I originally posted this recipe on April 6th 2008 and now 3 years later, I thought it was time to share it again! It continues to be one of my favorite gluten free recipes and it makes a darn good bagel. I love the step by step instructions of this post and it's been a favorite here on the blog. For those who are casein free simply substitute out your favorite dairy free milk in place of the milk called for. It's hard for me to believe that I learned how to make bagels for the first time in my first year of being gluten free. I never would have even TRIED to attempt it when I could buy 'regular' bagels at the store. I have learned so much from being gluten free! Please share your thoughts on the recipe if you try it! Enjoy! -- Carrie
**UPDATE: Make sure to read the revised boiling method for this recipe located here.**
When I was growing up, other than a bowl of grits or oatmeal, my favorite breakfast was a bagel. We ate LOTS of bagels. I'm not sure how my parents came to love a bagel. They certainly didn't eat them growing up, but somewhere along the way, they became dedicated bagel fans!
My favorite bagels were the savory type: Garlic and Onion, Poppy seed, Sesame seed, the "Everything" bagel, etc... I liked the sweet bagels okay... but I LOVED the savory. And I slathered them with cream cheese.
It's safe to say since I've been gluten free, I have not encountered one store bought gluten free bagel that I have really enjoyed. Not once.
But this weekend I felt bold! I've been a member of the
Daring Baker's for several months and one thing these fab bakers have taught me is not to be afraid of a challenge!
So, we made bagels! We made LOTS of bagels! And they are GOOD my friends! If you have missed a "soft,chewy on the inside, and hot, crispy on the outside" bagel.... these are for you! They do take a little time and effort, but are really fun to make! I hope you will give them a try! Here is my step-by-step tutorial!
How To Make Gluten Free Bagels
You can print the recipe
here or view the recipe at the bottom of this post.
Gather your ingredients:
milk, yeast, sugar, eggs, agave nectar, apple cider vinegar,
tapioca flour, cornstarch, brown rice flour, millet flour, baking soda
baking powder, salt, xanthan gum -OR- chia seed meal and flax seed meal
In case you've never seen it, this is what chia seed meal looks like. Almost like black pepper specks. I ground these chia seeds in my blender to create the meal.
Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper (I was out) or non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle cornmeal onto sprayed baking sheets.
Put hot water on to boil, add several tsp. of salt. Keep the water boiling while you are preparing your bagel dough.
Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. To quickly bring eggs to room temperature, place them in a bowl of warm water and let sit for about 5 minutes.
Warm milk to 120 degrees (this takes about 1 minute and 10 seconds in my microwave on high.) Make sure to measure temperature with a cooking thermometer. Yes, I used a meat thermometer! I'm too cheap to buy another cooking thermometer and this one has always measured correctly for me. I know it is at 120 degrees, because it is right before the first labeled measurement of 130 degrees.
In a small mixing bowl whisk together warmed milk, 2 tbsp. yeast, and 2 tsp. sugar. Set this mixture aside to proof.
While waiting for yeast to proof, in a medium bowl add the binder you prefer (either xanthan gum or chia seed meal and flax seed meal -- with these bagels in particular I used chia seed meal and flax seed meal). To the binder, add baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add flours, one at a time by using a dry measuring cup. To properly measure the flour, overfill the measuring cup.
With a butter knife, level off flour, until it is even with the rim of the cup. With starches such as cornstarch and tapioca flour, you may have to add more flour to the top of the measuring cup several times and level off with the knife, before it is properly even with the rim of the cup.
Using your knife, tap the flours out of the measuring cup into your mixing bowl.
When you have added all flours, whisk mixture together thoroughly. If it makes you feel better, feel free to sift all the dry ingredients together. I'm too lazy to sift. Whisk away baby! Set dry ingredients aside.
Now go back and check on your yeast mixture. If it has proofed, it will look puffy and have lots of bubbles like this! If it doesn't look any different than when you started, you need to start the process over again with fresh yeast and fresh milk. But our yeast is proofed and ready to go, so let's continue!
Whisk in eggs, one at a time, to proofed yeast. Add agave nectar. If you are using xanthan gum as your binder, add apple cider vinegar as a dough enhancer. (If you are using chia seed meal and flax seed meal as your binder LEAVE OUT the apple cider vinegar, as it can lesson the gelling and binding properties of both these seeds!!)
In your kitchen mixer bowl, add the egg and yeast mixture. Start mixing with your paddle attachment on medium speed.
Continuing with the paddle on medium speed, add the flour mixture 1/3 cup at a time to the wet mixture, until you have added all the flour.
