This cinnamon crunch sourdough bagels recipe is just what you need when you are wanting to make something just a little bit more special and festive for breakfast or brunch! You and your friends or family are in for a treat with these sweet and crunchy sourdough bagels!
In our home, we value eating foods from scratch over buying things that are premade and filled with additives and extra filler ingredients that only bring harm to the body. These extra fillers are added to preserve the shelf life, enhance the flavor, and sometimes even make things more addictive.
Since we try our best to avoid these things, if we want bread or bagels, I love to use my sourdough starter to make the things we enjoy! I have loved learning how to make artisan bread, sandwich bread, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls and more with sourdough. Because these sourdough breads are fermented and rely on wild yeast in our own home and environment, they are much easier to digest and gut healthy.
This cinnamon crunch sourdough bagels recipe is definitely a treat, and not something we have on a regular basis, but it is super fun and delicious for special occasions. And I don’t feel as bad serving them knowing it is made with all whole, organic ingredients with NO harmful additives!
TIPS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
- Use a kitchen scale for weighing the bagel dough ingredients – this yields the most accurate and consistent results. The dough will be a bit tougher. This is normal for bagel dough.
- Feed your sourdough starter at least 6 hours before starting this recipe so it is nice and bubbly when you are ready to begin making the dough.
- I usually start the dough around 7-8 pm. The dough is ready for shaping/baking in the morning for a delicious, warm breakfast!
- If you choose to do the cinnamon swirl filling, try to leave about half an inch space at the end of the dough on each side so that when you pinch the dough together, it sticks better. If the filling reaches the ends, the bagel may split apart when boiling/baking in the oven. Still edible, just not a round bagel 🙂
Why do you boil bagels before baking?
Boiling the bagel dough in water mixed with baking soda and sugar helps to seal the dough. This is what gives it that crusty outer layer. Do not skip this step! It is easy and quick, and gives the bagel that perfect outer texture.
HOW TO MAKE THIS CINNAMON CRUNCH SOURDOUGH BAGELS RECIPE
Tools you may need:
- Stand Mixer or Dough Whisk and Large Bowl
- Kitchen Scale
- Measuring cups/spoons
- 2 small bowls
- Bench Scraper
- Rolling Pin
- Pastry Brush
- Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mat
- Baking Sheet and Cooling Rack
Weigh ingredients and Mix the dough for the sourdough bagels recipe
Using a kitchen scale, weigh your ingredients and add sourdough starter, water, and honey to a stand mixing bowl and whisk until combined. I just place the stand mixing bowl on the scale, tare the weight of it, and then add everything directly to the mixing bowl.
Add flour (unbleached bread or all-purpose will work, I prefer organic) and sea salt to the wet ingredients. Mix slowly in stand mixer using a dough hook until dough comes off the sides of the bowl. If you do not have a stand mixer, simply mix the dough using a dough whisk and your hands. You will need to knead the dough a bit until it is smooth.
Bulk Rise
Cover bowl with plastic wrap or damp kitchen towel. Let the dough sit for 8-12 hours or until it has doubled in size. This may vary based on the temperature in your home.
Once it has doubled, it is time to divide and shape the dough!
Shape & add cinnamon filling
Place the dough out on a clean counter (without flour) and divide it into 8 equal parts. If you want to be exact, you can get your kitchen scale out!
Mix up the cinnamon-brown sugar filling.
Roll each piece of dough out into a rectangle – about 3 x 5 inches. Along the long end, sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon sugar mix in a straight line, leaving about 1/2 inch space at either end empty. Roll the dough over the cinnamon sugar mix and repeat with 1/4 tsp cinnamon sugar. Next, roll once more and repeat. Roll over the last time and pinch the dough together so that it is closed and forms a 5 inch long log.
Twist the log and bring the two ends together to form a circle. Pinch the ends together and place on a parchment paper or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet. Repeat for each dough piece.
Second Rise (1 hour) & prepare Cinnamon Crunch Topping
Cover with lightweight slightly damp tea towel and let the bagels rise a second time, 30 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough is puffy.
