quick gf seedy bagels

I've just made my first batch of bagels in the new flat.  Making things quicker  is important as there is less room to leave things to rise slowly, and in smaller quantities as there isn't the space in the freezer.  Making yeast breads without the long slow fermentation may reduce the availability of nutrients and increase tendencies to indigestion if you have problems, but for most people this is unlikely to be a problem.

Vary the nuts/seeds mixture as you like.

1tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
400 ml water
250g flour (my gf mix of 40%urid, 40%tapioca, 20%cornmeal) plus extra to get to right texture.
70g buckwheat
20g sesame seeds
50g almond (ground or whole and blitz with other seeds)
1 egg (optional)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp maple syrup (or other sugar)

Mix yeast into lukewarm water with the first tsp of sugar.  Mix the flour into this yeasty water.
Blitz the buckwheat, nuts and seeds to a fine texture unless you want whole seedy texture to your bagel.
Mix this into the dough, stir in egg and vanilla and syrup.

Leave to sit for fifteen minutes to allow flours to absorb moisture.

Add extra flour until you get a dough you can handle with floured hands to shape into rings.

Shape into rings and place on a floured tray.  Cover lightly with cling/plastic wrap.  Place in an oven with some hot water and leave the light on - this gives a warm steamy environment to help the rise.  Otherwise, anywhere out of the way where they won't get disturbed will do.  If it is cool the rise will take longer.

When the rings have increased in size prepare a large pan of boiling water.  Slip the bagels into the water carefully and cook for a couple of minutes on each side.  I tested a range of cooking times in the past and decided that being accurate on timings doesn't make much difference.

Drain on a cooling rack,

Sprinkle seeds on top while still wet if wanted.

Place on baking sheets - I use reusable baking liners to make sure nothing sticks.

Bake at 170C for about twenty minutes.  If your oven is uneven and some get brown before others turn the trays around.

Cool.  If not using in the next couple of days wrap and freeze.

Granary-style gluten-free bagels -high fibre

bagels

I still miss the warm toasty flavour of granary bread when I eat my usual bagels.  I also note that people seem to find it hard to get enough fibre in their diet on a gluten-free diet, presumably because the foods available in the shops are made from highly processed starches.  Here is a lovely and flexible recipe for a seedy high fibre well flavoured-bagel. adjust the quantity of linseeds to suit your own guts - they have a powerful bulking action.

I started with the usual bagel recipe and added a variety of seeds and other flavourings.  I have made this several times, and have varied it each time, so do amend the recipe to include your favourite seeds.  I have made this with mixtures of the ground buckwheat sprouts I grew last week, with quinoa that I rinsed and toasted then ground, with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and with brown linseed.

Ingredients and method
400ml warm water (avoid highly chlorinated - if you don't filter your water and it smells very chlorinated let it sit a while to let the chlorine disperse)
1-2 tsp of yeast depending on how much of a hurry you are in
1 tsp of date syrup or other sugar

mix these together and let them froth.  I do this even with the instant yeast you can add dry to flour.  I like to see my yeast working before I go any further.

yeasty water

250g urid lentil flour
mix with the yeasty water and leave the covered batter to rise for a couple of hours in a warm place

double in size - see the air holes

30-50g linseeds -(depending on how 'therapeutic' for your bowels you want this bread to be!)
75g pumpkin seed
50g quinoa, buckwheat etc
100g skin-on almonds (substitute with more seeds/quinoa etc if nut intolerant)

mixed seeds

grind these in your blender until as smooth as you want.

ground seeds

Add the seeds and one egg (not essential if egg intolerant) to the dough

Add about 20g date syrup / 2 tbsp (or suitable brown syrup eg treacle, honey etc)
1/4 tsp vanilla (yes - it helps)
1/4 tsp tamarind paste

add seeds and flavourings to dough

Beat dough until mixed.

