Semi-Healthy Everything Egg Bagels
- redbirdfarm
- Jan 14, 2020
- 6 min read
I didn't realize that bagels are SUCH a New York thing when I moved to Maryland. In Connecticut, Stamford is basically another NYC borough, and the bagels were fantastic. I knew they were better than Dunks, but hey, Dunks isn't the gold standard of fancy bagels. I figured "okay, New Yorkers are intense about bagels but it's not such an amazing feat that no one else can do it" and I was wrong. I've been disappointed by food around here, which just makes me want to make my own version, which is probably better for my wallet and health anyway. Since Charles is watching his calories, I tried to find a (relatively) low carb/healthy way to make bagels that wasn't removing all the flavor.
Charles' review: "they'll probably be pretty tasty when they're toasted...they're no Liz Sue's, but that's an unattainable standard anyway" which can be translated to "4 stars out of 5" as far as I'm concerned.
Recipe
Ingredients:
2 eggs, separated*
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup flour, plus extra for kneading**
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt***
Topping of choice****
Directions:
Preheat oven to 170°F and turn off once it is preheated.
Whip one egg white until soft peaks form.
Sprinkle yeast and baking soda across your egg white (so you don't have clumps of yeast) and mix until combined - do not over mix or you'll have tough and flat bagels.
Switch your mixer attachment to a bread hook (or use a spoon if doing this by hand) and add flour, two egg yolks, and Greek yogurt. Mix until a sticky dough forms.
Liberally dust a cutting board or counter with flour and knead dough until no longer sticky. This should take 2-3 minutes and your dough will pick up a good bit of flour.
Split dough into four equal portions, knead a little more flour in if the cut edges are still sticky.
There are two methods for making your shape, and I don't think either is better/worse, so whatever seems most fun to you. Option One: form dough quarters into a circle and poke a hole in the center, stretching your dough slightly so you have an approximately quarter sized hole in the middle Option Two: roll dough into a PlayDoh style snake, about an inch or so in diameter, roughly 4-5 inches in length. Twist into a circle, then pinch the ends together so they stay stuck.
Place bagels on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat (or parchment paper if you don't have a mat)
Whisk your saved egg white (add a splash of heavy cream if you'd like!) and brush it on both sides of the bagels. Add toppings now - I used an Everything Bagel spice mix I got at Big Y in Connecticut. I believe Trader Joe's sells it, and I've seen it in a few grocery stores. If you wanted to make your own Everything blend, I added a "recipe" in the Notes section below. Charles loves everything bagels, I'm personally more of a fan of salt bagels. I put the toppings on both sides, but you can do whatever makes your heart happy.
Put bagels in your preheated-but-turned-off oven and do something else for 20-30 minutes. Let them rise a little, then turn the oven to 375°F and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the outside has a crisp edge and is nicely browned, but you can still push into the bagel and feel a little softness inside.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a baking rack for 15 minutes. Don't eat them right out of the oven, trust me. If you cut them right away, the moisture will steam out and they'll be dry and sad. They're still warm 15 minutes later!
If you want to store them, I'd recommend not slicing and putting in the freezer in a plastic zip bag once they're completely cooled. Charles says they're better toasted, but I can't think of many bagels that aren't better toasted with butter, and if you disagree, you may find them better untoasted.
Notes:
*You'll need two egg yolks and one egg white for the dough portion, then you might as well use your extra egg white as an egg wash. I personally do prefer the whole-egg egg wash, so I fed Willow the extra egg white and used another whole egg to do the wash.
**I used whole wheat flour, but any will do. I haven't tried this with a gluten free flour, though I would guess it would work well since the dough is pretty moist, but you may want to add an extra teaspoon of yeast to your recipe.
***If you're trying to save extra calories, you can go with a non-fat or low-fat Greek yogurt here. Just make sure it's Greek, not "Greek style" — you want the yogurt to be as thick as possible. If there's liquid at the top, pour it off before you take your half cup. I'd use plain here, I think flavored might make the bagels taste a little weirdly sweet, but if you find a flavor that just makes these INCREDIBLE, I'd love to hear about it!
****For toppings, obviously I used an Everything Bagel Spice Mix I picked up at the store. I also like salt flakes on my bagels, and you can add whatever your favorite topping is here. If you wanted to make your own everything mix, I'd recommend this:
3 tablespoons minced dried onion
3 tablespoons minced dried garlic
1 tablespoon coarse or flaked salt (I prefer flaked but don't always have it)
1-2 tablespoons poppy seeds
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
Of course, adjust to your own tastes, but we're a garlic/onion heavy family here! Or, if you're thinking "why on Earth am I going to buy containers of these things I only want for a bagel sometimes", the Trader Joe's blend is on Amazon for $6.64 now. There seems to be a lot of other brands selling it now, too. One of my friends swears by topping her pizza crust with it, and I've heard it's great on all sorts of toasts, potatoes, popcorn, roasted chicken, etc. Let me know what you make with it!
Egg Whites and Yeast
Take care with your egg white - overwhipping can cause it to collapse, which defeats the purpose of whipping in the first place! It should only take a few minutes to get to soft peaks, especially if your egg white is at room temperature before you start. Once you see soft peaks, stop your mixer and add the yeast/baking powder immediately. Sprinkle the yeast across the mixture to avoid clumping, then run the mixer for 20-30 seconds until it's combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the edges down if any gets tossed up and won't mix in.You don't want to keep mixing for very long to get the yeast/baking powder mixed in - just enough to combine.
Dough
Left to right: sticky dough as it comes out of the mixer, kneaded dough (see how much flour it picked up?), and four roughly equal portions split up and ready for shaping.
Shaping Method, Option One:
Grab your ball o dough and squish it a little bit flat - think "deflated beach ball" not "pancake". Press your thumb in the top to create an indent like the left picture, then put both thumbs in and rip a small hole. Pinch and stretch the dough to create a circle (or weird oval, in my right photo). The inside may be sticky, and you may want to flour your fingertips a little to keep from ripping the dough out.
Shaping Method, Option Two:
Relive your childhood Play-Doh memories and create a little dough snake. Twist into a circle, then pinch the ends together to get them to hold. I kind of did a pinch/twist motion around the seam to make sure it was totally stuck together and wouldn't open its circle back up when I was done.
The shaping method you choose doesn't really matter...
The top two were made via Option One, bottom two via Option Two. Post bake, there's really no difference. Whichever seems more fun/functional/easy to you is the way you should do it. Either way, you get tasty bagels that are sort of healthy (relative to regular bagels, I guess)!
According to VeryWellFit.com's Recipe Analyzer, the bagels are 181 calories apiece. Definitely can get heavy on the sodium depending on how you make your spice mix, so keep that in mind. Add two fried eggs (if you're light on your oil) and a slice of low fat cheese, and you've got a sub-500 calorie breakfast. Or add a bunch of cream cheese and pretend it's healthy. That's probably my plan, anyway.
Did you make this recipe? Tell me how it went! What did you change, and what makes it better?
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