Air Fryer Bagels
Temperature
330°F
165°C
Time
14 min
4 bagels
Heat through to
Piping hot
cooked right through
Prep
15 min
Cook
14 min
Total
29 min
Everything else in this category goes into the basket already baked. A two-ingredient bagel does not - it is self-rising flour and Greek yogurt mixed a few minutes ago, and the machine has to bake it from raw. Our Pillsbury biscuits page sets out what that means in a basket air fryer and a bagel inherits all of it: the element is above the food, so the tops run ahead of the bases, and a modest 330°F beats the hot settings that suit almost everything else here. What a bagel adds is the hole, and the hole is not decoration. A biscuit is solid all the way through, so its middle is the last part to set; a ring has no middle, and the slowest section of the bake has been designed out of the shape. Keep the hole and this is a forgiving thing to make. Let it close up and you have built the biscuit back.
Ingredients
Quantities for 4 bagels - the times on this page assume that much in the basket.
- 1 1/4 cups self-rising flour, plus 2-3 tbsp for kneading
- 1 cup thick full-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 egg, beaten, for the tops
- 2 tbsp everything bagel seasoning
- Cream cheese, to serve
How to air fry bagels
- Stir the flour and yogurt together until it stops looking like two ingredients, then tip it onto a floured surface and knead for about a minute, working in more flour a spoonful at a time until the dough is tacky rather than sticky. Divide it into four and roll each piece into a rope about eight inches long. Press the ends together into a ring and pinch that seam properly rather than laying the ends against each other, then stretch the hole out to about a third of the bagel's width - it will look far too big, and it will not be. Brush the tops with the beaten egg and dip them face-down into the seasoning.
- Preheat the air fryer to 330°F (165°C).
- Add the fresh bagels to the basket. Leave a good inch around each ring - they grow outward as well as upward, and four is the most a standard basket takes in one layer.
- Cook for about 14 minutes.
Pro tip
Make the hole about a third of the width of the bagel - roughly twice what looks right. The dough grows inward as it rises, and where the hole seals shut you have two inner faces pressed together with no air between them, so that seam stays raw while the rest browns.
How to tell when it's done
The top should be a deep, even gold, and the side of the ring should feel firm rather than springy when you press it. If you have a thermometer, push it into the thickest part and look for about 200°F (93°C) - that is the reading that means baked rather than merely hot. Then leave them for ten minutes on a rack. The cooling is part of the method and not a serving suggestion: the crumb carries on firming up after the heat comes off, so a bagel cut straight out of the basket feels underbaked when it is not.
Converting from an oven recipe
If your recipe is written for a conventional oven, lower the temperature by about 25°F (15°C) and reduce the time by roughly 20% to land near 330°F for 14 minutes. Need a different starting point? Use the conversion calculator.
Air fryer bagels: FAQ
Why are my air fryer bagels gummy in the middle?
Two different faults look the same when you cut one open, and the fix for one makes the other worse. The common one is impatience: the crumb goes on firming up for several minutes after the heat comes off, so a bagel cut straight out of the basket is dense and claggy in a way it would not have been at ten minutes on a rack. The rarer one is genuine underbaking. Tell them apart by where it is. A cooling fault is spread evenly through the whole crumb and feels heavy but dry; underbaked dough is wet and gluey in one place - usually the thickest part of the ring, or the seam where the hole has closed up and two faces have been pressed together out of the airflow - and it is still wet once the bagel is cold. Only the second wants more time, and it wants it at 330°F (165°C) rather than hotter, because the reason the middle stayed raw is that the outside set before the heat reached it. Turning the dial up just repeats that faster.
How long does it take to air fry bagels?
Air fry bagels at 330°F (165°C) for about 14 minutes. That's for 4 bagels in a single layer; adjust slightly for a fuller basket or a different model.
What temperature do you air fry bagels at?
Set the air fryer to 330°F (165°C). If you're converting an oven recipe, that's roughly 25°F (15°C) below the oven temperature, with the time cut by about 20%.
Do I need to preheat the air fryer for bagels?
A 2-3 minute preheat gives the most accurate timing and the best browning, but it isn't essential - if you skip it, add a minute or two to the cook time.