Alex loves bagels. Only savory, though. He’ll down an everything bagel or an onion bagel with butter, cream cheese and lox in seconds, but if you offer him a blueberry or cinnamon bagel, he won’t even touch it. He’s been wanting to have bagels for his breakfast before he goes to work, and I just keep deciding not to buy him any, poor guy. Today, after doing a bit of grocery shopping and finishing up some things around the apartment, I decided I’d make him some homemade bagels. We didn’t really have any cream cheese he’d like – only some neufatel cheese in the freezer – but I figured he’d overlook that seeing as the bagels were fresh.
I mixed some dried minced onion and garlic into the dough so the flavors would be baked in, and he thawed out the cream cheese and mixed some spices into it to make it how he wanted. Once I had them all baked up, we packed all but one of them into an airtight container and split it so we could try it. Alex was upset about the cream cheese; he thought the texture was off too much, but I thought it was perfectly fine, of course. The bagels were fantastic – so much flavor packed into them!
I’ve been more into a sweet-savory kind of combination, so with some of the neufatel cheese, I mixed in cinnamon, nutmeg and honey and had that on my half of the bagel. I loved it, although I’m sure it seems extremely weird to most out there. I sprinkled a few raisins on top, too, which was really nice as well.
Don’t be intimidated by the several steps in making bagels – they’re extremely easy to make! And SO worth it. You can control what goes in them and how they’re flavored..and you really can’t get better than homemade!
Whole Wheat Garlic Onion Bagels
yields 6 bagels
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 t active dry yeast
1/2 T honey
1/2 T brown sugar
1/2 T salt
3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 T dried minced onion
1/2 T dried minced garlic
1 egg
In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve the honey, brown sugar and yeast in the warm water, and allow to sit for 5 minutes, until foamy. Add the salt, minced onion and garlic and stir to combine. With the dough hook rotating, slowly add in the flour, and continue mixing until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (should be smooth and elastic). Place the dough in a well oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap sprayed with oil. Allow to rest in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour.
Remove the dough from the bowl, and divide into six balls. Press your finger through the middle of each ball until it goes all the way through, and then stretch the hole out to about 2 inches in diameter. Place the balls with holes in them on a baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and allow to rise again for about a half hour in a warm place.
While rising for the second time, place a pot of water on the stove and heat to boiling. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Once the dough balls are done rising, place them into the pot of boiling water, one or two at a time (depending on the size of your pot), and boil each side for about one minute. Once boiled, place on paper towels to blot any excess water. Move to a parchment lined baking sheet. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg with a splash of cold water. Brush the egg wash onto each bagel on the parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with any spices you’d like. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Allow to cool on a wire rack and serve as desired.