Easy Homemade Parmesan Bagels with No Boiling! (Cinnamon Raisin and other Variations too)

Is there such a thing as an EASY homemade bagel recipe?

There's a local coffee shop in our small town where they make a bunch of their own baked goods (or so I thought), so once in a while I'd grab some bagels for the family after church.  One day I was looking more closely at the blueberry bagels and realized, “That's freaking blue FOOD COLORING in there!!!”  I called them and turns out this is just a dough they get from a supplier somewhere.  So disappointing.  Obviously that was the last time we got blueberry bagels there, because I'll pass on the chemical toxins, thanks.  (Read more here about the dangers of food coloring, especially in our kids, and what happens when it's cleared out of their diet.)  In a pinch though, I'd still get their parmesan bagels now and then, but I always wondered what they put in those.

So the other night when we were at a neighborhood driveway party and my friend Liz told me about this homemade bagel recipe she's been making that's super easy and tasty, I couldn't wait to try it.  She has her own variations, like using only full fat ingredients (she's a smart friend!) and then of course I had some changes to make too, because that's what I always do with recipes.  I turned them into homemade parmesan bagels and they came out really good–they puffed up nicely and they really ARE quick and easy to make:  I had them into the oven in only about 10-15 minutes!  Plus the whole family told me to start making these more often, so guess what that means?  Now I can pass right on by that other place.   🙂

Getting a decent picture of these homemade parmesan bagels was tricky though.  

I kept texting each new photo attempt to Sonia, my close friend and neighbor, when finally she couldn't take it anymore.  She had pity on me and said, “I'm on my way.”  Sure enough, we found a keeper as you can see above, not bad right?!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Easy Homemade Parmesan Bagels

Servings: 16 Bagels

Author: Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour of choice + another 1/2 cup or so more if the dough seems very wet and you'll need a little extra for dusting your hands too. Using part organic whole grain flour (either spelt, einkorn or regular wheat) would be good too, maybe just a little heavier. I've also made it with 3 cups organic unbleached all-purpose flour and 2.5 cups organic all-purpose einkorn flour. (Read more here about why einkorn flour is so much better for us than conventional wheat.)
• 3 Tablespoons aluminum-free baking powder -- make sure your baking powder isn't too old or they'll be flat.
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 1/4 cups organic whole milk yogurt or sour cream
• 1-2 eggs To brush on the top, beaten with a fork
• Optional toppings: sea salt, sesame seeds, this yummy topping, only $2 at Trader Joe's.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels:

• Add the following to the basic recipe above: 3/4 cup organic sugar, 1 Tablespoon cinnamon, and 1 1/2 cup organic raisins. Shape the bagels, place on the pan, brush the egg on, and sprinkle with a little more sugar on top, and bake.

Parmesan or Cheddar Herb Bagels:

• Add the following to the basic recipe above: 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese or cheddar cheese (or any cheese you'd like), 1-1.5 Tablespoon fresh or dried herbs of choice: parsley, oregano, basil, etc. OR Italian seasoning for a blend, and 1-2 teaspoons garlic powder.

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375*.
• Prep two cookie sheets.  Either butter them well, or line with unbleached parchment paper.
• (*See recipe notes below.) Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add yogurt or sour cream and mix/knead until combined.  Add any optional ingredients and mix. The dough will be unlike other bread dough you've worked with, it's sort of sticky and clumpy.
• Get more flour on your hands or soft butter so the dough doesn't stick (it still will a little, but it's okay) then pull out a handful of dough a little smaller than baseball size and roll into a ball.  Flatten just a bit and poke a hole in the middle with your fingers before setting onto the cookie sheet.  Feel free to make yours a little fatter, but you'll obviously get less bagels out of each batch than I did.  If it starts sticking to your hands, just get more butter or flour on them.
  
• Brush each bagel with the beaten egg mixture then sprinkle on your toppings of choice.  I did one cookie sheet with a light sprinkling of sea salt only and the other cookie sheet with a little garlic powder, a little sea salt, then a few sesame seeds.  If desired, flip the bagels and do the other side too.
• Bake 25-28 minutes on the top oven rack or until lightly golden.  If your oven runs hot, just make sure they don't burn on the bottom. As you can see in the photo, some of them got more golden brown than others, so you may want to rotate the pans partway through baking. Let cool before slicing or you'll just smoosh them.
• Serve with lots of real butter, of course, and/or some organic cream cheese.
• Store in the fridge so they'll keep longer, since there are no preservatives in them, obviously.  If you have extra (doubtful), slice in half and put them in a freezer bag, but don't put the two halves together like a sandwich.  Instead stagger the tops and bottoms so they're easier to pull apart later and pop into the toaster for a fast morning breakfast.

Notes

I have not yet tried this method, but to make this recipe even healthier, use half organic whole-grain flour (like this one).  Once the dough is all mixed together, let set overnight before shaping and baking.  (Read more here about soaking grains overnight and the health benefits.)

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I used my Bosch mixer for this recipe because it's so fast, but you can follow the instructions at the recipe this is adapted from if you want to do it by hand, just don't use her ingredient suggestions--she uses non-fat yogurt!!!  And note that I quadrupled her recipe, knowing how much my family would devour these.  If you *double* my recipe here, it does fit in the Bosch, but it's tight!

If you don't have a Bosch yet, you should, I love this workhorse.  Someday I may splurge and get a pretty KitchenAid though, now that they have the huge 7 quart bowl that I need!

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