Panera’s Cinnamon Crunch Bagels seems to have a quite the following. This recipe is a copycat attempt that turned out to be the perfect breakfast bagel. There is a sweet topping that is loaded onto the bagels before baking, forming a crackly, craggy crust. Your kitchen will be filled with the aroma of cinnamon. These bagels are both tender and chewy– just as a bagel should be.
I’ve been craving Cinnamon-Raisin bagels for a few days. King Arthur Flour Baking is not only my go-to source for reliable recipes– I’ve got quite the collection of baking flours and products in my pantry. I was intrigued by this recipe for a Panera Bread’s Copycat popular bagel. It didn’t have raisins, but it had cinnamon. Not only cinnamon, but “Cinnamon Bits” that seemed like I could put them to good use in a Cinnamon and Raisin Bread.
For most of the years I’ve been baking bread, I always shied away from any recipe that uses a preferment, stiff sweet starter or anything that required an overnight rise. I was intimidated by the thought of a small ball of stiff dough could double, triple or even quadruple in size.
I’m over that fear, because preferments are easy! Last night, I mixed flour, water, salt and a little instant yeast until it formed a shaggy dough. In one of my canning jars, the dough filled to the 4 ounce line. I placed this in my trusty Bread Proofing Box overnight, set at 75F (the kitchen is getting a bit chilly at night). Voila! Such a lovely sight. Let’s make bagels!
There is an ingredient in this recipe that I’ve only found on the King Arthur Flour Website– Cinnamon Sweet Bits. I realize that this isn’t convenient for some of you. What can you substitute? Panera Bread adds White Chocolate Chips to their recipe. Cinnamon chips? I intend to try a variation adding raisins and upping the amount of cinnamon in the dough. I will say that these are really delicious, and I can imagine these would be great in muffins or coffee cakes.
If you’re old school, feel free to mix and knead the dough with your own hands. As for me, my Stand Mixer is one of my workhorses in the kitchen. Add all of the preferment, the bread flour (AP flour is not recommended) and the rest of the ingredients. On low speed, let the dough hook in the stand mixer do all of the elbow grease. I let the mixer go for about 6 minutes.
In the last two minutes, add the Cinnamon Sweet Bits. Done!
Place the dough into a bowl lightly spayed with oil. I set mine into my Bread Proofing Box. Allow 2 to 2-1/2 hours for the dough to double. With my Proofing Box set at 75F, the dough had doubled in 90 minutes!
Divide the dough into six even pieces (120g each). A digital scale is an inexpensive investment for bread baking, and I highly recommend it. Bring the corners of each piece of dough together, almost like a purse.
The fun part, for me, is to place my hand over each ball and roll the dough around on an unfloured counter or board. Place each piece of dough on a lightly floured area (a dusting wand is a great tool for this). Cover the dough and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes. (I prefer to use a clean kitchen towel rather than plastic.)
There are a few different ways to shape bagels. This technique is my favorite (and most fun) way to do it? Press your thumb through the middle, then use your index fingers to twirl the dough while stretching the dough to create a hole.
Don’t worry if the hole seems too big. It will shrink as it boils and bakes. Set each bagel on a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with a light layer of semolina or cornmeal. Cover the bagels with a clean cloth or plastic wrap until they are puffy– about 30 minutes.
Set a pot of water to boiling and make the topping while the bagels are proofing:
The ingredients are cinnamon, brown sugar, white sugar, flour, melted butter and vanilla. The topping should be the texture of wet sand. But wait! As I was editing my photos, I had a feeling that I forgot to add flour to the topping!
The topping seemed a bit runny, but at the time I was making the bagels, I kept on going. The funny thing is, the topping was easy to apply and it didn’t fall off– which some bakers complained happened to them.
Add honey to the water and make sure it’s at a boil. Carefully add the bagels to the boiling water, being careful not to crowd the pot. I like to use a spider (or a slotted spoon). After 60 second, carefully flip the bagels over for another 60 seconds.
I like to use a wooden skewer to flip over the bagels, as an alternative. Preheat the oven to 450F
Brush an egg wash over each bagel, then add the topping over the bagel. As you can see, my topping is more wet than it is dry (forgot to add flour). No worries, I kept on going.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. There we are! Golden brown bagels.
The topping stuck to each bagel, so maybe not adding flour wasn’t such a bad mistake. Softened cream cheese was at the ready. I also think Honey Butter would be a great way to go.
My impatience was at an all time high. I was hungry and the scent of cinnamon was calling me.
TASTING NOTES: Swoon! Seriously. The bagel had a chewy bite to it, but the bread was tender as well. The sweet topping had melted and adding a subtle sweet flavor. I didn’t add more sparkling sugar to the topping, but I’ll do that next time for some extra crunch. My husband gave these five stars and he rarely doles those out. I highly recommend watching the video from King Arthur Flour (YouTube) because I learned some great tips. I’m going to try this recipe by substituting raisins instead of Cinnamon Sweet Bits and increasing the cinnamon in the dough. I’ll get my Cinnamon Raisin fix, but this recipe yielded perfect bagels.
I’m loving the Cinnamon Sweet Bits. Melty pockets of sweetness!
Cinnamon Crunch Bagels Panera Bread Copycat
Equipment
- Proofing Box My most often used tool for proofing dough, especially during colder months
- Kitchen Scale the most accurate way to measure for bread baking
- Large Skillet needs to hold 8 cups of water
- Spider to remove bagels from boiling water
Ingredients
Preferment (pâte fermentée0
- 1 cup Unbleached Bread Flour 120g; recommended King Arthur NOTE: Use only Bread Flour, as AP flour will not result in a chewy bagel due to less protein
- 1/8 teaspoon table salt
- 1/16 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1/3 cup water 75g; cool temperature
For the Dough:
- all of the preferment
- 3/4 cup water 170g; warm temperature
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar 13g; packed
- 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
- 2 1/2 cups Unbleached Bread Flour 300g
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Vietnamese Cinnamon recommended
- 1/4 cup Cinnamon Sweet Bits, optional 35g; can be purchased at www.kingarthurflour.com NOTE: Panera Bread adds White Chocolate Chips to their recipe.
