Bagels

There are some baked goods in the gluten free world that you fear you will never eat again once you have removed gluten from your diet. Bagels used to be one of my favorite foods, eaten with hummus or cream cheese or just plain butter, and I missed them dearly. Finally, I decided to try this Bagel recipe, no boiling water required. They turned out gorgeous, and I ate one the second it was cool enough to handle. The salt water spray gives a delicious flavor while also giving the bagels a nice chewy outside. I love to make a batch or two of these and eat them for the rest of the week. They make such an easy, tasty meal. I recently made them for a brunch where there was a mountain of normal bagels, and they were a big hit for the few gluten free guests there. Feel like a bagel is too difficult a project for you to undertake? The baking process is not too complicated at all!

What you will need:

Water spray:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Bagels:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup yogurt
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup rice flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

-Mix the warm water and salt in a small spray bottle. Set aside.

-Place the egg whites in a medium-size bowl. Beat until very frothy, with big and little bubbles. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well until very thick. (If you are mixing by hand and not with an electric mixer, I highly recommend mixing after adding the corn starch until it is fully blended with the first four ingredients, and then adding the rest. It makes for less lumps). The dough will appear soft, with many very small air bubbles.

-Place the dough in a resealable plastic bag. Cut 1 inch diagonally off one lower corner of the bag. Pipe the dough into three large or four small circles onto the prepared baking sheet. This sounds difficult but it's really quite easy. Squeeze the dough into one corner of the bag, leaving a little space at the bottom where you will cut the tip of the bag off. Cut the tip, and start squeezing the dough out. Try to keep squeezing the dough out as continually as possible for each bagel, so that the shape is more even. The pipe of dough will naturally curve to one side or the other, so follow that curve. When you complete the circle, let the dough overlap just a little and break the pipe of dough so you can start on the next one. With wet finger tips, smooth the overlapped bit of dough into the body of the bagel. Shape it however you want.

-Spray liberally with the salt water. Bake for 5 minutes. Spray again with salt water.

-Continue baking for 15 to 20 more minutes, until nicely browned.


They seem to turn out perfect every time.

Notes: Spraying the bagels 5 minutes after baking is very important. This allows the crust to form. If you forget and spray them later in the baking, they will still form the chewy crust but will not be as golden grown on the top. It also pays to measure the amount of warm water and salt, rather than estimating the measurements.

With the piping, you have a lot of say in what kind of bagels you are making. Typically you will want to make smaller circles than you think you should, because they do rise during baking. If you want more bagels out of your batch of dough, make the cut in the bag 1/2 inch wide, making for a thinner bagel. For thicker bagels, make it an inch wide as in the instructions and pipe them into tighter circles, however, the bagel count probably will go down. If you have some leftover dough that doesn't seem like it will be enough to make an entire bagel, make a mini bagel or just pipe little blobs onto the baking sheet to make bagel bites. Experiment to find the size and shape that you like best.

These bagels are at their best fresh. Freeze them over night and, to get some of the moisture back in the next few days, toast them before eating. Thawed, they are still good, but a little dry and grainy.

(This recipe was the Corn and rice-based version of the Bagel recipe in Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." A potato flour and sorghum flour version of this recipe also exists.)