Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Learn how to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels with this simple recipe tutorial. You only need a handful of basic ingredients and they taste WAY better than store-bought!

Let’s all agree that cinnamon raisin bagels are the best bagel variety. Everything bagels, you hold nothing on cinnamon and raisins. 🙂 Today I’m teaching you how to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels with a few basic ingredients and a deliciously dense bread dough.

These bagels are:

• hot ‘n’ fresh


• extra chewy


• soft in the center


• golden brown


• sweet & cinnamon-y

Let’s do this!

Ingredients in Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

This cinnamon raisin bagels recipe is similar to my everything bagels and plain bagels recipe. The only difference is that we’re adding a little vanilla extract, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins to the bagel dough.

• Yeast & Warm Water: Allows the dough to rise. I recommend an instant or active dry yeast. Red Star Yeast is my #1 choice.


• Bread Flour: A high protein flour is necessary for making bagels. We want a dense and chewy texture, not soft and airy like cinnamon rolls. Bread flour is the only solution!


• Brown Sugar: Bakeries use barley malt syrup to sweeten the bagel dough– it can be a little difficult to find, but brown sugar is a fine substitute. Read more in my recipe notes below.


• Vanilla Extract: For extra delicious flavor to these sweet bagels.


• Raisins: Use around 3/4 – 1 cup. Dried cranberries are a delicious substitute!


• Sugar & Cinnamon: Knead the dough directly on the mixture. We’ll use our hands to work it into the dough! This method, rather than just mixing it all in, helps create little swirls and pockets of cinnamon sugar. The dough gets a little moist from the sugar, but that’s completely fine.

After the dough rises, shape it into 8 separate balls.

Shape Bagels in 2 Easy Steps

Shaping bagels is a lot easier than it looks. You can watch me shape bagels in the video below, where I’m preparing plain and everything bagels. Same method applies to these homemade cinnamon raisin bagels.

1. Poke your finger through the center of the dough ball.


2. Widen the hole to about 1.5 – 2 inches wide.

Boil the Bagels Before Baking

After you shape the bagels, it’s time to boil them. Why?

1. Boiling the bagels gives the bagel its beautiful shine. But looks aren’t everything– this shine is actually a result of the dough’s starches becoming gelatinized. These starches cook to a crisp, shiny coating in the oven. I learned this from Cooks Illustrated.


2. Boiling bagels cooks the outer layer of dough, which guarantees they’ll hold their shape when baking.

Add honey or barley malt syrup to the water bath because it adds caramelization and crisp to the crust. Brushing the boiled bagels with egg wash does the same. Don’t skip either!

These homemade bagels are perfection. No need to waste money on store-bought or stand in line at the bakery. Homemade is the ONLY way to do cinnamon raisin bagels. You’re going to love these!

More Homemade Favorites

• Homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread


• Easy Jalapeño Cheddar Bread


• Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Pop Tarts


• Fudgy Homemade Brownies


• Homemade Biscuits


• Homemade Everything Bagels

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Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

• 
  Author: Sally


• 
  Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes


• 
  Cook Time: 25 minutes


• 
  Total Time: 3 hours


• 
  Yield: 8 bagels


• 
  Category: Bread


• 
  Method: Baking


• 
  Cuisine: American

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Description

Learn how to make homemade cinnamon raisin bagels with this simple recipe tutorial. Don’t skip the water bath and egg wash- both provide an extra chewy and golden brown crust.

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Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water


• 2 and 3/4 teaspoons Red Star® Quick-rise™ yeast*


• 4 cups (480g) bread flour, plus more for work surface and hands*


• 1 Tablespoon (13g) packed light or dark brown sugar (or barley malt syrup)*


• 2 teaspoons salt


• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


• 3/4 cup (112g) raisins*


• 3 Tablespoons (38g) granulated sugar


• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• coating the bowl: nonstick spray or 1 Tablespoon olive oil

Water Bath

• 2 quarts water


• 1/4 cup (85g) honey (or barley malt syrup)*

Egg Wash

• 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

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Instructions

1. Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm water and yeast together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.


2. Add the flour, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes, then beat in the raisins until combined. The dough is very stiff and will look somewhat dry.


3. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle onto a clean surface. Place the dough on top. Knead the dough for 4 minutes, picking up all that cinnamon sugar. Work as much of the cinnamon sugar mixture as you can into the dough. The dough may become a little wet from the added sugar– that’s ok.


4. Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel.  Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 60-90 minutes or until double in size.


5. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.


6. Shape the bagels: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release any air bubbles. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) Shape each piece into a ball. Press your index finger through the center of each ball to make a hole about 1.5 – 2 inches in diameter. Watch video above for a visual. Loosely cover the shaped bagels with kitchen towel and rest for a few minutes as you prepare the water bath.


7. Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).


8. Water bath: Fill a large, wide pot with 2 quarts of water. Whisk in the honey. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high. Drop bagels in, 2-4 at a time, making sure they have enough room to float around. Cook the bagels for 1 minute on each side.


9. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top and around the sides of each bagel. Place 4 bagels onto each lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. You want the bagels to be a dark golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow bagels to cool on the baking sheets for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


10. Slice, toast, top, whatever you want! Cover leftover bagels tightly and store at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Notes

1. Overnight Instructions: Prepare the dough through step 4, allowing the dough to rise overnight in the refrigerator. The slow rise gives the bagels wonderful flavor! In the morning, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let the dough rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Continue with step 5. I don’t recommend shaping the bagels the night before as they may puff up too much overnight.


2. Freezing Instructions: Baked bagels freeze wonderfully! Freeze them for up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then warm to your liking. You can also freeze the bagel dough. After punching down the dough in step 6, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then punch the dough down again to release any air bubbles. Continue with the rest of step 6.


3. Yeast: Use instant or active dry yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise time may be up to 2 hours.


4. Bread Flour: Bagels require a high protein flour. Bread flour is a must.


5. Barley Malt Syrup: This ingredient can be a little hard to find, but truly gives bagels that traditional malty flavor we all know and love. Most natural food stores carry it. I offer alternatives such as brown sugar in the dough and honey in the water bath; I’ve made bagels with these alternatives AND with barley malt syrup and honestly love both versions.


6. Bread Machine: Place the dough ingredients into the pan of the machine. Program the machine to dough or manual, then start. After 9-10 minutes, the dough will be quite stiff. Allow the machine to complete its cycle, then continue with the recipe.


7. By Hand: If you do not have a mixer, you can mix the dough together in a large bowl then knead by hand for 10-15 minutes.


8. Special Equipment: stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, large baking sheets (I love these), big pot (I use my 5.5 quart dutch oven), pastry brush.


9. Adapted from a mix of recipes I’ve tried: King Arthur Flour, Cook’s Illustrated, and Complete Book of Breads.

Keywords: cinnamon raisin bagels, bagels

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