Finally, the Bagel Bonanza!

I bet you thought I'd never get around to posting these bagel recipes, didn't you? Well, I'm taking advantage of the 1/2 hour gap between finishing my midterm English assignment and falling into a (hopefully) uninterrupted sleep to share the joy with you! Tomorrow I intend to find a gap between my Accounting term project, acupuncture appointment, birthday cake baking, bakery orders and more bagel making to tell you all about the awesome experience my friends and I had at the Copper Chef competition yesterday in downtown Toronto!

So, these bagels are both of the sweet persuasion, though the first batch I made are definitely more of the fruity-tart side of the spectrum. I'm always in the mood to use up the stuff lining our pantry, fridge and freezer shelves (just wait until you see the swag I got from CC!), so when it came time to replenish my mom's "rolls with holes" stash in our freezer I sought inspiration. I found it in a few oranges that had been bought while erroneously labeled as Blood Oranges, then discarded into the fruit crisper upon the discovery of their "true" nature - regular Florida Navels. No matter to me, their zest was still good, as was the juice! But what to pair with the light aroma and flavour of the citrus? Time for a pantry scan... revealing an almost full bag of dried cranberries and the dregs of Christmas' ground ginger. Excellent! Cranberry-Orange Bagels with Ginger it was.

Cranberry-Orange Bagels with Ginger
Makes 10 3.3oz bagels
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp sugar
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 cup orange juice
3 tbsp maple syrup
zest of 2 oranges
2 cups flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tbsp gluten flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp brown sugar

1. Place the cranberries in a bowl, cover with boiling water and allow to sit 15 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
2. Dissolve warm water and sugar in a large bowl (preferably a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook). Sprinkle over yeast and let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.
3. Stir in cranberries, orange juice and maple syrup.
4. Whisk together orange zest, flours, salt, and ginger.
5. With the mixer running, begin adding the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, about 1/4 cup at a time.
6. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until stiff but springy.
7. Place into a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise 2 hours.
8. Punch down the dough, divide into 10 balls and let rest, covered, 10 minutes.
9. Shape dough balls into rings, cover and rest again for 35 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water with the brown sugar to a boil and preheat the oven to 375F.
11. Place the bagels, two at a time, into the boiling water and cook for 1 minute each side.
12. Drain well, and place on lined baking sheets.
13. Bake for 30 minutes and cool on a rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 224.3
Total Fat: 0.9 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 3.2 mg
Total Carbs: 47.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.9 g
Protein: 7.7 g

A few days after the cranberry bagels made their appearance, I found myself with another window of time that I couldn't bear to squander on the horrors of solid homework. I knew that the first batch of bagels were departing at an alarming rate - what can I say, my mom's a proud carb-o-phile! - so what better use of my time than to whip up a new batch of dough that could at least go through it's rises while I did a few hours of Accounting (or was it Global Citizenship? Wait... can anyone tell me what the heck either of these have to do with NUTRITION? But I digress...). I've had the fantasy of re-creating the "French Toast" flavour bagels we can get at The Great Canadian Bagel - but those are full of syrupy cinnamon-sugar pockets, with an eggy undertone that I can't quite place and it drives me nuts! I settled for making a "breakfast flavoured" bagel instead, and added buttermilk powder, brown sugar, the "breakfasty" spices of cinnamon and nutmeg and a dash of maple extract to the more or less standard dough. Because I needed to feed it anyways, a bit of my sourdough starter's "toss off" found it's way into the mix too. Even then, the dough was a lot stiffer than usual, and as you can see by my (salvaged!) photo I got very lazy with my shaping. No matter, they held up in the water bath and baked up nice, tanned and shiny!

Buttermilk Breakfast Bagels
Makes 10 4-oz bagels
1/4 cup warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup "old" sourdough starter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp maple extract
2 cups flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tbsp gluten flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp buttermilk powder
1 tbsp honey (for boiling)

1. Combine warm water and yeast in a deep bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook. Let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir in remaining warm water, sourdough starter, brown sugar and maple extract until well blended.
3. In another bowl, whisk together flours, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and buttermilk powder.
4. With the mixer running, begin adding the flour mixture to the liquids.
5. Knead until a smooth, stiff dough forms, about 10 minutes.
6. Place into a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise 2 hours.
7. Punch down the dough, divide into 10 balls and let rest, covered, 10 minutes.
8. Shape dough balls into rings, cover and rest again for 35 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water with the honey to a boil and preheat the oven to 375F.
10. Place the bagels, two at a time, into the boiling water and cook for 1 minute each side.
11. Drain well, and place on lined baking sheets.
12. Bake for 30 minutes and cool on a rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 217.4
Total Fat: 0.9 g
Cholesterol: 1.0 mg
Sodium: 12.6 mg
Total Carbs: 45.1 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.0 g
Protein: 8.4 g

Both of these bagels are off on their journey to YeastSpotting at Susan's WildYeast blog!