Add in enough tapioca flour to make a firm but still very slightly damp dough.  If you touch it very lightly some should stick to your fingers.  Beat thoroughly.

slightly too wet

a little dough sticks

Leave to rise.  I put mine to rise in the oven with some hot water in a dish to give a moist atmosphere.  Otherwise cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap.  As it rises the tapioca flour will absorb more water and the dough will be easy enough to shape with floured hands.

texture of risen dough - see the air holes

Shape into bagels.  Use a light touch so that you dont knock all the air out.  Place on floured tray to rise again.  The dough will feel odd and slightly bouncy.   We like about 100g for each bagel.

shaped bagels

risen bagels

When risen, boil for 30 secs each side, drain and place on baking sheet.  I read somewhere that you should plunge into iced water after this stage, so I tested it, but we preferred the ones that were just drained.

Add seeds on top if wanted.

sesame seeds

Bake in a hot oven (180C) until golden.

texture of finished bagel

These produce a bagel which has an even texture, no cloying texture, toasts well, holds its shape, freezes well, and tastes great.

Cool, freeze until needed if not going to be eaten within two days.


There are a lot of steps in this but mostly the dough does its own work while you get on with other things.  Slow risen doughs are easier to digest, and the timing between each stage isn't critical.  Increase the yeast or warmth (up to but not beyond 40C) to speed the process up. If you can't finish in one day just put the dough at whatever stage it is at in the fridge and carry on the next day.

Beef Burger on gluten-free bagel

I spent a couple of years in Camden, London, where there was a very good burger restaurant about half a minute's walk away from my flat.  I don't eat beef often - usually only when I feel I need extra iron, but when I did I liked a burger on ciabatta with lots of extras.

The other day I took one of my gluten-free bagels, made from urid lentil and tapioca flours, toasted it lightly, and layered it with a home-made organic beef burger, some of my own chilli jam, the last of my own home-grown onions caramelised in olive oil, and a handful of rocket.  Very delicious.

The hole in the bagel just made the burger easier to bite, and didn't seem to allow the contents to cascade all over my lap, as I thought it might.

Rod's super bagel cooler

As a household we generally only eat bagels as our bread, because the gluten free dough works best as bagels. I used to make traditional sour-dough bread regularly, and at one stage had three different sour-dough cultures. One was the San Francisco culture, which I used most often, and the other two were Italian. One of these produced a cheese flavoured bread without adding any dairy products at all.

However, as I gave up gluten Feb 2008 I worked to find a recipe that gave some of the pleasure of a proper sourdough bread. I wasn't too bothered about feeding myself because just feeling so much better was reward enough for me. To keep the house as gluten free as possible I needed to find a bread dough that would work with marmalade and cheese and be good enough for pizzas so that I wouldn't be tempted to cook with ordinary flour for Rod, who has enough to put up with being reminded constantly to keep gluten out of my way and doesn't need culinary deprivation on top of emotional abuse.

My bagel recipe is reliable and I now make it regularly. I was shocked yesterday to realise that, after a lunch of bagels and salad, that we were a bagel-free household. The focus on baking zillions of cakes for Sara's wedding had distracted me from normal cooking. I started the dough yesterday and shaped, boiled and baked this morning. As we had fresh bagels for lunch, and Rod slid his lightly toasted bagel onto his bagel cooler, I thought this nifty little device needed a write up of its own.

I bake bagels with urid lentil and tapioca flours. They take longer than wheat bread to toast and a lot longer to cool down - there's a proper term for this but it escapes me just at the moment. Rod used to slip the cut and toasted bagels into the freezer to speed this up. Now he slides the bagel onto the cooler he made from a piece of hardwood and a bent bit of metal. It holds the bagels perfectly while they are cooling and it looks beautiful as well.

I have never seen such a device elsewhere, the closest being the pole that the Scandinavians cool their crispbreads on. Easy to make I expect if you know how to make a hole in a bit of wood and bend a bit of metal. Harder to make it look elegant I suspect.