Continue to mix on medium speed for 5 minutes. A thick dough will form. If you used xanthan gum as your binder, this dough will be extremely sticky! The pictured dough uses chia seed meal and flax seed meal, it is less sticky and much easier to work with.
On a large flat plate or clean surface generously sprinkle sweet rice flour for shaping the dough.
Spray a wooden spoon or rubber spatula with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray.
With the wooden spoon, scrap dough from the sides of the mixing bowl into a large ball.
Dust your hands with sweet rice flour and place the dough onto the floured surface.
Continuing to use your hands, gently shape the dough into a large ball.
Gently pull off a small handful of dough and shape it into a disk. Then using your finger, push a hole up through the middle of the disk.
Continue to shape the disk until it looks like a bagel.
Place the shaped bagel back on the floured surface. You should have enough dough for 8 medium sized bagels.
At this point, you can preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Once it has preheated, cut the oven OFF immediately. We will let the bagels rise in the warmed oven after we have boiled them.
Make sure your water is still at a rolling boil. (My water actually should have been hotter than this picture shows!!) Work with ONE bagel at a time. Using a slotted spoon, gently place the bagel into the boiling water bath.
Boil the bagel for 20 seconds (ONLY) on each side. Use the slotted spoon to flip the bagel in the water. Because these bagels do not have gluten holding them together, they can fall apart in the water if you let them boil longer than this!!)
Pull out the boiled bagel and place it on your prepared baking pan. When you pull the bagel out of the water, be extra gentle! The bagel is very fragile now that it has been boiled and almost looks like wrinkled hands after a long warm bath!
Brush the boiled bagels with an egg wash (a mixture of one egg white with 1 tbsp. of water).
Add the toppings you desire. Here, I added poppy seeds, dried onions, sesame seeds, and garlic granules. Place the bagels in the oven to rise for 40 minutes. The bagels will probably not double in size during the rise, but they will puff up slightly and appear larger than before the rise. Take bagels out of the oven after 40 minutes of rising. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place bagels back in oven and bake for 15-18 minutes. They will appear golden and crisp when finished baking.
Cool the bagels on a wire rack for 30 minutes before eating (if you can wait that long!)
Slice the bagels in half and spread with cream cheese, or use for sandwiches or mini-pizzas! This bagel is from a dough made with chia seed meal and flax seed meal. At this point, you can slice all the bagels and freeze them for later use.
These 2 bagels are from my first batch made with xanthan gum. The dough was much more sticky and harder to work with than the dough made with chia seed meal, and therefore it was much harder to shape like bagels.
Conclusions:
- Both types of bagels are very good! Michael said that he preferred the taste and texture of the bagels made with the xanthan gum. He said they reminded him more of a regular wheat bagel to him. I really liked the bagels made with the chia seed meal and the flax seed meal. They were much easier to work with while shaping, and I thought they tasted very similar to a regular wheat bagel.
- I also like knowing that I can make a yeasted bagel both with xanthan gum and another alternative binder such as chia seed meal.
- I also made a batch of these bagels using a mixture of chia seed meal and psyllium husk powder. We did not like this batch of bagels as much. The psyllium husk powder has a stronger flavor and affected the overall taste of the bagel. I think I will use psyllium husk powder only in baked goods that have already have a strong distinct flavoring, such as a chocolate muffin. That way, the flavor of the psyllium husk powder wouldn't stand out as much.
- ** For more information on chia seeds and psyllium powder (what they are, where to buy them, why I'm using them, etc.. ) please visit this post. **
Happy Gluten Free Bagel Making!!
UPDATE:
Some readers had trouble opening the PDF link to this recipe at the top of the page. Here is the text version of the recipe just in case, you couldn't print the PDF!
Ginger Lemon Girl’s
Gluten Free Bagels
Wet Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk (or milk substitute)
2 Tbsp. yeast
2 tsp. sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. agave nectar
½ tsp. apple cider vinegar (ONLY if using xanthan gum)
Dry Ingredients:
½ cup tapioca flour
½ cup cornstarch or arrowroot flour
½ cup brown rice flour
1 cup millet flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 TBSP. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Binder (To be added to dry ingredients):
2 tsp. xanthan gum
-OR-
1 TBSP. chia seed meal
2 TBSP. flax seed meal
Additional Ingredients:
• Cornmeal, for dusting on baking sheets
• Sweet Rice Flour, for shaping dough
• Egg wash = 1 egg white mixed with 1 tbsp. warm water
• Toppings = poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic granules, dried onion, parsley, etc…
Directions:
1. Gather all ingredients.
2. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or non-stick cooking spray.
