Easy, 2-Ingredient, No-Boil Bagel Recipe

This recipe is a variation of a couple I found on Pinterest. It can be made using plain regular yogurt or plain Greek yogurt. Both work great, you’ll just need to adjust the amount of flour you use (more, if using regular yogurt).

My husband and I picked up the wrong bulk yogurt container at the store once, so we had a ton of plain regular yogurt (instead of Greek yogurt). After a brief panic (I realized this while pouring the yogurt into the flour already in my stand mixer), I decided to carry on and see what would happen. I googled to see if there were any recipes that used regular yogurt, and, to my surprise, there were not! Hmm, maybe this wasn’t going to work. I kept seeing that the moisture in plain yogurt is the problem. Other recipes wanted you to strain it out. Sorry, that’s way too much effort for me! I honestly really enjoyed this recipe using regular yogurt (and my husband did, too!) but, we typically use Greek yogurt to make it a little bit healthier.

Ingredients

1.5 c self rising flour + up to 2.5 c more, as needed

1.5 c plain yogurt (or plain Greek)

Optional:
1 egg (or egg white or water to make the toppings stick)
Toppings of choice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Line a baking pan (or cookie sheet) with parchment paper.

Spray parchment paper so your bagels won’t stick.

Mix the flour and yogurt in a stand mixer. Dough will be very sticky. Add more flour until the dough stays together and barely sticks to the bowl.

Lightly flour a workstation and kneed the dough a few times to check consistency. Dough should not stick to your hands. Add more flour, small amounts at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

Roll dough into a large ball and with a sharp knife (I use a 5″ Santoku, which works well, but any non-serrated knife should be fine), make cuts in the dough to divide it half. Do not saw the dough. Pick up your knife each time to make a new cut.

Check the consistency of the inner sides of the dough. Sprinkle a bit more flour, if needed. Kneed each half a couple times and then roll each into a ball.

Repeat the cutting process with each half so you have 4 equal-ish quarters of dough.

Here comes the fun part: roll each ball with your hands and then pick it up and stretch it. Gravity is your friend for this step, but be very gentle not to rip it or pull it too thin. The goal is to make 4 flexible ropes of dough. Once you’ve pulled each one (5-7 inches is probably good – I just eyeball it), connect the 2 ends and lay on your parchment papered pan. Repeat for the other 3 balls of dough.

You should now have 4 rings of dough on your pan.

Crack your egg into a small bowl, add a little water (if you’d like) and stir to make an egg wash (or, just use water – it works fine, too, just isn’t as shiny once it comes out of the oven). Rub the egg wash/water onto each dough ring. Then, add your desired toppings. Our favorite is “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning (Walmart sells it, and I’m sure most major grocery stores probably do, too). Other ideas: cinnamon and sugar, shredded cheese, the sky is the limit here.

Bake at 375 F for 25 minutes on top rack. Bagels should be lightly golden brown. Bake an extra minute or two, if needed.

Note: These bagels get huge in the oven. Give them space on the pan. They may grow together while baking. That’s okay! If you want to preserve the hole in the middle, you’ll need to make each ring larger (may require 2 pans). These bagels remind me of a mix between bagels and biscuits when they’re first out of the oven.

I like to let them cool about 10-15 mins and then slice in half with a bread knife before toasting in the toaster oven and adding cream cheese.

Store unused bagels in a brown paper bag on the counter up to a couple days. You can probably freeze them, but they’re always gone within 2 days, so I haven’t had that opportunity yet. 🙂

Happy bagel baking!