I am so excited to finally share this recipe for making homemade bagels with sourdough discard. I worked and tweaked this recipe for quite some time until I finally felt I had everything right. These bagels are just the right amount of chewy with a slightly sour taste from the discard. So if you have discard lying around use it to make these delicious bagels.

It is important to note that this recipe does take two days to make. On day one you make the dough, let it rise, and form the bagels. Then you stick them in the fridge overnight, which really helps bring out the flavor of the sourdough. The next day you boil and bake the bagels. I think they are just the right amount of chewy with a very nice crumb.

These homemade bagels are a great way to use up any sourdough discard that you have lying around house. Because unfed discard is being used in this recipe does use a pinch of yeast to help the bagels rise. This recipe also uses home milled flour. I usually use either hard red, hard white, or a combination of the two.

Now settle in, this post on how to make homemade bagels with sourdough discard is a long one, but I wanted to try to add as much information as possible.

Ingredients

600 grams hard wheat: I like to sift some of the bran out of my flour when making bagels. I use a size 40 sifter.
300 grams water
180 grams sourdough discard: This helps give the bagels a slightly tangy flavor
48 grams sugar: adds some sweetness
2 grams instant yeast: to help make sure the bagels rise
6 grams salt: for flavor

How to make homemade bagels with sourdough discard

**Step one:** mix the the flour, discard, water, and sugar together. Allow to autolyze for one hour.

**Step two:** after the hour is up, add the salt and yeast. Knead until smooth.

**Step three:** After dough has been kneaded allow to rise for 2-3 hours. Your end goal is about a 30% rise

This is how my dough was looking after about 3 hours.

Step four: next up is to divide the dough into portions. I usually go with 70-90 gram pieces depending on how big I want the bagels to turn out. I like to divide all my dough up first, then I start shaping the bagels.

Step five: Now it’s time to form the bagels. The first thing I do is take a dough portion and bring the corners up. Then I flip it over and roll it towards me to make a ball shape. I try to cup my pinkies under the ball to help shape it and pull it towards me. Since this is kind of hard to explain, I also took a video (which also shows how I finish shaping the bagels). After you form the bagel put it on a cookie sheet lined with either a slipmat or parchment paper.

Step Six: Now it’s time to finish shaping the bagels. I do this by making a hole with my thumb, then using my fingers to stretch it out a little more. Once again this part is also in the video linked above.

Step seven: after all the bagels have been formed put plastic wrap over the bagels and put them in the fridge overnight.

Step eight: bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the brown sugar and baking soda. Put the bagels in the water and boil them for about 2 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to flip them over. Boil another minute. Remove from the water and let dry a little on a cooling rack.

Step nine: brush an egg wash on the bagels, and dip in toppings (like everything but the bagel seasoning) if desired. Then bake bagels for 20-25 minutes.

Step ten: let bagels cool then enjoy!

Can I include mix ins?

For the most part yes. I have made these bagels using cinnamon and raisins, and chocolate chips (a kid favorite). Add your mix ins during the kneading step. Blueberries are tricky due to the moisture content. I am playing around with a blueberry bagel recipe and will post it as soon as I can.

What else can I make with discard?

I really feel like the world is your oyster when it comes to discard. One of my favorite things to make it chocolate chip cookies. I recently made this granola which has become a winner in our house.