Blueberry Bagels

Ah blueberry bagels. My old friend.

I went through a period (a somewhat ongoing period) where blueberry bagels were my food obsession.

Oh, if you’re new to reading this blog you might not know about my food obsessions. I am the sort of gal who gets really into one food for a while, eats it everyday and (inevitably) gets sort of sick of it. For a while anyway. I don’t know what it is, it’s like I’m that picker-eater kid who just never grew up. Because I only want to eat one thing for a while.

Blueberry bagels was a food obsession of mine for a while. And I still love them. We stayed friends.

That’s actually the bottom of one of the bagels. Pretty, huh? Yep, blueberries are pretty.

This was my first attempt at making homemade bagels, and it was a great success. I have been sticking to my learn-to-make-bread-better goal this past month, but I wanted to try something other than a loaf this week. So I tried my hand at bagels.

Warning: you boil the dough before baking. It’s weird. I had no idea that’s how bagels were made. I probably should have known that, I suppose. But I didn’t. And putting raw dough in boiling water is… well… sort of counter intuitive if you ask me. But for some reason it works (probably has something to do with steam, once you put them in the oven). So don’t be afraid, be brave.

Blueberry bagels, makes 8. Adapted from here.

Needed: 2 teaspoons active dry yeast, 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, 1 1/4 cups warm water, 3 1/2 cups bread flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 cup fresh blueberries (you could use frozen too, just let them thaw first).

In a small bowl combine the yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup warm water. Just let it sit and fizz for a few minutes. In the meantime, in a large bowl or in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook combine the flour and salt. Add in the yeasty water and the remaining water. Knead by hand or with your mixer for 6-8 minutes. You want the dough to feel very elastic-like.

Now turn it out onto a generously floured surface and knead in the berries. The berry juice will add moisture to your dough so you will probably want to just keep sprinkling it with more flour as you need. Then place it in a well oiled bowl and cover. Let it rise for 1 hour.

Turn out onto a floured surface and cut into 8 pieces. Knead and shape each piece into a bagel/doughnut/inner tube. You dig? Place these on a pan, cover and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Get your pot of water ready, you only need about 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and lay a bagel in the boiling water, it should float. Let it boil for a minute, then using a slotted spatula or spoon, flip it and let it boil on the other side for a minute. Repeat with all the bagels. Bake at 425 F for 20 minutes. Enjoy with cream cheese or butter. Do it.

xo. Emma