of each. Thanks for the feedback.
My first attempt produced flat bagels, like everyone else is experiencing. Yes, I used baking powder and yes it’s fresh. My second attempt was very different! Big fluffy bagels!! The difference is how much I mixed the dough. I was careful the second time not to over work it.
I think that may be the issue for others. If you push past that sweet spot, dough will lose its air and fall.
So, my advice is, mix the yogurt until it’s mostly blended, then use your hands to finish and flour on your counter to help this process. Divide into 8, make each bagel and put them in the oven right away. Have it pre heated. This will help the dough not fall as well. If you wait too long to put them in, they may also fall.
Hope this helps everyone! Cheers! It’s a fantastic recipe!
Thanks so much for sharing this, Jennefer! I'm going to update the directions based on your feedback as I think this will help prevent others from having issues. Really appreciate you taking the time to share your tips. 🙂
You’re so welcome!! I hope it helps. I love your website! Question, how many cals are in the bagels? I read your carb content, but curious about the calories for both options (almond flour as well). Thank you!! Cheers~ Jennefer
Good question, Jennefer. Thanks for giving me a little time to gather some info on this. I used a Nutrition Facts generator to create a comparison between making this recipe using bread flour vs. almond flour vs. a Lender's bagel for comparison. It's very interesting to see how the nutrition completely changes with this one swap. I posted the results above towards the end of the post, for others who may have been wondering about this also.
Wow love these. How should I store the remaining ones? Can I freeze them?
Hi Monique, Glad you liked them! I store them in a sealed container or plastic bag at room temperature. This locks moisture in so they don't dry out, and they can stay out at room temp for 3-4 days before you'd have to worry about mold. You can also store them in the fridge and they'll last a bit longer. You can freeze them as well. You may want to slice each bagel in half before you freeze so you can separate them easily and toast them without having to thaw first. Thanks for asking!
They turned out is flat. I don't know where I went wrong. But the dough was sticky as well. I had to add a little more flour
Hi Jenny, I'm so sorry these didn't turn out for you. The dough should be sticky so that is OK, but they should absolutely rise. There are two main things to check that could cause flat bagels. 1.) Make sure you're using non-expired baking powder (and make sure it is powder and not soda). This is the only rising agent so if it's too old to activate, then your bagels will not to rise. 2.) If you are using almond flour, you have to make sure you're using double the amount of flour because it's made of almonds and not actual grains, you literally need twice as much. The ingredients list specifies how much you need. Let me know if you have questions and I appreciate feedback. Hope you give these a try again as many people have had success and enjoyed these.
Wondering why in the list of ingredients it says baking powder and in the instructions it says soda. I wasn't sure what to use so I went with powder. they did not rise at all for me.
Hi Natalie, thank you for asking. You need to use baking powder. (Baking powder only requires liquid to activate so is a better choice for this recipe). Unfortunately it is prone to not working unless it's fresh. So, if the baking powder you're using is expired, there's a good chance that's why these didn't rise. I'm sorry you didn't have good luck with these. I personally have had good luck with the brand Clabber Girl baking powder:
Here's a test you can do to see if your baking powder is still good before you start your recipe next time: Take a 1/2 tsp of the baking powder and carefully add a 1/4 cup boiling water to it. It should bubble rapidly if it's still good. If it doesn't bubble, then it's time to toss it.
Update: I made these again with gluten-free almond flour and regular flour. You need to use twice as much flour if you use almond flour. If you only use 2 cups of almond flour, then the bagels will be somewhat flat.
The bagels shown in the recipe photos were made using 2 cups of all purpose flour.
The bagels shown here, are ones I made with 4 cups of almond flour (all other ingredient amounts remain the same):
I followed your recipe exactly and they came out as flat as pancakes. They look nothing like your pictures. How did you get yours to stay thick?
Hi Connie, I’m so sorry this didn’t work for you. A couple quick things to check: 1.) Make sure your baking powder is not old or it can loose it's ability to make things rise. 2.) Make sure you're using baking powder (not soda).
The type of flour you use also makes a difference. If using almond flour, you'll need to use more of it than regular flour, up to twice as much.
I am going to try making these again soon with almond flour and regular flour to see if I can offer you more tips for success. Thank you for the feedback. I will post an update for you as soon as I’m able to work on this.
Update: I made these again with gluten-free almond flour and regular flour. You need to use twice as much flour if you use almond flour. If you only use 2 cups of almond flour, then the bagels will be somewhat flat.
The bagels shown in the recipe photos were made using 2 cups of all purpose flour.
The bagels shown here, are ones I made with 4 cups of almond flour (all other ingredient amounts remain the same):
