Last updated January 17th, 2025
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You can make these homemade mini pizza bagels in the oven in just 20 minutes. Customize them with your favorite toppings and easily feed a hungry crowd!
If you were a kid in the 90s or 2000s, you probably grew up snacking on store-bought mini pizza bagels at playdates and sleepovers. Well, we’ve had a nostalgic craving for pizza bagels lately and decided it was time to upgrade to homemade pizza bagels we could whip up for lunch in a pinch!
What This Recipe Entails
This pizza bagel recipe takes very little effort and produces a homemade version of a childhood favorite. With just a couple ingredients and less than 5 minutes of prep you’ll be making these all the time.
- Prep time: 2 minutes
- Cook time: 18 minutes
This recipe uses plain mini bagels, homemade pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and any of your favorite toppings for simple and delicious pizza bagels you can make in about 20 minutes. They’re such a fun meal to make – and to eat – and will take you back to childhood as soon as you take a bite.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:
- Plain mini bagels – Mini bagels work great for smaller servings or appetizer sized snacks. You can also make full sized pizza bagels for a larger snack or meal.
- Pizza sauce – We always have homemade pizza sauce in the freezer, but you can use your favorite store-bought marinara or pizza sauce.
- Cheese – Shredded mozzarella cheese is the best bet for a classic pizza bagel, but you can always customize the cheese based on your favorite toppings or flavors. Check out the recipe variations section for more ideas!
- Seasonings – Garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and salt.
- Toppings – Our go to topping is pepperoni, but there is no end to the ideas you can come up with. Bacon, sausage, veggies, and more all work great.
How To Make Homemade Pizza Bagels
Homemade pizza bagels are a quick, fun, and easy meal to prepare on a large sheet pan in the oven! You can easily scale this recipe to make a big batch for a crowd, and it’ll only take about 20 minutes.
Here’s how to make pizza bagels in the oven:
- Toast the bagels – Separate the mini bagels into halves and place them face down on the baking sheet. Brush the bagels with melted butter, then sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano. Bake until lightly toasted.
- Top the bagels – Flip the bagels over and top with sauce, shredded cheese, a pinch of salt, and your choice of toppings.
- Bake – Bake until the cheese is golden and bubbly. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving so you don’t burn your mouth.
Recipe Variations
You can customize your homemade pizza bagels with any of your favorite toppings! Here are a few ideas you might want to try:
- Veggie – Diced peppers, onions, and mushrooms.
- BBQ Bagel – Swap out the mozzarella for cheddar and pizza sauce for some BBQ sauce. Add chicken or pulled pork for a topping.
- Sausage and pepper – Add ground sausage and diced bell pepper.
- Upscale pizza bagels – Add some fresh basil, EVOO, and some mozzarella pearls.
- Hawaiian – Pineapple and bacon anyone? No, just me…?
- Make it spicy – Add jalapenos and hot honey. Combine the mozzarella with pepper jack. And maybe even use some leftover spicy pizza sauce from our prosciutto and goat cheese pizza.
The possibilities are endless. Make a fun activity out of this recipe and get the whole family together for build-your-own pizza bagels with everyone’s favorite toppings!
Serving Suggestions
Homemade mini pizza bagels are the easy solution when you don’t know what to feed a crowd of hungry kids. They’re great for lunch or dinner – it’s easy to make a ton at once, and they cook quickly to satisfy those hungry bellies.
This recipe isn’t just for kids, though! You can also make pizza bagels for a unique game day snack. Throw together a tray with a few different kinds of toppings and serve them up during the game for an easy handheld snack everyone will love.
Storing & Reheating Leftovers
If you have any pizza bagels leftover, you can keep them in the fridge for up to 4 days. We recommend storing them in an air-tight container or plastic resealable bags. Reheat in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until warmed through.
Try our homemade bagel pizza recipe and let us know what you think by rating and commenting below!
Expert Tips
- Cheese – We always recommend shredding cheese yourself because it melts better. However since you’re likely making this recipe for a quick midnight snack, pre-shredded cheese is your friend.
- Pizza sauce – Getting yourself some Super Cubes so you can always have homemade pizza sauce in the freezer is a game-changer. That way you are always ready to make some pizza (or pizza bagels)! That’s what we call being an adult.
- Toast and season the outsides – This recipe calls for seasoning and toasting the bagels before making them into pizza for added flavor and to help keep your pizza bagels from getting soggy. Brush the bagels with butter, season them, and lightly toast them in the oven before adding any sauce or toppings.
- Small toppings – If you want to top these with pepperoni, we recommend chopping it up into smaller pieces first so you can distribute it more evenly over the mini bagels. The same goes for any other toppings you might want to put on your pizza bagels – keep them small!
FAQs
Homemade pizza bagels take about 12 to 15 minutes in the oven. You want to cook them until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
You can cook pizza bagels in the toaster oven just like you would in a normal oven. Just set your toaster oven to bake at 350 degrees and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
For a classic pizza taste, mozzarella is the best cheese for homemade pizza bagels. But, we love to mix it up with different types like cheddar or monterey jack depending on our toppings. The best cheese is the one you like the most!
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:
- Mini Grilled Margherita Pizzas
- Thin Crust BBQ Chicken Pizza
- Teriyaki Pulled Pork Pull Apart Sliders
- Chicken Parm Sliders
To browse more of our latest recipes and seasonal dishes, visit our homepage here.
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Homemade Pizza Bagels
Equipment
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 8 mini plain bagels separated in half
- 1¾ cup pizza sauce
- 8 ounces mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Oregano
- Salt
- Pepperoni quartered (optional topping)
Instructions
- First, line a large sheet pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Next, place the bagels cut side down on the baking sheet. Brush them with melted butter, then sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano. Bake until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes, then remove them from the oven.
- Carefully flip the bagels over so the cut sides are facing up. Evenly distribute the sauce amongst the bagels and spread into an even layer, then top bagels with shredded mozzarella cheese. Finish with a pinch of salt and pepperoni or other optional toppings if desired.
- Bake the pizza bagels in the oven until the cheese is bubbly, about 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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Pizza bagels are such a nostalgic meal. But this time they’re so much better and can be customized to your mood. Whether I’m looking for an easy lunch or a late night snack, these pizza bagels are always a good option.