When the dough is close to finishing its second rise, preheat the oven to 425℉ and boil water in a large pot with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of baking soda.
Mix up the cinnamon crunch topping- in a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon and room temperature butter.
Boil, Top with Cinnamon Crunch and Bake Sourdough Bagels Recipe
Once the water is boiling, use a slotted spoon to gently place 3-4 bagels in the water at a time – depending on the size of your pot. Do not overcrowd. Boil for one minute, flip the bagel, and then boil for another minute. Drain the excess water and place on lined baking pan.
Brush the tops of each bagel with melted butter. Then add the cinnamon crunch topping to each bagel.
Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden.
Once the bagels are done cooking, allow to cool on a baking rack for 15-30 minutes. Enjoy while they are warm with butter or cream cheese. Store extra bagels in airtight container or ziplock bag for 3-4 days.
OTHER SOURDOUGH RECIPES TO TRY!
- Sourdough Orange Cinnamon Rolls
- Artisan Rustic Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Pumpkin Spice Sourdough Bagels
- Sourdough Croissants
- Sourdough Dinner Rolls
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If you try this recipe and love it, I would love to know! Come back and leave a review! Tag me on Instagram @oursimplegraces
Cinnamon Crunch Sourdough Bagels Recipe
This cinnamon crunch sourdough bagels recipe is just what you need when you are wanting to make something just a little bit more special and festive for breakfast or brunch!
Ingredients
Sourdough Bagels
- 150 grams sourdough starter, active & bubbly - fed in the past 6-8 hours
- 250 grams filtered water
- 28 grams honey
- 500 grams unbleached flour, all-purpose or bread flour
- 10 grams sea salt
- 1 Tbs sugar - to add to the boiling water
- 1 Tbs baking soda - to add to the boiling water
Cinnamon Swirl Filling
- 2 Tbs brown sugar
- 1 Tbs cinnamon
Cinnamon Crunch Topping
- 1/4 C brown sugar
- 3 Tbs cane sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbs cinnamon
- 4 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature + 1 Tbs for brushing bagels
Instructions
Weigh ingredients and Mix the dough
- Using a kitchen scale, weigh your ingredients and add sourdough starter, water, and honey to a stand mixing bowl and whisk until combined. I just place the stand mixing bowl on the scale, tare the weight of it, and then add everything directly to the mixing bowl.
- Add flour (unbleached bread or all-purpose will work, I prefer organic) and sea salt to the wet ingredients. Mix slowly in stand mixer using a dough hook until dough comes off the sides of the bowl. If you do not have a stand mixer, simply mix the dough using a dough whisk and your hands. You will need to knead the dough a bit until it is smooth.
Bulk Rise
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap or damp kitchen towel. Let the dough sit for 8-12 hours or until it has doubled in size. This time may vary based on the temperature in your home.
Shape & add cinnamon filling
- Place the dough out on a clean counter (without flour) and divide it into 8 equal parts. If you want to be exact, you can get your kitchen scale out!
- Mix up the cinnamon-brown sugar filling.
- Roll each piece of dough out into a rectangle - about 3 x 5 inches. Along the long end, sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon sugar mix in a straight line, leaving about 1/2 inch space at either end empty. Roll the dough over the cinnamon sugar mix and repeat with 1/4 tsp cinnamon sugar. Roll once more and repeat previous steps. Roll over the last time and pinch the dough together so that it is closed and forms a 5 inch long log.
- Twist the log and bring the two ends together to form a circle. Pinch the ends together and place on a parchment paper or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet. Repeat for each dough piece.
Second Rise (1 hour) & prepare Cinnamon Crunch Topping
- Cover with lightweight slightly damp tea towel and let the bagels rise a second time, 30 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough is puffy.
- When the dough is close to finishing its second rise, preheat the oven to 425℉ and boil water in a large pot with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of baking soda.
- Mix up the cinnamon crunch topping- in a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cane sugar, cinnamon and room temperature butter.