For the Topping:
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 27g; packed
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon coarse sparkling sugar or turbinado sugar
- 2 tablespoons Unbleached Bread Flour 15g
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon Vietnamese cinnamon recomended
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 tablespoon melted butter 14g
For the Water bath:
- 8 cups water 1808g
- 2 tablespoons honey 42g
Garnish the bagels:
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (egg wash)
- King Arthur Cinnamon Sweet Bits optional
- coarse sparkling sugar optional
Instructions
To make the preferment:
- Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the preferment ingredients to make a shaggy dough. Using the dough hook of your stand mixer, combine at low speed. Likewise, use your hand to knead gently until thoroughly combined. (This may take about a minute; it's quite stiff.)
- Cover the bowl and let the preferment rest at room temperature for 4 to 14 hours; it should expand -OR- Place the preferment into a jar (I use a Jam Jar) with a loose cloth cover or a loose jar cover. I set mine inside my proofing box at 75 degrees the night before, and the preferment quadrupled in size!
To make the dough:
- Add the remaining dough ingredients in the order listed to the bowl with the preferment, except the Cinnamon Sweet Bits.
- Mix to bring the dough together, by hand or at low speed of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.
- Next, knead the stiff dough until it’s supple and elastic. This will take up to 15 minutes by hand or 8 to 10 minutes at medium-low speed with a mixer. (Check that it passes the window pane test.)
- Add the Cinnamon Sweet Bits during the last 2 minutes of kneading.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and let it rest, covered, until it doubles in bulk. This will take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours depending on the warmth of your kitchen. NOTE: The dough doubled in 90 minutes in my proofing box.
Divide the dough:
- Turn the dough out onto a clean surface, gently deflate it, and divide it into 6 equal pieces (about 120g each).
To pre-shape the dough:
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, fold the edges into the center. Pinch to seal and set aside. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
- Starting with the first piece of dough you shaped, place it seam-side down on an unfloured surface. Use your cupped fingers and palm to roll the dough into a tight ball, moving your hand in a circular motion. The dough should stick slightly to the surface in order to create tension to yield a smooth exterior. If the dough is unmaginably sticky, add a very light dusting of flour; if the dough slides around on the surface without tightening, use a damp towel to clean and moisten the surface and try again.
- Once shaped into a tight ball, place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
- Cover the pre-shaped dough and allow it to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment and lightly grease the parchment; or sprinkle the parchment lightly with cornmeal, semolina, or farina, to prevent the bagels from sticking.
To shape the bagels:
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, use your finger to poke a hole through the center.
- Gently rotate the dough to expand the hole to 2” to 3” in diameter, forming a ring shape. Place the shaped bagel onto the prepared baking sheet. The hole will close up a bit; that’s OK.
- Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, then cover the bagels with a reusable cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, or a clean linen kitchen towel and let them rest until they feel slightly puffy to the touch, about 30 minutes.
- While the bagels are resting, preheat the oven to 450°F.
To make the topping:
- In a small bowl, whisk the sugars, flour, and cinnamon together.
- Add the vanilla and melted butter and stir until the mixture resembles wet sand.
To boil the bagels:
- Combine the water bath ingredients in a wide, shallow pot; the water should be at least 1 1/4″ deep. Bring the mixture to a boil.
- Add bagels to the water two or three at a time to avoid crowding.
- Boil for 60 seconds, then use a dough whisk, spider or slotted spoon to turn the bagels over. NOTE: I use skewers to turn the bagels over. Boil for another 60 seconds before removing from the water and placing on the prepared pan.
- Brush each bagel with egg wash and sprinkle with the topping, distributing evenly across the 6 bagels.
- For even more cinnamon crunch, sprinkle the tops of the bagels with more Cinnamon Sweet Bits and/or sparkling sugar.
- Press down on the toppings to fully adhere them to the bagel, ensuring that everything stays put.
To bake the bagels:
- Bake the bagels for 18 to 22 minutes, until golden brown. Rotate the pan (front to back, back to front) halfway through baking to ensure even browning. If at any point the topping is becoming too dark, tent with foil and continue baking.
- Remove the bagels from the oven and transfer them to a rack to cool.
Storage Information:
- These bagels are best enjoyed the day they’re made. Store any leftover bagels in a paper bag for up to 2 days; freezing is not recommended, as the sugary topping will become sticky upon thawing. To re-crisp, bagels can be toasted or wrapped loosely in foil and placed in a 350°F oven until warm.
Notes
Prepare the dough up through the kneading process and allow it to rise for just 1 hour. Continue following the recipe through shaping the bagels. Immediately place the baking sheet with the prepared bagels, covered, into the refrigerator overnight (8 to 12 hours). The next morning, continue the recipe as written starting at the step preheating the oven. Leave the bagels in the refrigerator until the water bath is boiling and the oven is preheated.
OPTIONS:
Substitute 1/4 cup (43g) raisins for the Cinnamon Sweet Bits in the dough, if you want an elevated cinnamon-raisin bagel. Soften the raisins by soaking them in hot water for 15 minutes before kneading into the dough. Bake as directed.
Bake it better! Watch King Arthur baker/blogger Kye Ameden demonstrate some of the techniques from this recipe: Make Your Own Panera-Style Cinnamon-Sugar Crunch Bagels.
Nutrition
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