Tags
bagels, baking, basil, bread, feta, food, fresh from the oven challenge, oregano, savory, snack, sun dried tomato, yum
I decided to join a baker’s challenge group Fresh From the Oven because of another blogger Sam of From Samwiches to Samosas. She recently posted some Jalapeno/Cheddar bagels that looked amazing and talked about the challenge so I decided to join up as well. Thanks Sam! But what to make? I love Jalapeno/Cheddar as well but she had just done it. I decided to go with my heritage and give them a Greek flavor with basil, oregano, sun dried tomato and feta! Yum! But would it work? How would putting all those things in there affect the dough? Experimenting is the whole point of a challenge correct?
I got the recipe straight from the challenger’s site. You can find the original here.
- 450 g white flour (I used all purpose unbleached)
- 7 g fast acting yeast
- 2 tsp salt (I reduced to 1 because feta is salty)
- 250 ml warm water
- 2 Tb honey
- 1 Tb veg oil
My additions
- 1/2 tsp fresh oregano
- 1/2 tsp fresh basil
- 1 tsp diced sun dried tomato
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta
In a bowl mix the flour, yeast, basil & oregano. Add the warm water, honey & oil. Mix this together and then add the salt, tomato & feta. Mix on med for 10 mins or by hand. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let sit until doubled, 1-3 hours. (I let it sit three because I was doing other things!)
Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a floured work surface. Divide the dough into 7 equal pieces.
Now the fun part. You have two options, one roll into a sausage shape and form a ring and seal the ring shut with some water. OR…..form the dough into a ball, push your finger through the middle and spin around your finger! Turns out Jason is really good at this! We made a video for your enjoyment. Cover the bagels and let them rise again for about 20 minutes. You’ll notice we also have a braid instead of a ring. Jason got carried away with the spinning and decided the hole was so big it should be turned into a braid. The bagels will expand during this stage and during the next (water) stage so make sure your holes are large enough. I had a few that ended up not really having holes….so lesson learned.
Preheat your oven to 425. Fill a large skillet with enough water to float the bagels and bring to a simmer. Gently place the bagels in the water, don’t overcrowd as they will expand a bit here and poach for about 90 seconds a side. Turn them with a slotted spoon or spatula. Let the water drip off and then place on a baking sheet. I used a silpat, the directions said to grease the sheet, parchment would probably work too. Oh! AND you’re supposed to brush with a beaten egg before baking but I forgot that part. It didn’t seem to affect them too much so do it….or don’t!
Bake them in the oven for 15 minutes, turn and then bake another 10. I put the baking sheet on a pizza stone in the bottom of the oven and the last 10 minutes browned the bagels more than I would have liked. Next time I will cook them in the middle of the oven without a pizza stone. Oh and my pizza stone cracked!?!!! It’s been in the oven all the time and I’ve read about the cracking problem. I think I will go buy some quarry tiles at the local home improvement store and try those. I’ve heard that thicker stones don’t crack as easily. The bagels were good but I also think that next time I should add more of everything. The feta seemed to melt into the dough as it was being mixed so I’m not sure when to add it. Maybe next time after the rise the feta can be mixed in? It will be fun to experiment on this and other flavors.
Your bagels look gorgeous! So round doughy and fluffy 😀
Yum!!!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Latest: Marbled Muffintopcookiecake Hybrid
Thanks!
Fabulous! Love these. I have always wanted to make bagels. Yours look so great!
Thank you for taking part this month. I’m glad you enjoyed the challenge and like that you had a go at experimenting with greek flavours.
I’m excited to see what March brings!
wow! I’m glad you made it too! yay!! I love that you brought your heritage to the table as well!! I love sun dried tomato a lot! And yeah, I agree that the cheese kinda loses its favour when you integrate it with the dough. I added 1 cup of mozzarella and cheddar mix but the flavour wasn’t as strong as I expected. I guess perhaps I could place them on top of the bagels instead when letting them rise for the second time.
Pingback: Fresh from the oven February round up | Purely food
All those flavours are so inventive – love it.
Thank you!
Great idea for add ins. Sun-dried tomatoes in the bagels, fantastic! I will have to try these sometime soon!
Just use more than I did so the flavor really comes through!
These turned out beautifully! At first I thought there was no way they would keep that shape, but they did.
Thanks, I wasn’t sure what they would do either!
I love the additions and shapes you made 🙂
Thank you but that was all Jason! The non-cook.
Congratulations on your first ever bagels – they turned out great!
Thanks! I was so excited….and the I got to eat them too.
Your bagels look great and thanks for posting the info on how to achieve the hole in the middle!
It’s a way to play with food and accomplish something too!
Those flavours sound really tasty
Thanks, I need to add more next time so the flavor comes through more!
It looks delicious:)
Thank you! They were good and fairly easy to make,
I need to try this one, maybe tomorrow and I’ll let you to know, thanks for share, have a lovely day