CHALLENGE 6 – Gluten Free Bagels

This is a challenge set by Katie (@katieboobaker). She has a gluten free blog that was in the nominations for THE COSMO BLOG AWARD! Check out her blog here - http://katieboo85.blogspot.com/ So we have someone who knows what they’re doing here (unlike me… i’m finding my way slowly but surely, and this challenge is definitley kicking me into the blogging world with an almighty boot!). So, Katie has challenge me to make:

Gluten Free Bagels!

Something i’ve wanted to do for aaaaages! I’m already thinking of the cream cheese that will be piled high on top of them.

I’ll keep you posted.

So, here’s the recipe…

I’ve been craving bagels for soo long! Proper American, deliciously sweet bagels with cream cheese and salmon! Yum.And now, my gluten free diet can fit them in… so happy! I hope you like the recipe, and, it’s a really fun one to make with the boiling of the bread, so it’s a good one to show the kids (maybe not for them to actually do given the boiling water element of this, but waiting for the bagels to bob up to the surface is great… I didn’t know this would happen, so when the breads popped up to the surface after being sunk initially, it was completely unexpected!)

I made these following my challenge from Kate (@katieboobaker), finally at the weekend and they were amazing! They even tasted great the next day after being warmed through in the microwave, so I think making a double batch and freezing or eating toasted or warmed through the week would be ideal, but I just made a small batch of four for us for lunch and one left over for me for a lunch at work!

In the end, we didn’t end up having salmon and cream cheese as I made the bagels the same day as I made the Cheesy Fish Pie… fish and cheese overload? As much as I want to say yes, my tummy is saying no in a big way! Too much dairy me! But, if you so desire, go ahead, maybe get some dairy-free cream cheese? Let me know what you put on your bagels… i’d love any new suggestions. I had mine with soup, salad and some of my Chilli Jam, along with my latest love of Sweet Tomato Relish from Marks and Spencer… a real Ploughman’s Style Lunch!

The recipe needs 1 hour to rise, so make it early in the morning if you’re wanting fresh bagels for lunch. I made ours, we went shopping and then it was ready for cooking once we were back!

Ingredients

1 x tbsp Active Dry Yeast, prepared to pack instructions

2 tbsp caster sugar1 tsp Table Salt225g Gluten free Brown Bread flour (I used Dove’s Farm for this. You could also use White, I chose brown this time as I like to eat brown bread more than white, but of course it’s up to you!)

Spray Olive Oil (if you haven’t heard me going on about this already, I love it, it makes greasing trays alot easier and especially for this, you can give the tops of the bagels a little spritz before baking!)

Instructions

1. Make up your Dry Active Yeast and leave in a warm place (I put mine in a warm oven at around 50 C or in the airing cupboard) until it is frothy – about 10-15 minutes.

2. Remove the yeast from the warm ‘place’ and whisk in 1 X Tbsp sugar (this is extra on top on what you use for the active yeast).

3. Add 100ml warm water to the yeast mixture, whisk in the salt, then gradually stir in half of the flour (use a wooden spoon for this… your whisk will get claggy very quickly!)

4. Now add the rest of the flour to the mixture and get rid of the wooden spoon – this time you need to get your hands into the mixture and gather all of the ingredients together until you have a soft, smooth dough, add a little more flour if you need to, but don’t dry the dough out.

5. Once you have a nearly smooth dough, Isprinkle the surface with a thin layer of flour and roll the dough onto it to smooth it off, (gluten free flour tends to be a little stickier than ‘regular flour’) kneading the dough for 10 minutes or son – be gentle!

6. Spray the bowl you just used with spray oil, put the ball of dough into it, spray the dough once or twice and cover the bowl loosely with clingfilm.

7. Leave to rise for 1 hour (this can be longer if you’re out… Mine was about 1 1/2 hours)

8. Preheat the oven to 220 C just before the dough is finished rising. And, grease a baking tray with a few sprays of the oil spray.

9. Flour a surface and tip the dough ball out. Cut it into 4 pieces with a sharp knife.

10. Roll the pieces of dough into balls, then flatten them down onto to surface with the palm of your hand – they should be about 3/4 inch thick.

11. Flour the handle of a spoon and stick it into the center of each ball of dough and wiggle it around until you get a 2cm wide hole in the middle. Do this for each piece, re-flouring the spoon if needed.

12. Boil a large pan of water with the other 1Tbsp Sugar in it, then gently put the bagels into the water using a spoon – don’t splash them in, unless you love winding up with burns from boiling water… no? Didn’t think so, so definitly spoon them in (I’m saying this because usually I would just put things straight in, but I saw sense before the burn happened this time!) Leave them to cook for 1 minute, flip them over in the water and cook for another minute or until they are bobbing happily on the surface.

13. Remove from the water with something that will drain the bagels as they are removed (slotted spoon, fish slice, slotted spatula, weird flat spoon thing with lots of holes in – my personal choice) and place on the baking tray. At this point you could sprinkle some poppy seeds or sesame seeds on top, but we just went for plain!