Breakfast will forever be my favorite meal.
And bagels will forever be one of my favorite foods.
We have not one single bagel bakery in Nowheresville, North Carolina. Dunkin’ Donuts is about 25 miles away (and their coffee tastes like sugary milk. Sorry DD. Can’t handle it.) and our grocery store doesn’t make bagels in their bakery. One of the vendors at our farmer’s market sells bagels. But it’s January.
I’m weird about bagel flavors, too. I’m a savory girl. Cinnamon raisin toast? Yes. Cinnamon raisin bagel? NO.
Give me Everything. Or Poppy Seed. Garlic. Jalapeno Cheddar.
A whole wheat, smothered in garden vegetable cream cheese kind of bagel. Yuuuuuuuum.
There was nowhere to go to satisfy my bagel cravings.
So I made my own! And it was really pretty easy.
That’s not to say I didn’t ef plenty of bagel recipes up before I got this one right though. I made some jalapeno cheddar bagels in the middle of the summer because summer in North Carolina is a great time to boil things and pre-heat your oven for half the day. It was too hot in here, I let them rise too much, and then the phone rang. That boiled dough was a hot mess quite literally. My first few tries with the whole wheat bagels happened pretty unsuccessfully, too. All the recipes I tried called for too much flour, not enough salt, not enough action from the yeast. I was beginning to think that making bagels was gonna end up like the first batch of THESE biscuits. Remember those? Yeah.
But I tried again and wooooooo! Bagels. All chewy and warm and basically amazing.
I didn’t tell you about all my bagel flub ups to discourage you. Noooooo! It’s the opposite, really. Cause see, I worked out all the kinks. I made it really easy. Easy! I pinky promise.
Oh and hey— one more thing.
These are less than 200 calories. So don’t harbor any guilt over cream cheese or a poached egg.
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2½ cups whole wheat flour
- ½ cup cornmeal
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- In a large bowl mix the warm water, sugar, and salt. Stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
- Add the yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the flour ½ cup at a time.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a snake shape. Lightly pinch the ends together to make a circle.
- Lay the bagels out on an ungreased baking sheet. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop 2 bagels at a time into the boiling water. Cook them for 2-3 minutes and remove from the water with a slotted spoon.
- Scatter a little bit of cornmeal across an ungreased baking sheet and place the rest in a shallow dish, Dip the bottom of each cooked bagel in the cornmeal and then place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Shake the poppy seeds over the moist bagels and then let them sit for 45 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 475.
- Bake the bagels for 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.
I LOVE bagels too!!! I’m the same as you I love savory bagels, everything is my favorite!!! The only sweet bagel I ever tried and loved was the cinnamon crunch from Panera Bread…honestly to die for. Their bagels are amazing!!! I still chuckle every time you mention your biscuits at the thought of me giving you the wrong measurements lol Anyhow…these look fantastic!!!! I would have thought you bought those!!! Yes please!!
Panera bread can do no wrong. You are an awesome baker, Michelle! Make these!
I do love a good bagel!!! I must calculate the calories at once!!! hahahaha
We love Panera bagels, but they can be up to 400 calories! I’m going to try making these with the jalapenos in our freezer!
Omg you’ll be so excited! They are so easy. Eliminating the egg wash knocked off a few calories, but avoiding the oil bath in favor of water helped tremendously. They are chewy and dense and gooood.
Yay!
I am obsessed with bagels, too!!! There’s something about its chewiness, sweetness, sometimes sour taste that I loooove. I had never thoiught about making them at home—brilliant!
Heyyyy! It’s been awhile! This recipe is easy. The active cooking time is like 20 minutes, all the other time is rest/rise. I freaking love bagels and I’ve been missing them so much!!
You amaze me!
Haha. These are really easy, Mom. Not amazingly difficult. Just delicious!!
Yum! Thanks for working out the kinks! No preservatives and only sugar to feed the yeast – win!
I should photograph my disasters for you guys…
I keep looking for donuts when I try to find bagels here but you give me incentive to try harder
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
You need to email your mailing address to me, like, yesterday! I have to send you a tool so that your bagels come out perfectly shaped. It’s like a crime for such great food not to look the part! Its my treat to you for faithfully blogging away while I’m being a slacker! eatwilmington@gmail.com
That’s really nice, Susan! I kinda liked the imperfection/homemade look, but a tool would be neat!
It’s really a doughnut cutter, but it will work for bagels, too – they “grow” to bagel size during the proofing;)
I haven’t made homemade bagels in years, but after seeing these, I totally need to try them again. LOVE! Thanks so much for linking up at What’s in Your Kitchen Wednesday!
Yes! Make them! Thanks, Ashley!
Bagels are what get me going in the morning..Like you, i like flavors not sweetness. You are so adventurous to make a bagel..these do look easy to make and yummy as well!!
Oh my gosh they were so easy! I’ve been making bagel sandwiches all week!