You can make bagels in the slow cooker in 2 hours! This easy homemade bagels recipe is made with all purpose flour and other simple ingredients. A fun simple recipe that you have to try!
Slow Cooker Bagels Recipe
I admit, we’re spoiled by the best bagels – NYC bagels. Nothing can beat them. Lots of people say it’s the NYC water that makes them so good. NYC water is great, put your glass under the tap and enjoy some of the best tasting water there is, no filter needed.
Scientifically they say that NYC water has low concentrations of calcium and magnesium, making it soft. Hard water makes gluten strong in dough, resulting in tough bagels, which no one wants. But NYC bagels, they’re perfection.
But right now we’re missing out on going to our favorite bagel shop, and being at home all the time (for future readers, it’s May 2020, mentally take yourself back to that time!), I’ve been trying to make everything homemade. Knowing that we’ve had success making bread in the slow cooker, like Whole Wheat Slow Cooker Bread and Sourdough Crockpot Bread and I’ve been thinking a lot about making bagels with this same method. So here we go, let’s make Homemade Slow Cooker Bagels!
How to Make Homemade Bagels in the Crockpot
Pour 1 cup warm water into a large bowl. Add honey to the bowl and stir.
Add active dry yeast. Stir again.
Let this sit in a warm spot for 15 minutes. On days where it’s not warm in my house I put in my microwave and close the door (DONT turn the microwave on! It’s just a warm spot). After this time it should start looking foamy.
Add salt and vegetable oil to bowl and stir.
Measure 3 cups all purpose flour. You can also use whole wheat flour too if you’d like.
Add flour to the bowl and mix with your hands, kneading the dough for 5 minutes. It will look a little crumbly, that’s ok.
Coat the bowl in olive oil, place dough back into bowl, and cover with plastic wrap.
Place in a warm spot and let rise for 30-45 minutes. During this time the dough should almost double in size.
Form the dough into 6 balls, rolling them into the best looking balls you can shape. These steps are important and will make the difference if you want these to look like bagels, instead of rolls. Honestly, I’m not the best ball roller, but I’ve made this recipe enough times to share tips so yours looks like bagels the first time making them (wish I could say that mine looked like bagels the first time!).
Ok, this is really important. Bagels have holes in the middle, right? With your finger, poke a hole in the middle of each piece of dough, stretching the hole to about 2 inches. Any smaller and when the dough bakes, the hole will disappear. Make sure the hole is at least 2 inches wide!
You will need 2-3 pieces of parchment paper for this recipe, depending on how big your slow cooker is. Place your first parchment paper on the bottom of the slow cooker. I like to also spray each piece of parchment paper with nonstick spray to be extra safe. Now put 2-3 bagels on the parchment paper, depending on how many you can comfortably fit. Don’t over do it as the bagels will expand and you don’t want to ruin their circle shapes.
Now layer another piece of parchment paper on top and repeat the steps until all the bagels are now in the slow cooker. Tip: When layering, distribute the weight so the parchment paper doesn’t sag down – this not going to be good for bagel shape. You basically want a stack of bagels on top of each other, with parchment paper in between them.
Now cook for 2 hours on HIGH. And 2 hours later you’ll have homemade bagels! How good do these look?
After they come out of the slow cooker, you have 2 options:
- Enjoy them as is.
- Brown the tops slightly, making them a little more delicious and better looking. This is my preferred method.
To do this, brush a little butter on top of each one. A little goes a long way.
Now put them in the oven under the broiler and WATCH THEM LIKE A HAWK. It won’t take long for the tops to brown and you’ll want to pull them right before they burn. It literally takes seconds to go from brown to burning, so watch them carefully!
After they come out of the oven, I like to add some sesame seeds on top but you can leave “as is” too. What else can you do? You can add everything bagel seasoning to make a proper “everything bagel”.
Now slice it open and add some butter or cream cheese. What’s your favorite? I’m team butter all the way.
I hope you enjoy these homemade bagels. Even if they’re not as good as NYC bagels, they’re still a budget friendly recipe that’s worth trying and fun to make.
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Homemade Slow Cooker Bagels
PrintIngredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Instructions
- Pour warm water into a large bowl. Add honey and mix with a spoon until dissolved.
- Add dry yeast and stir. Place the bowl in a warm spot and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until foamy.
- Add salt and vegetable oil into bowl, stirring until salt is dissolved.
- Add flour into bowl, and mix with hands until completely combined. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball and place in bowl that's been coated with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a warm spot and allow the dough to rise, doubling in size, about 30-45 minutes.
- Separate the dough into 6 even size pieces, rolling them into balls. Each ball should weigh about 4 ounces if you want to exact, but you can just eye them up.
- Put a small hole in the middle of each piece of dough, carefully widening it with your fingers, until the hole is about 2 inches big. The hole should not be any smaller than 2 inches or your hole will disappear while cooking. The pieces of dough should now be in the shape of bagels.
- Place a piece of parchment on the bottom of your slow cooker. Add 2-3 bagels on top of parchment paper, depending on how big your slow cooker is, making sure the bagels aren't too crowded and have a little bit of room to expand. Place another layer of parchment paper on top of the bagels and stack the remaining 2-3. Do another layer if you need to for size.
- Cook on HIGH for 2 hours.
- Remove from slow cooker. You have 2 options now, leave as is, or brown the tops. I highly recommend you brown them. To do this brush a little butter on top of each bagel and place on cookie sheet. Place in oven under broiler for about 1 minute or until slightly brown – watch them very carefully once under broiler as they will burn quickly! Remove from oven.
- Slice bagels open and serve with butter or cream cheese. Enjoy!
Lou-Ann says
I’m wondering if these could be made in air fryer a few at a time? Just brush them with oil. Someone asked why her bagels on bottom of crackpot were kind of burnt. Why is that? Thanks
Pamela Reed says
Hey Lou-Ann, I’ve never tried them in the air fryer. From my experience, some slow cookers run hotter in specific areas. Make sure you are using parchment paper as this does create an extra layer. If you are ending up with this problem consistently, you could try making a little “foil shelf” on the bottom, or get a small wire rack that fits into the crockpot so they can sit on top. Hope that helps.
Hedley Gribble says
made them yesterday , made 6 next time i’ll divide into 8 or 9 do 3 levels coluld oly get 3 per layer and were rather large kinda turned out like rustic donuts , brushing with butter good idea
Liza McNeely says
I was wondering why the bagels on the lower portion came out with the their sides burned.The bagels on the upper portion were perfect.I follow the instruction to put it on HIGH for 2 hours.
kelly says
I’m not sure what I did wrong but they just raised a bit and are doughy even after 2 hours??
Cindy says
Made these today and they were delicious. We served with homemade peach preserves. Will make again.
Brandy says
The bagels tasted good; I would make them smaller and also reduce honey use 2 tablespoons instead of 3.
Berrie says
Wondering if I could make these in the oven at all? And for how long to cook them