Bagel Recipe

Kayleigh here. Bagels. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried gluten free bagels from the supermarket, but, well, it’s a sad experience. Are they aware of what a bagel is, or do they think it’s just supposed to be bread with a hole in the middle? Where’s the chew, or the golden crust on the outside when you toast it?

We have found one brand of enjoyable bagels in the past, but they were but a brief stint on the supermarket shelves in our area. Since then, I have been trying batch after batch to get something that even remotely resembles something you would find in an old-style deli, and think we’ve finally hit upon something that can satisfy those cravings. If you try this recipe, or figure out a variation that gets this even closer to the mark, please let us know in the comments!

Plain Bagels

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

1 cup White Rice Flour

1 Cup Tapoica Starch

1 Cup Potato Starch

¾ Cups Sweet Rice Flour

¼ Cups Corn Meal

1 ts Xanthan Gum

1 pinch Salt

2 ½ TB Yeast ( or one packet)

2 TB Honey

2 TB Sugar

1/2 Cups warm Milk

½ Cups warm Water

For the Baking

1 pot water, deep enough for the bagels to float in, with ½ ts Baking Soda mixed in

1 Egg mixed with 1 ts Water

Sesame seeds or other toppings (optional)

Directions:

1)      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all dough ingredients in a bowl, stirring well.

2)      Prepare two baking sheets- putting a silpat down on each one is ideal, but you can also coat the sheets thinly with oil to prevent sticking.

3)      Wet your hands with cold water to prevent the dough from sticking, then divide the dough into balls and place them on the baking sheet (it should make 9 deli-sized bagels, but you can make more or less depending on what you like). Since gluten free dough isn’t as sturdy as wheat flour dough, we found it easier to shape the dough into bagels once it was on the tray by molding it with your thumbs and poking a hole in the center. Make sure to re-wet your hands frequently- it will help the dough stay moist during the rise, too.

4)      Let the dough sit in a warm place for ½ hour to an hour. They won’t double in size, but they will look much bigger and puffier.

5)      Put the pot of water and baking soda onto the stovetop and bring it to a boil. Wet a spatula to carefully take each bagel off the plate, then put them in the boiling water 2­-3 at a time. Boil them for 3 minutes on the first side, then flip them and boil for another two minutes.

6)      Once all of the bagels have been boiled, try to remove any pools of water that have formed on the baking sheets, since they can make them bake oddly. Bake the bagels for 20 minutes in the oven, then brush the egg wash onto the top of each bagel, sprinkling sesame seeds, garlic, salt, or whatever you prefer on top.

7)      Bake bagels in the oven for another 10-20 minutes, until they just start to brown. Don’t bake for too long, since you’ll be toasting them when you go to eat them.

Jason here. These bagels are simply amazing. Before Kayleigh came up with this recipe, all I was able to eat were the frozen gluten free brands which always had a tougher texture then I liked. Not so with Kayleigh’s new recipe.

Almost everything about them reminds me of the bagels my grandmother used to make for me when I was a child, including the way the butter knife crunches the top of the bagel after slicing in half and toasting. Hearing that crunch was something I thought I would never get in a gluten free bagel.

Somehow the taste too captures that delicious doughy texture of a well-made bagel. The added sesame seeds just enhances that flavor even more.

If you have been craving a bagel, one with a toasted golden crunchy outside, but still a warm fluffy inside, look no further. Be sure to make extra’s so you can have them all week!