2 Hour Choose Your Flavor Bagels

Name: 2 Hour Choose Your Flavor Bagels
Prep time: 90 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 6 ½ - 7 cups all purpose flour; 4 tsp yeast; 2 cups warm/hot water; 2 tbsp oil; 1 tbsp sugar; 2 tsp salt; egg wash; ½-1 cup mix-ins; Onions and ½ tbsp Italian seasoning; Blueberries; Raisins and 1 tsp cinnamon; Craisins and zest from one orange; Jalapeno and cheddar cheese

If you are craving a fresh homemade bagel in your favorite flavor, give this recipe for 2 hour choose your flavor bagels a try.

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I love bagels and I’ll be honest, the day old bagels on mark down at the grocery store are some of my favorites. But in my endeavors to make more of my food from scratch I decided several years ago that I wanted to try my hand at making bagels from home.

When I started to search for a recipe I was looking for a base recipe that I could use to make whatever kind of bagels I wanted and even make 2 flavors at once and I couldn’t find one. So I decided to make my own.

I usually like to split the dough from this recipe in half, and choose a sweet flavor and a savory one. Some of my favorite flavors include orange cranberry, onion with Italian seasonings, and jalapeno cheddar. I love how when split in 2 this recipe makes 6 bagels of each flavor. Its like walking out of the grocery store with two bags full of your favorite bagels only way better.

Making bagels can be daunting but this recipe only takes 2 hours from start to finish. If you start now it won’t be long before you are layering your favorite flavor of bagel with cream cheese.

a bagel on a plate sliced in half covered in cream cheese.

Ingredients for the Bagels

6½ – 7 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp yeast
2 cups warm/hot water
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
Egg wash
½ – 1 cup mix-ins. Ideas:
- Sauteed onions and ½ tbsp Italian seasoning
- Blueberries
- Raisins and 1 tsp cinnamon
- Craisins and zest from one orange
- Diced jalapeno topped with cheddar cheese

How to Make 2 Hour Choose Your Flavor Bagels

Begin by combining 6 ½ cups flour and yeast in a stand mixer.

A small hand pouring a teaspoon full of yeast into a stand mixer.

In a separate container mix together water, sugar, and oil.

With the mixer on low, slowly pour water mixture into the bowl. Then increase the speed a little, and let mix until everything is moistened. You may need to stop the mixer occasionally and use a spatula to scrape the flour away from the sides in order to help all the ingredients incorporate.

pouring a water mixture into a stand mixer full of a flour mixture.

Once all the flour is moistened, add salt and slowly increase speed to medium-high (4 on my KitchenAid mixer).

Let the dough knead for 5-6 minutes, adding water or flour by the tablespoon until the dough reaches the right texture. To test the dough, poke it. If it bounces back it is done mixing.

Chopped craisins and orange zest on top of bagel dough.

After the dough is done, remove dough from the mixer, and knead in mix-ins just until incorporated throughout the dough.

At this point I usually split the dough in two so that I can make two different flavors. In these example pictures I made orange cranberry and onion bagels.

Bagel dough with onions and Italian seasonings.

Oil your bowl and return the dough, cover and let the dough proof for 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Divide dough into 12-16 pieces. If you split the dough into 2 flavors make 6-8 of each flavor. I usually cut the dough into triangle shaped pieces.

shaping orange cranberry bagel dough by bringing the corners into the middle.

To shape them into a ball I pull the corners to the center then flip the ball over and pull it against the counter to tightly round the top.

shaping onion bagel dough by rolling against the counter.

After shaping each into a ball, poke a hole in the center and stretch it to about 2 inches. Once stretched the dough will spring back while it rests so I like to pull the hole to about twice the size I want the final hole in the bagels to be. Then let the bagels sit covered with a cloth for 10-30 minutes.

Fingers stretching out the hole in the center of a bagel's dough.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add bagels to boiling water 3-4 at a time. Boil for 30 seconds per side.

Place the bagels on parchment paper or a silicone mat on a cookie sheet to egg wash and bake.

Brushing egg wash on a freshly boiled onion bagel.

Brush the freshly boiled bagels with egg wash, and add any additional toppings before baking for 12-18 minutes or until the bagels just begin to color.