This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Wheat Bagels – Onion, Poppy seed Bagels from scratch! serve with your favorite vegan cream cheese. Vegan Breakfast Recipe.
Jump to RecipeTime for some bagels. All home made, half whole wheat, without added conditioners and such. Bagels are chewy breads, like pretzels, boiled in water, and then baked. The pretzels have baking soda added to the water while for bagels, malt(malted barley) syrup is added. The added malt slightly permeates the dough to give it color and shine. The boiling also reactivates the yeast and pre-gelatinizes the starch on the surface of the bagels which contributes to their chewiness.
Wheat Bagels - Onion and Poppy seed Bagels

Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, I use Bob's Red Mill
- 1.25 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten, optional- for chewier bagels
- 1 Tablespoon agave syrup, or malt syrup
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon raw sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons active yeast, Red Star
- 1 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil
- For onion bagels- add a Tablespoon of onion flakes.
Boiling:
- 4-5 cups water
- 1 Tablespoons agave or malt syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt
Toppings:
- Onion flakes
- Poppy seeds
- sesame seeds
- sunflower seeds
- watermelon seeds
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add 1/4 cup warm water, 1 teaspoon raw sugar and yeast. Mix and let sit until frothy(10 minutes).
- Add salt to the 1.5 cups wheat flour and mix. Add wheat flour, 1 cup bread flour, wheat gluten if using, to the yeast mix.
- Add onion flakes for onion bagels.
- Add agave, oil, rest of the water and knead 5-6 minutes in stand mixer or 8-9 minutes by hand.
- If the dough is very sticky, then add a little bread flour until the the dough is soft and smooth.(more of the stiff side).
- Place dough in well greased container. Cover with towel and let sit for 1.5 hours or until doubled.
- Punch dough down, use a Tablespoon or so bread flour to help make the dough less sticky. (You can refrigerate the dough at this point overnight for chewier bagels. Next day, let the dough sit out for an hour before continuing).
- Divide into 6 equal parts.
- Start up the water bath to boil over high heat. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Shape each part into a bagel. Make a long rope by rolling between your palms and then sticking the ends together with atleast a 3 finger hole in between. or make a ball, poke a large hole using wet fingers or fat round spatula handle.(the bagels expand while boiling, hence reducing the hole, so keep the hole larger or you will get an almost bun like, small hole, pictured onion bagel .
- Add agave and salt to the boiling water, mix. Add bagels 2 or 3 at a time and let boil for 30 seconds on each side.
- Take them out and place on a towel.
- You can directly bake these for plain bagels on a baking sheet.
- Optional step: For a shiny gloss, mix a Tablespoon cornstarch in 2 Tablespoons water. Mix well. add a 1/4 cup boiling water and mix until thick. Brush this on the top.
- Sprinkle your toppings on the bagels. Press down a bit to stick. or dip the bagel upside down in the bowl of seeds.
- Place bagels on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes.(25 minutes for larger sized bagels).
- Let cool before slicing or storing.
- Top with vegan butter, vegan cream cheeze, herbed oil, marmalade, nut butters or use to make your fave loaded burgers!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

















Your bagel pictures are stunning! Bagels are such a treat, the only good store that sold them just closed down so I rarely get them anymore, I’ll have to give your homemade version a try! These seriously look amazing!
thanks Kristina:) Let me know how they turn out!
These look delicious, and I love how they don’t look like conventional bagels!
I’m so hungry right now, especially by looking at that bagel with butter on top
awesome looking bagles…amazing clicks too
Richa! You should add a dozen of these to your fundraiser, I would totally bid – they look so AMAZING!
Thanks Heather! I dont know how they will taste after 2 days in the mail:) I need to try sending people stuff for free and get feedback:)
LOL sign me up! I am way across the country from you 🙂
I will try this. I have made bagels a number of times before, but I have just boiled them, with no salt or agave in the water. Maybe that makes them more chewy? Mine have never turned out chewy. Thanks for sharing!
The malt gives it a sweeter taste, and contributes just a little to the chewyness. For really chewy bagels, use a high gluten flour, make a stiffer dough, let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight. Let me know how it works out!
Yumm! Love the let photos. Looks so tempting. I just baked some focaccia and now after seeing his I want to bake bagels!
Beautiful, beautiful post!!
https://veganrawfood.net
these are very good.. great recipe
You have a gorgeous blog space and such an awesome collections of healthy recipes esp vegan Indian food. Keep going!!
Thank you Sailu!