Vegan Bagels

Oh Bagels, how I love thee! I first taught myself how to make Bagels when I decided to add on a Carrot lox breakfast bagel (maybe recipe for that coming soon too?) onto my Vegan Restaurant Menu a couple years ago. While they do take a little time and effort, they really are a fairly simple recipe. In order to get that soft, yet chewy texture of a bagel, it has to be boiled first, then baked. Typically Bagels are boiled in honey water, which is what makes them normally not fully Vegan, but I substitute the honey for half Molasses and Maple syrup and it does a beautiful job.

You do need a stand mixer for this recipe in order to make the dough, but if you are familiar with making bread doughs, than you may be able to make this recipe work mixing and kneading by hand instead. When making dough, to tell if it's been kneaded enough and is a good consistency, your dough will have a smooth surface, be slightly tacky but not sticky & most importantly when you try to pull away a piece of the dough from the dough ball, it should stretch out, not tear off right away. If it doesn't have stretch, it means it needs to be kneaded more.

Set aside a weekend afternoon to make these bagels and I promise it will be worth it. A fresh hot bagel from the oven is an absolute must! And the fun part about making bagels is you can top them with whatever you please. I usually do sesame seeds or Everything Bagel seasoning ( you can find this at Bulk Barn btw!) but there are many, many options! You could even add cinnamon and go the sweet route!

If you'd like a little video guidance on this recipe, you can find a 'Bagel' Highlight on my Instagram page here

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Vegan Bagels

Serves Makes 8 bagels

Prep time 15 minutes + 1 hour of rise time

Cook Time 25-30 minutes minutes

Ingredients

- 1 2/3 cups of warm water (110-115 degrees F)

- 2 TBSP of sugar

- 4 1/2 cups of *bread* flour

- 1 tsp of salt

- 2 TBSP of sunflower oil (or any vegetable oil)

- 2 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast (NOT instant)

For Boiling

- 4 quarts of water

- 1/4 cup of molasses

- 1 TBSP of pure maple syrup

Pot for boiling

A timer

A large slotted spoon or a slotted flipper

Instructions

- In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, pour in the warm water, then add the sugar and sprinkle the yeast on top and give a quick stir to combine it. Let it rise for about five minutes.

- In a separate medium bowl, sift the bread four and salt together

- Once the yeast has risen, add in the oil & then turn your mixer on the lowest speed.

- Begin adding the bread flour one heaping cup at a time (one after the other about 5 seconds in between each add) until it's all been added

- Then turn the speed to medium and let it combine and begin to form a dough ball & knead itself

- Turn the mixer up another speed and let it knead for about 2-3 minutes. If it's sticking to the hook too much or the sides of the bowl too much sprinkle in about 1/2 a TBSP of flour extra

- Once your dough has kneaded into a soft dough ball, take it out of the mixing bowl just to grease the bowl (with spray oil or any type of oil), then put it back in, cover with saran wrap and let it rise in a warm place for one hour.

- While the dough is rising you can prepare your first step of cooking by adding the water, molasses and maple syrup to a large pot on the stove (don't turn it on just yet)

- Once the dough has risen (it should be double in size), prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpad liner and keep nearby

- Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Use a sharp knife or dough cutter to cut the dough into 8 even sizes. You can either eyeball it or if you have a kitchen scale you can weigh them like I do. To figure out how much each bagel dough ball should weigh, put the entire dough ball onto your kitchen scale (set to grams), then divide that total number by 8, which equals how much each bagel ball will weigh when divided evenly.

**for video guidance on how to form your bagels, visit the Bagel Highlight on my Instagram page here

- One by one, take a dough ball and roll it out into a log (about 7 inches long). (keep the others covered with a clean tea towel while you're working)

Then holding one end of the dough log in the palm of your hand with your thumb and index finger, wrap the remaining dough around the outside of your hand so that it creates a ring. Bring the other end of the dough into the palm of your hand to meet the first end (overlapping each other by about 2 inches) and gently press the ends together. Then with it still wrapped around your hand, press the pinched ends down onto your work surface and roll so that they really combine together well (so they're seamless) and your ring gets evenly distributed with dough so it makes an even circle. Repeat this with the remaining 7 dough balls, placing each one on the prepared baking sheet and keeping covered with a clean tea towel.

-Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

- Let the bagels rest under the tea towel while you bring the water mixture on the stove to a boil

-Once the water mixture comes to a boil, turn it down a notch to a medium boil (just not rapid)

-Get the timer on your phone or your stove ready and a slotted large spoon or slotted flipper ready

- If your pot is big enough, you can gently add 4 of the bagels in at a time (2-3 if your pot is smaller) and boil the bagels for one minute, then flip them and boil for 1 minute on the other side

- Using your slotted spoon, gently remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Do the same with the remaining bagels.

- While the boiled bagels are still wet on top (and while the others are busy boiling), top your bagels with your desired seeds and seasonings by sprinkling evenly on top.

-Once all the bagels have been boiled and seasoned, bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. They'll be slightly dark golden on top and on the bottom when they're done.

-Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool down. Enjoy while still hot (be careful!), or store in an airtight container for 3 days

*You can also freeze the bagels in an airtight container or freezer bag