3. Sprinkle cornmeal onto sprayed baking sheets.
4. Put hot water on to boil, add several tsp. of salt. Keep the water boiling while you are preparing your bagel dough.
5. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. To quickly bring eggs to room temperature, place them in a bowl of warm water and let sit for about 5 minutes.
6. Warm milk to 120 degrees (this takes about 1 minute and 10 seconds in my microwave on high.) Make sure to measure temperature with a cooking thermometer.
7. In a small mixing bowl whisk together warmed milk, 2 tbsp. yeast, and 2 tsp. sugar. Set this mixture aside to proof.
8. While waiting for yeast to proof, in a medium bowl add the binder you prefer (either xanthan gum or chia seed meal and flax seed meal -- with these bagels in particular I used chia seed meal and flax seed meal). To the binder, add baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
9. Add flours, one at a time by using a dry measuring cup. To properly measure the flour, overfill the measuring cup. With a butter knife, level off flour, until it is even with the rim of the cup. With starches such as cornstarch and tapioca flour, you may have to add more flour to the top of the measuring cup several times and level off with the knife, before it is properly even with the rim of the cup. Using your knife, tap the flours out of the measuring cup into your mixing bowl. When you have added all flours, whisk mixture together thoroughly. If it makes you feel better, feel free to sift all the dry ingredients together. I'm too lazy to sift. Whisk away baby! Set dry ingredients aside.
10. Now go back and check on your yeast mixture. If it has proofed, it will look puffy and have lots of bubbles like this! If it doesn't look any different than when you started, you need to start the process over again with fresh yeast and fresh milk. But our yeast is proofed and ready to go, so let's continue!
11. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, to proofed yeast. Add agave nectar. If you are using xanthan gum as your binder, add apple cider vinegar as a dough enhancer. (If you are using chia seed meal and flax seed meal as your binder LEAVE OUT the apple cider vinegar, as it can lesson the gelling and binding properties of both these seeds!!)
12. In your kitchen mixer bowl, add the egg and yeast mixture. Start mixing with your paddle attachment on medium speed.
13. Continuing with the paddle on medium speed, add the flour mixture 1/3 cup at a time to the wet mixture, until you have added all the flour.
14. Continue to mix on medium speed for 5 minutes. A thick dough will form. If you used xanthan gum as your binder, this dough will be extremely sticky! The pictured dough uses chia seed meal and flax seed meal, it is less sticky and much easier to work with.
15. On a large flat plate or clean surface generously sprinkle sweet rice flour for shaping the dough.
16. Spray a wooden spoon or rubber spatula with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray.
17. With the wooden spoon, scrap dough from the sides of the mixing bowl into a large ball.
18. Dust your hands with sweet rice flour and place the dough onto the floured surface. Continuing to use your hands, gently shape the dough into a large ball.
19. Gently pull off a small handful of dough and shape it into a disk. Then using your finger, push a hole up through the middle of the disk. Continue to shape the disk until it looks like a bagel. Place the shaped bagel back on the floured surface. You should have enough dough for 8 medium sized bagels.
20. At this point, you can preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Once it has preheated, cut the oven OFF immediately. We will let the bagels rise in the warmed oven after we have boiled them.
21. Make sure your water is still at a rolling boil Work with ONE bagel at a time. Using a slotted spoon, gently place the bagel into the boiling water bath.
22. Boil the bagel for 20 seconds (ONLY) on each side. Use the slotted spoon to flip the bagel in the water. Because these bagels do not have gluten holding them together, they can fall apart in the water if you let them boil longer than this!!)
23. Pull out the boiled bagel and place it on your prepared baking pan. When you pull the bagel out of the water, be extra gentle! The bagel is very fragile now that it has been boiled and almost looks like wrinkled hands after a long warm bath!
24. Brush the boiled bagels with an egg wash (a mixture of one egg white with 1 tbsp. of water).
25. Add the toppings you desire. I added poppy seeds, dried onions, sesame seeds, and garlic granules. Place the bagels in the oven to rise for 40 minutes. The bagels will probably not double in size during the rise, but they will puff up slightly and appear larger than before the rise. Take bagels out of the oven after 40 minutes of rising. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place bagels back in oven and bake for 15-18 minutes. They will appear golden and crisp when finished baking.
26. Cool the bagels on a wire rack for 30 minutes before eating (if you can wait that long!)
27. Slice the bagels in half and spread with cream cheese, or use for sandwiches or mini-pizzas! At this point, you can slice all the bagels and freeze them for later use.
