Whole Wheat Breakfast Bagels

Bagel is a bread product traditionally of Jewish origin.They are made of yeasted wheat and are boiled in water and then baked.This makes them different from other breads.A single bagel can replace two bread slices.They can be used as sandwiches with various toppings.They are easy to make and so here they are.

Ingredients:

Wheat gluten
Boiling water: 1/4 cup
Honey: 3/4 tbspn
Warm water: 1/4 cup
Yeast: 1-2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Whole Wheat flour:1/4 cup + more

Other Bagel ingredients:
Whole Wheat flour: 1 .25 cups or more as needed

Preparation:

In a bowl add,honey,salt and Hot boiling water.Cool to luke warm.In another bowl, mix yeast in warm water and keep aside.Once it foams add it to honey-salt-water mixture.Slowly add in 1/4 cup of wheat flour and beat well to form a thick paste.Sometimes you may have to add in more wheat depending on the water you have used.This paste is our wheat gluten or rather homemade wheat gluten paste.You can buy powdered wheat gluten from stores as well.

In a big bowl,add the remaining flour,add glutten little by little to form a dough.Knead well to make the dough elastic and smooth.Divide the dough into small portions and knead each portion into a thick rope.Join the ends of the rope to form a circle.Other wise the easier way is take each portion,knead into a ball and then make a hole in the centre.(I tried both).Cover and rest the bagels for 30 minutes or until they double in size.No need to re-knead them.

In a big pan,boil water,add salt,boil each bagel for a 1-2 minutes-place a bagel in water and when done,it will puff up to the top and them turn to the other side with a slotted spoon.Remove the bagel from water and keep in a greased/ungreased baking sheet (I used ungreased).You can top the bagels with whatever you like,sesame seeds,cinnamon sugar etc or leave plain.I baked them plain.

Bake the bagels at 375F for 25-30 minutes.Cool for few minutes and serve with toppings of choice.

Final Product...

On Opening.......

They looked like this from the oven.They are crisp outside,denser and chewy and taste,--just like bread.Whole wheat makes it denser compared to white flour.Slice a bagel and apply jelly/jam/cheese/butter/honey/pizza sauce etc..................... and enjoy your breakfast


With cream cheese

With honey...

Pizza bagel(my favourite)

Cut the bagel into two,spread marinara sauce on each slice and top with favourite cheese and munch on or if preferred broil/toast till cheese melts and enjoy warm.

Now,the estimate given is for 2 large bagels,I also had extra gluten and I again baked a batch of same estimate and totally had 4 bagels- 1 very large,2 large and one medium.I had actually added extra water while making gluten and had to add more flour and thus the entire got messed up,but the bagels came out perfect.You can make bagels any size,but breakfast bagels are larger in size.

The entire recipe is easy to make-make wheat gluten and slowly add to wheat flour and then shape and boil and bake.It takes less than 2 hours to make including the oven heating and doubling up time.I would be making them again,coz bagels can be had anytime,not just breakfast.

So these Bagels travels to Aparna of MyDiversekitchen where she is in search of Grains in Breakfast with WBB, an event started by Nandita of SaffronTrail. They also go to Suganya of TastyPalettes where she is celebrating the JFI with Whole grains.