Become Someone Who Bakes Their Own Bagels

Hello and happy New Year! I hope everyone baked something delicious (perhaps the Boozy Cherry and Chocolate Pavlova?) and got some much-deserved rest over the holidays. To ring in 2026, I’m proposing a resolution for us all: Become the type of person who bakes their own bagels.

I know, I know, baking your own bagels might sound laborious, but hear me out: With some basic pantry ingredients and a little time (it’s too cold to go outside anyway), you can yield a dozen delightfully chewy bagels that rival the most viral of New York City’s bagel shops.

My Homemade Bagels recipe all comes down to a two-step process: first boil, then bake. This dual approach gives the bagels their signature chew, tanned sheen, and pleasantly dense (not tough) interior. I used baking soda in place of lye—a temperamental ingredient used in many bagel shops—and skipped specialty sweeteners like barley syrup. These swaps make the recipe a truly home-baker-friendly project, and the result does not suffer in the least. In fact, when tasted side-by-side against their more traditionally prepared counterparts, the baking soda batches performed just as well, if not better. (The power of recipe testing!)

You can grab the recipe here. As always, if you have any questions, send us a message via our Substack chat, and either Shilpa or I will get back to you ASAP. Happy baking! —Jesse Szewczyk, senior Test Kitchen editor at Bon Appétit