Boil, Top with Cinnamon Crunch and Bake
- Once the water is boiling, use a slotted spoon to gently place 3-4 bagels in the water at a time - depending on the size of your pot. Do not overcrowd. Boil for one minute, flip the bagel, and then boil for another minute. Drain the excess water and place on lined baking pan.
- Brush the tops of each bagel with melted butter. Then add the cinnamon crunch topping to each bagel.
- Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden.
- Once the bagels are done cooking, allow to cool on a baking rack for 15-30 minutes. Enjoy while they are warm with butter or cream cheese.
Notes
Store extra bagels in airtight container or ziplock bag for 3-4 days.
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Nicewell Food Scale, 22lb Digital Kitchen Scale Weight Grams and oz for Cooking Baking, 1g/0.1oz Precise Graduation, Stainless Steel and Tempered Glass -
OXO Good Grips Silicone Basting & Pastry Brush - Small -
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KitchenAid KSM150PSIC Artisan Series 5-Qt. Stand Mixer with Pouring Shield - Ice
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 451Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 15mgSodium: 973mgCarbohydrates: 87gFiber: 4gSugar: 18gProtein: 10g
Definitely gonna have to try this bagel recipe! I think I would love the texture of the crunch!
Yes, the crunch is my fave! Hope you enjoy!
My crumble topping just bakes right off the bagel everytime. I don’t know what I did wrong.
Cinni Crunch bagels from Panara were my absolute favorite growing up! Can’t wait to try these with sourdough!!
Saaame! I looked at the ingredients, unfortunately, and realized I couldn’t eat those again… so here we are! Thanks for the inspo, panera! 🙂 Hope you love them!
Oh my! These sound so tasty.
Thank you! They are definitely a treat!
Can you freeze them?
Yes they will freeze well after baking! Let them cool completely then put into a ziplock bag to store in the freezer. Thaw and reheat when ready to eat.
It’s funny but now in my 40s I’m starting to actually enjoy cinnamon. Me and the boys don’t really recognize how spoiled we are that my wife has so much sourdough stuff around the house. Will have to be a new experiment with that dough
These look delicious. My children are obsessed with bagels and learning how to make them has been on my list for a couple of months now. I need to try these because you make it look so easy!
I have made these bagels 3 times now. The taste and texture are perfect. I still need to perfect the cinnamon brown sugar filling. The bagels want to unseal during boiling. That is my only concern, but otherwise it’s a perfect bagel. I am going to mix raisins in the dough this evening for a cinnamon raisin bagel with the crunch on top. Awesome recipe. I can’t believe I am making bagels in my home kitchen .
I am so glad you are enjoying these bagels!! I know what you mean about the unsealing issue. When I was recipe testing the best way I could get it to not come unsealed is to keep the cinnamon sugar mixture away from the outer edges and then squishing the two sides together really well before the second rise/boiling. I hope the raisins tasted great! I’m sure they were delish! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
The raisins are perfect in the bagels. I am on my 4th or 5th batch as I write this. I make my dough late in the evening and let it rest on my kitchen counter until morning. Then shaping, boiling and baking. And I have bagels with morning coffee. I ordered a bagel/donut cutter and used it this morning for the first time. The cutter isn’t necessary but I wanted a batch with uniform size and shape and the cutter will help. Everyone who has tasted these bagels love them! Thanks again for a 5* star recipe.
I love these bagels!! Not hard to make at all! But how do you keep your cinnamon crunch topping crunchy and not melty
So glad these are a hit for you! I found that if I pile it on top and tap it down a bit it stays put better. Others have mentioned adding a little bit of flour to help thicken the crunch topping.
Why did my topping burn off the bagels?!? Ruined my whole batch!
I’m so sorry to hear that! I’m wondering if your oven runs hotter than mine?? If it is convection that could affect the cook time.
These taste amazing but I haven’t figured out why the crunch melts into the pan and burns during baking (I made sure to use softened butter and not melted). Any thoughts?
