Healthy beer bagels!
Healthy beer bagels!
Whole wheat , spelt and rye beer bagels
Healthy beer bagels with whole wheat and rye flour
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 18 min
Ready in: 43 min
Yields: 1 dozen scrumptious bagels!
Healthy beer bagels
- 1- 8 ounce beer, stouts and porters work great but, I used a Weyerbacher Insanity
- 1/2 cup water, I poured out the beer and then added enough water to make 2 cups of liquid
- 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup (adds flavor but is not necessary for the recipe), add to the water beer mixture and heat to 100F
- 2 teaspoons yeast, add that to the 2 cups of heated water,barley malt, and beer for bench proofing
- 2 cups wheat flour
- 2 cups rye flour
- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1 cup bread flour, You can use your own combo of flours or just one type
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten, The wheat gluten helps this from being too dense of a dough
- 1/3 cup spent grains, If you don't make your own beer you can skip this or use oatmeal
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt, poaching ingredients,
- 3 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup(again not needed for the recipe), Topping ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons chia, caraway, sesame seeds, poppy seed or hemp seeds, You can use one of these or any combination to equal 4 tablespoons.
Healthy beer bagels with wheat and rye flour
- In a large measuring cup pour off your beer and allow the beer to settle. Add your two tablespoons of barley malt syrup. Bring the total liquid in the measuring cup to two cups by adding water to the beer. I am not a big fan of the microwave but it's a quick way to bring your liguid to about 100F. I then use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature before I add the yeast. If the temperature is good add the yeast and set aside.
- Using the big bowl on your mixer, measure out the flours and salt. By this time your yeast should be ready. Please check my photos to see what that should look like. If it's not bubbling, you may have a bad yeast. That's why you bench proof first and don't just throw in your yeast and hope for the best. It would be such a waste of your time and good flour.
- Attaching the bread dough hook attachment to your mixer and placing the bowl underneath, snap the paddle down and start your mixer on low. You don't want to send flour all over you and the kitchen. Trust me it's a huge mess. You will want to mix the flour and start pouring in your yeast and barley water. You may need to stop and add the liquid and clean off the sides as you go.
- When all the flour is incorporated, turn the mixer up to about medium speed and allow the dough hook to knead the dough. This should take eight to ten minutes. Don't walk away. You want to be there to stop the mixer to push the dough back into the bowl. It has a tendency to ride up the hook. You also want to be there just in case your mixer decides to "dance" off the counter.
- Your dough will be slightly tacky. That's a good thing. The wetter the dough, the better the rise. At this point I am going to place the dough in a well-oiled large bowl. I am going to cover and set it in the refrigerator all night. I love the flavor development with an overnight rise. If time doesn't allow you to do that, you can let the dough rise in a warm place in your kitchen. You are looking for the dough to double in size. That can take up to three hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
- The next morning I am going to take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. That will take a few hours. No matter what rising method you utilized we can proceed with the recipe at this point.
- Take a large baking tray and either use a sil-pat or parchment paper to line the tray. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a clean floured working surface. I am then going to roll the dough into a log and portion off 12 equal pieces. You then take each piece and roll it into about a 6 inch log, then make it into a circle. Try to connect the both ends without mashing it together too much to create a nice bagel. Do this step until you have 12 bagels on your tray.
- Set the bagels aside in warm area and cover lightly with a tea towel. I lightly flour the underside of the towel so none of the dough sticks. Let the dough rise about an hour. It could take up to two depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
- While the dough is rising, turn the oven on to 500F or the highest setting it will go.
- Prepare your topping, if you are using any. Check your bagels in about a half an hour and see if they are rising. If they are not, let them go another half an hour. If they are rising well, fill a large pan full of water and start it boiling.
- When the water starts boiling add your barley malt and baking soda. Please be very careful and slow with this process. The water will want to boil over. Go slow!
- At this point you will carefully drop your bagel in the water. It will take about 15 seconds for it to float on the surface. Take a slotted spoon and push on one side to flip the bagel over and boil another 15 seconds. My pan can do three or four bagels at a time. Transfer the boiled bagel back to the parchment or sil-pat covered tray. Sprinkle with your topping while the bagel is wet. Some recipes call for an egg wash so the toppings stick better but my lazy method works fine. Do this whole procedure for all dozen bagels.
- Lower the oven tempurature to 450F and place the tray full of bagels into the oven and bake for 15 to 17 minutes. At the 8 minute mark turn your tray around so the bagels brown evenly. They should be a deep golden brown.. Once browned, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Once the bagels are cool, I slice and freeze them. If I don't, someone I know will eat too many!
Beer bagels with whole wheat and rye flour
The first thing people say when I tell them I make my own bagels is, "Why". My response is always because I can control the ingredients and they are super fun to make. Don't let the length of ingredients (which if you use one type of flour it's not that long) deter you from trying this recipe. It's so fun and rewarding! It really only has one extra step versus making your own bread, so why not? I know that you can go buy bagels, but are they beer bagels with wholesome flours? I haven't found one in a store or bagel shop yet!
I made these bagels for a dinner I hosted with friends who are hard-core meat eaters. I love the challenge in creating a dish that will satisfy them and not have them running to a meat counter on the way home. I served these bagels with carmelized onions which I finished with balsamic vinegar, cojita cheese ( Mexico's version of feta) and baby kale. I also made baked fries. No one left to go to the meat counter! We paired the meal with Weyerbacher's "Insanity" beer. Oh so freaking good!
