A Hole In Dough

     The Bagel. I think it's something most people who suddenly find themselves on a gluten free diet despair of ever finding a palatable equivalent for. I know it's one of the few things that I've found simply has no substitute. I've even discovered GF english muffins, but not a decent bagel!
     I used to have a weekly ritual. Every Friday on my day off I would go down to the local bagel place and order a whole wheat bagel heaped with olive cream cheese, assorted veggies and melted cheese. If I was feeling particularly piggy, I'd have them add bacon to what was supposed to be a veggie special. Every week was the same. They knew me there, knew what I wanted even though I'd make a show of looking over the menu and watching what other people ordered, in the end I always caved and got the same thing. It was a ritual. One I liked. And of course one that left me feeling like absolute shite the next day.
     So now I'm back to the place where I can have dairy again, but I've got nothing to put my olive cream cheese on! So I decided, what the hell, how hard can it be? I haven't managed to blow up the kitchen yet with any of my other experiments. Lets give bagels a go.
     The first part was finding a recipe. Did I go with a traditional bagel recipe and simply throw in my all purpose GF flour or did I go with a tried and tested GF recipe meant for that purpose? In the end I went with a recipe I found in the Oct/Nov'09 issue of Living Without magazine, (to which I subscribe), seduced by the picture perfect cover bagels and the assurance that they were easy, and good.

     Ease: well I would say yes, this recipe appears easier than many of the regular wheat bagel recipes I studied which called for a sponge and a dough, and a rest period overnight before baking. The most complicated part of this recipe was the multi-grain flour blend it called for, and had I been intending to make multiple batches this wouldn't have been such an issue, but since I was just testing and didn't want that particular flour blend lying around, it required a bit more math than I like.

Ingredients (makes 8):
3 cups GF Multi-grain flour blend
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons flax meal
1 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer
1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
1Tablespoon yeast
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups warm water

1 teaspoon sugar
brown rice flour for rolling bagels
cornmeal for dusting pan

     I substituted and actual egg for the replacer, (as I couldn't find any that was GF, and don't particularly like using it), and decreased the water by 1/4 cup.
     So everything dry gets put into one bowl and mixed together, and everything wet gets put into another bowl and mixed together, then the wet is incorporated into the dry. The dough is thick! A hand mixer will not work, (I found that out the hard way), You'll need a tabletop mixer, a strong arm, or as I intend to do next time, use my bread machine on the dough setting. Beat for 3 minutes.
     To shape the bagels I coated my hands in rice flour, and scooping out a ball a bit larger than a golf ball rolled it in my coated hands, I flattened it slightly then poked a hole through with my thumb large enough so that it wouldn't swell shut. These pre-bagels get to rest on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet wrapped in plastic wrap and put in a warm place for about 30 min.
     Then comes the fun part. We boil them in oil! Err, no that's doughnuts, (maybe next week)... sugar water, you boil bagels in sugar water, or honey water, or malt, but that's how they get their shiny weird rubbery outside while still being chewy bready on the inside. I used a deep skillet with about 3 in of water and the teaspoon of sugar. Once it came to a boil I gently dropped my little dough girls in and boiled them for about a minute each, turning once. Draining with a slotted spoon I transferred them to a cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal and then into a 375 oven for about 25 min. They should be golden brown and kind of hollowy sounding when tapped on. Cool on a rack. You have bagels.

Or in my case, round shaped bread with a hole in the middle. I took a few liberties with the flour blend, (basically using the same mix as I do for my bread), and not too surprisingly, that's what I ended up with. They don't look too bad. They are a touch bland, admittedly, but then they will of course be eaten with cream cheese so no harm there, but the texture it definitely more bread than bagel. So back to the drawing board, or rather the kitchen counter. The only question is, repeat and perfect, or try something entirely different? If nothing else the pursuit of the perfect GF bagel should be entertaining!