I’m sorry it hasn’t turned out right. My main thought for why it might be melting off would be the type of sugar you are using perhaps. I used cane sugar so maybe the other is too fine. I will make the note of that in the recipe. Thanks for trying the recipe out! 🙂
Reducing the butter worked for me and adding some flour to the mixture. I used only 1 TLB of softened butter and added heaping TLB of flour. It ended up nice and crunchy. I piled it on the bagel and kind of pressed it down to have it stick to the bagel.
Hey Hollyn! If I started making these later in the day, could I do the bulk ferment in the fridge overnight instead of on the counter for 8-12 hours?
Hi! The first bulk ferment should be done at room temperature since refrigeration will slow the process. Once it has doubled, it can go into the fridge and wait there until you are ready to shape, even for a few days if covered with plastic wrap. I have found this recipe to be very forgiving and it does not easily over-ferment by being left out on the counter. Hopefully that helps!
That helps tremendously! I have the dough doing its bulk ferment on the counter now and will stick it in the fridge tonight before bed. Thank you!!
Perfect! I hope you enjoy!
These were amazing, even the ones that came unsealed. I thought I pinched them really hard to seal, and I kept the filling away from the edge, but this was still an issue for 3/4 of mine. I’m considering skipping the filling next time and just poking a hole in the middle before boiling and adding lots of crunch topping… or maybe I’ll do some of both. Thanks for this delicious recipe!
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Hi there! Is there a substitute for the honey? I don’t have any and curious if pure maple syrup would work?
Thanks!
Hi! I have not tried maple syrup as a substitute for this recipe, but I would think it is a suitable substitute as I have replaced honey for maple syrup in other recipes. Thanks for checking out the recipe!
Been struggling with my crisp being more…. syrup at the end of the baking process. Is this a common occurrence? Any tips on what I could be doing wrong?
Oh interesting. Hm, no I have not had this issue, but I wonder if it has something to do with the type of granulated sugar? Mine is a courser organic granulated sugar.. I wonder if using the finely ground granulated sugar results in less crunchy topping. Thanks for trying out the recipe!
I love these but the cinnamon crunch topping always melts off? What’s the trick to getting it not to run right off the bagel?
Hi! I’m sorry about that. I have updated the recipe to use room temperature softened butter instead of melted butter for the brown sugar crunch topping. Hopefully that helps! It will melt some but hopefully not as much. Thanks for trying the recipe!
Haven’t tried out a sourdough bagel recipe yet.
Let me know if you give it a try!
These are so delicious! Do they freeze well?
Yes you can freeze!
I’ve done this recipe so many times! 10/10!
If you want to freeze, should you freeze right before the baking step or after baking?
aww so glad you love it!! You could do either.. if you freeze before baking, I would probably let it proof half the time you normally would and then freeze, then thaw/let rise the rest of the way adding the topping when you are ready to bake. OR bake most of the way, about 5 minutes less. Then freeze once cooled. Reheat in oven when ready to serve.
Is there a conversion recipe for people without kitchen scales where they can measure rather than weigh? I know it may vary the recipe slightly, but I’m trying to work with what I’ve got.
Made today for my kids. OMG so good. Chewy outside and really soft inside. The bake time was a bit long for me, only needed 15 min so keep an eye out. Will 100% make again and use the base recipe for other toping bagels!!
So glad you loved it! Good to know about bake time. My new oven cooks faster than my older one so I agree, good to keep an eye on it! Thanks for trying out the recipe!
Made for first time. The dough was great to work with. Expect that the dough could be used without the cinnamon crunch for plain bagels? How about adding cheese ?
Hi! You absolutely could use the dough without the cinnamon to make plain bagels. Cheese is great, I add it to the top after boiling/before baking.
Hi! I’m excited to try these bagels, can I refrigerate after the boiling step and then top and bake them the following day? Thanks!
Hi! I haven’t tried doing that and I’m not exactly sure how it would turn out, it might work great! I just can’t say for sure. Let me know if you try and how it goes! Another option would be to just refrigerate the dough and then shape/let rise and boil then bake.