When I moved to England, I had to say goodbye to one of my American favourites – the bagel. In college, I had become quite the bagel snob and knew where the best bagel was on campus: one place had the absolute best bagels; however, they gave you HARD butter* in little containers which totally sucked to spread and put on the butter. This other place had slightly less good bagels but they kept a stick of butter out so that if anyone wanted butter on their toasted bagel it would melt perfectly. For two years I had a ritual on weekends and days for extended times of studying – bagel, butter coffee and two to three hours sat down cranking out the homework. Although I don’t miss the work, I do miss that taste of the perfect everything bagel with coffee in the morning.
I was lucky enough to live near the only place in London that I have been able to find a decent bagel for the first year that I lived here (Brick Lane Beigel Bake in Shoreditch). They were delicious – not NYC but pretty damn close. Then I moved to a different part of London and kind of gave up hope. I would have as many bagels as possible whenever I would go back to the states to try to fill the bagel shaped void in my life. I even had my friends who would come to visit smuggle some Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning so I could put it on sourdough or salads and to have that famous bagel seasoning on hand when the cravings hit!
I eventually stopped sulking and complaining to my co-workers about what a perfect bagel was and decided to try my own! I had seen so many different recipes online but I wanted something simple that I could make on Saturday mornings and not have to monitor constantly, need outside of the stand mixer or fuss over for hours. I made mine super seeded by using one tablespoon of my stashed Everything but the Bagel Seasoning (wish I could link this in the UK but I can’t!) and a Super Seed Sprinkle Mix from Holland and Barrett to make them extra seeded.
Note about the butter vs. cream cheese on bagel debate
I have always been a fan of a buttered bagel instead of cream cheese (unless of course there was lox and capers in the situation). I haven’t tried out any recipes yet for vegan lox and cream cheese but have been told amazing things about the following:
Nora Cooks – Vegan Cream Cheese
Love and Lemons – Vegan Carrot Lox
Both these recipes are definitely on my to-cook list and I will report back once I have tried it! In the meantime, I’ll keep using my favourite vegan butter, which by coincidence never gets too hard to spread- thank goodness!
Happy eating!
xo, Holly
super seeded everything bagels
Ingredients
- 10 grams active dry yeast
- 15 grams granulated sugar
- 360 ml warm water
- 500 grams bread flour
- 5 grams salt
- 13 ml canola oil to grease bowl
- 30 ml non-dairy milk to brush bagels with
- 20 grams seed sprinkle mix
- 20 grams everything bagel seasoning
Instructions
- Mix the sugar and warm water together and pour over the yeast. Gently mix together and sit for 10 minutes to activate.
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl and add into the yeast and water mixture. Mix with dough hook until a smooth dough forms. If it is too dry, add warm water one teaspoon at a time as needed.
- Turn the stand mixer up to medium and knead in mixer for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
- Grease the inside of a large non-metal bowl with the oil and place the ball of dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel and set it to rise in a warm place for one hour until dough has doubled in size. I like to put it in the oven with just the oven light on which seems to be about the right temperature.
- When dough ha doubled in size, punch down the dough and recover and let sit for another 10 minutes.
- In the mean-time, preheat oven to 220 °C (425°F); fill large pot of water and bring to a boil; and cover a baking sheet with baking paper and set to the side.
- Remove the dough from bowl and divide into eight equal pieces(each piece should be approximately 100 grams give or take five grams to make them even).
- Roll each piece into a tight ball using your hand in a "c shape" and gently rolling on un-floured but clean work surface until a tight ball is formed.
- Press your finger into the centre of each ball to form the hole and stretch the dough balls so that the hole is about 1 inch in diameter; let rest with cling film/ warm towel over bagels for 15 more minutes.
- Mix your seed and bagel seasoning mix together in small bowl.
- Once water is boiling, reduce heat to medium high and drop in bagels two to four at a time so they have enough room to float around.
- Once they rise to the top, start your timer for two minutes and then turn each upside down with a slotted spoon or spatula and continue to cook for two more minutes.
- Remove from water and using a pastry brush, brush each bagel with non-dairy milk and sprinkle seed mix over each bagel.
- Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pan half way through and transfer to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
