Sugar Cookie Bagels
Chewy homemade bagels with a soft vanilla-almond sweetness, warm holiday spices, and a sugar-cookie–style crust. These taste like a bakery bagel and a sugar cookie had a baby!!
Equipment
- Stand mixer with dough hook (optional, but recommended)
- Large Pot
- Baking sheet
- parchment
- Slotted spoon
Ingredients
Bagel Dough
- 1 cup warm water about 105°F
- 2 ¼ tsp instant yeast
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tbsp melted unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 3 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 ½ tsp fine salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
Boil Bath
- 8 cups water
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp baking soda
Sugar Cookie Topping
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or more cane sugar mixed with Vanilla Extract)
- Optional: sprinkles
Instructions
- Add warm water, instant yeast, cane sugar, and brown sugar to a bowl. Stir. Add melted butter, vanilla and almond extracts, bread flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until a shaggy dough forms.
- Knead by hand for 8 minutes or in a stand mixer for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough should feel soft but not sticky; add a tablespoon of flour if needed.
- Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise 1 hour or until doubled.
- Divide dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each into a tight ball. Poke a hole through the center with your finger and gently stretch to form a bagel shape.
- Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Bring water, brown sugar, and baking soda to a boil. Boil bagels 30 seconds per side. Transfer to the baking sheet.
- While warm, brush the boiled bagels with melted butter. Mix cane sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla sugar. Sprinkle generously over each bagel.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until golden, shiny, and crackly with a sugar-cookie crust.
- Cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Notes
These will naturally be darker on the outside due to the sugar crust added; if its not done baking and its already hit the light golden brown shade, tent the pan with aluminum to stop from getting darker. Add 1–2 tbsp more sugar to the dough for a sweeter bagel. Almond extract is KEY for sugar-cookie flavor; for my free handers out there, you only need a tiny amount so use sparingly! Sprinkle coarse sugar or sprinkles before baking if you want twinkly holiday bagels. These freeze beautifully; slice before freezing for easy toasting. Serve with vanilla cream cheese, cinnamon-honey butter.