Wheat Bagels - Onion, Poppy seed. vegan

Time for some bagels! All home made, half whole wheat, without added chemical agents, conditioners and such. Bagels are chewy breads, like pretzels, boiled in water. The pretzels have baking soda added to the water while for bagels, malt(malted barley) syrup is added. That will slightly permeate the dough to give it color and shine. The boiling also reactivates the yeast and pre-gelatinizes the starch on the surface of the bagels which contributes to their chewiness.

There are other ways to make bagels as well. This is how I make mine. You can boil anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds on each side for desired chewyness.

Malt syrup is not easy to find, so I used dark Agave nectar. You can use any dark sugary alternate.

For all yeast breads, buns, pretzels, see the Collection here.

The well formed bagel is Onion bagel. The dough was kneaded well and smooth. Shaped by rolling into a long rope and sticking the ends.

The other poppy seed and sesame seed topped bagels are 2 minute knead dough. Shaped by making buns and poking holes. These worked out well too, just not a perfect smooth shape.

For super Chewy Bagels: Dont let the Bagels rise too long after shaping, Boil them for shorter time. Use high gluten flour and make a dense stiff dough. Keep the dough overnight.

Bagels boiled and ready for some poppy seed sprinkle.

Prep/rising Time: 1.5 hours. Kitchen Time: 20-25 minutes.

Ingredients: 6-7 medium size bagels.

1 cup warm water

1.5 cups whole wheat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)

1.25+ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten(optional- for chewier bagels)

1 Tablespoon agave syrup (or malt syrup if you can find it)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon raw sugar

1.5 teaspoons active yeast (Red Star)

1 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil

For onion bagels- add a Tablespoon of onion flakes.

Boiling:

4-5 cups water

1 Tablespoons agave or malt syrup

1 teaspoon salt

Toppings:

Onion flakes

Poppy seeds

sesame seeds

sunflower seeds

watermelon seeds

Directions:

In a large bowl, add 2 Tablespoons warm water, 1 teaspoon raw sugar and yeast. Mix and let sit until frothy(10 minutes).

Add salt to the 1.5 cups wheat flour and mix. Add wheat flour, 1 cup bread flour, wheat gluten if using, to the yeast mix.

Add onion flakes for onion bagels.

Add agave, oil, rest of the water and knead 5-6 minutes in stand mixer or 8-9 minutes by hand.

If the dough is very sticky, then add a little bread flour until the the dough is soft and smooth.(more of the stiff side).

Place dough in well greased container. Cover with towel and let sit for 1.5 hours or until doubled.

Punch dough down, use a Tablespoon or so bread flour to help make the dough less sticky. (You can refrigerate the dough at this point overnight for chewier bagels. Next day, let the dough sit out for an hour before continuing).

Divide into 6 equal parts.

Start up the water on high, to bring to a boil in a deep pan. Also start up your oven to preheat to 400 degrees F.

Shape each part into a bagel. Make a long rope by rolling between your palms and then sticking the ends together with atleast a 3 finger hole in between. or make a ball, poke a large hole using wet fingers or fat round spatula handle.(the bagels expand while boiling, hence reducing the hole, so keep the hole larger or you will get an almost bun like, small hole, pictured onion bagel ;)

Add agave and salt to the boiling water, mix. Add bagels 2 or 3 at a time and let boil for 30 seconds on each side.

Take them out and place on a towel.

You can directly bake these for plain bagels on a baking sheet.

Optional step: For a shiny gloss, mix a Tablespoon cornstarch in 2 Tablespoons water. Mix well. add a 1/4 cup boiling water and mix until thick. Brush this on the top.

Sprinkle your toppings on the bagels. Press down a bit to stick. or dip the bagel upside down in the bowl of seeds.

Place bagels on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes.(25 minutes for larger sized bagels).

Let cool before slicing or storing.

Top with vegan butter, cream cheeze, herbed oil, marmalade, nut butters or use to make your fave loaded burgers!

These bagels are heading to Ricki's wellness weekend, Hearth and soul blog hop, Slightly indulgent Tuesdays, .

If you havent already heard about this new series Satyamev Jayate, you need to read and know about it. A new Talk show started up some weeks back, hosted by one of the top actors of Bollywood(thats the Indian film Industry). It is being compared to Oprah in terms of bringing up some important issues and also discussing and following up on solutions.

The first episode was about Female Foeticide in India. The gender preference has lead to the death of more than 30,000,000 unborn girls in the last 30-40 years. The stories of people and the depreciating value of the girl child and solutions like education, and harsher laws against gender based abortions and torture are all discussed. The episode below is in the Hindi, with English Subtitles. For a more global view of the problem see ItsaGirl documentary.