SUCKED. INTO. A. BAGELLLLLL.

– Son Lux Everything Everywhere All at Once

What makes me want to make a blueberry bagel? Last Sunday, Mr He and I watched a legendary movie called Everything Everywhere All at Once. (If you haven’t watched this movie yet, we highly recommend it! It’s a fun and deep thoughtful movie that could change your life.🧐)

In this movie, Jobu Tupaki created a black hole-like “everything bagel” that can potentially destroy the multiverse.

After watching this movie, Mr He signed: “I really want a bagel now😫.”

If everything will eventually be sucked into a bagel, I hope it’s a blueberry bagel, filled with blueberry cream cheese.

Then at least we are sucked into a delicious bagel. JK 😁

Can I make bagels with all purpose flour?

The answer is a big YES!

Although most bagel recipes tell us that we have to use high protein flour (13% -16%) to make chewy bagels, I only had regular all purpose flour at home at that night.

We were both craving for homemade bagels, so I decided to try it out with AP flour.

Gratefully, my all purpose flour bagels turn out to be as chewy as the bread flour ones I had made before. 

By adding blueberries to my bagel dough, these all purpose flour blueberry bagels had a perfect chewy texture, a subtle fruity scent, a pretty purple color, and a sweet berry flavor.

I am still not 100% sure about why we could or couldn’t use regular all purpose flour to substitute bread flour to make bagels. But I will keep using all purpose flour to make my future bagels , because it just turned out to be PERFECT!

Bagel dough too sticky?

Having a sticky dough could be the most common bagel-making problem. Here’s how to prevent it and fix it:

Firstly, I’d recommend using a kitchen scale to measure all the ingredients instead of measuring cups.

    Kitchen scales are tidier and more accurate than measuring cups or spoons. Your bagel dough could be too sticky if you add 10g more water, which is just 0.125 cup.

Secondly, it’s possible that you need to knead the dough for a longer time.

    I put all the bagel dough ingredients in my standing mixer’s mixing bowl, and let it run at medium-high speed for about 10 minutes.

    Although different stand mixers might take a longer or shorter time, the dough will eventually turn smooth as it fully develops the gluten in the mixer.

    As you can see in these pictures below, the bagel dough turned from dry (pic 1) to sticky (pic 2) and finally became smooth (pic 3) in the mixer. You should stop

   Observe carefully and stop the stand mixer once the wall of the mixing bowl is clean. In this way you won’t over knead the dough.

    And it’s okay and normal if the dough feels sticky when your try to take it off from the kneading hook. Simply allow the dough to rest on your countertop for about 10 minutes, it will calm down and turn stiffer after resting.

  And of course, you should always use a nonstick pastry mat/gloves or dust your working surface/hands with flour to prevent from sticky.

3. If your dough still feels too sticky after you tried the first 2 tips, it’s possible that your blueberries are extra juicy ones. 

    If that’s the case, don’t be panic.

    You can gradually add some flour to the dough – 1 tbsp at a time. Knead in the flour with your hands until the dough is not too sticky to be shaped.

As long as you could successfully shape a whole piece of the dough into a ring shape without making a mess on your hands, the dough is not overly sticky.

Some tips for successfully making blueberry bagel:

1. You can simply shape the bagel dough by spinning it on your finger. 

    I shaped 3 bagel doughs by poking a hole in the middle and spinning each of them with one finger, and shaped the other 3 doughs by rolling each of them into a long snake shape and attaching the two ends.

    I couldn’t tell any difference after they were baked. Could you?

    Well, I could have stretched them into wider rings, so they’d look less like belly buttons 🤣

2. Use frozen blueberries for making bagel. 

    Not only because that frozen blueberries are cheaper than fresh ones, they could actually make your blueberry bagels more beautiful and tastier.

   Blueberries will become softer and puree-like after they are frozen and defrosted. The texture might not be pleasant for eating directly, but it’s perfect for bagel doughs. Since they are already so soft, you don’t even need to mash them before adding them to the stand mixer.

    What’s more, compared with fresh blueberries, defrosted ones could release more juice from their skin, which could dye the bagel dough into a pretty purple color.  

    To thaw frozen blueberries, you can simply weigh the amount of blueberries you need, put them into a food storage bag, then leave the bag in the refrigerator to thaw overnight.

    A faster method is microwaving frozen blueberries for 30 seconds until partially thawed. They will be fully thawed when they are kneaded with the other ingredients in the stand mixer.

    3. Boil bagels in sugar water.

The sugar water could create a shiny and glossy skin for the bagels. 

    What’s more, according to FoodCrumbles, as bagels are boiled in sugar water, outside will become sturdier, which will stop the bagels form further expanding, the gelatinized out layer starch will lock more water as the bagels are baked in the oven, which “ensures that the bagel doesn’t get a crunchy crust, like some other breads do”.

    Also, boiling bagels will kill off the yeast existing at the out layer of the bagels. In this way, the bagels will have a chewy and slightly crispy out layer, and a relevantly softer inner part. 

    In other words, if you want your bagels to be chewier, you can boil them for a longer time (about 1 minute each side, 2 minutes for 2 sides). I personally prefer softer bagels, because I don’t want to break my braces again😂. So I only boiled each side of these bagels for about 30 seconds (1 minute for 2 sides).

How to Make Blueberry Bagel with All Purpose flour

Equipment

• Stand mixer (optional)
• Baking Pan
• Large Pot
• Oven

INGREDIENTS

– Blueberry Bagel Dough

• 320 g All purpose flour
• 120 g Blueberries (Frozen then defrosted)
• 100 g Cold water
• 10 g Sugar
• 4 g Salt
• 3 g Instant yeast

– For Boiling Bagels

• 1500 ml Water
• 75 g Sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Weigh 120g frozen blueberries, put them in a food storage bag, put them in the refrigerator to thaw overnight. (A faster method is microwaving frozen blueberries for 30 seconds until partially thawed.)

2. Put all the blueberry bagel dough ingredients (see ingredient list above) into the mixing bowl of a standing mixer.

3. Use medium high speed to mix for 10 minutes, until the bagel dough looks smooth and the sides of the mixing bowl look clean.

4. Transfer the dough to a nonstick pastry mat. (Or dust your countertop with flour to prevent sticky.) Cover the dough with a large bowl or plastic food wrap, allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

 5. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. (You can do 4 equal portions instead if you prefer larger bagels.)

6. Roll each piece of the dough into a round shape. Cover the dough balls with a plastic food wrap, and allow them to rest for 10 minutes.

7. Take a dough ball, coat a finger in flour, poke a hole in the center of the dough ball with your finger. Spin the dough on your finger to enlarge the hole until it forms a ring. Repeat with the other 5 dough balls.

8. Put each bagel dough ring on a small sheet of parchment paper. Place the doughs with the parchment paper lined on the bottom on a baking pan.

9. Put the baking pan on the middle rack in the oven. Add 1L hot water (70% boiling water + 30% cold tap water) to a large bowl, and place the bowl on the top rack in the oven. Close the oven door, do not turn on the oven, allow the bagel doughs to proof in the oven for 1 hour.

10. Take the baking pan out from the oven. Preheat the oven to 390 °F (200 °C). Add 75g sugar and 1500 ml water to a large pot, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium low heat to remain a simmering status.

11. Once the oven has reached 390 °F (200 °C), carefully put bagel doughs one by one into the sugar water. Set a time, boil one side for 30 seconds, then flip them in order, boil the other side for another 30 seconds.

12. Transfer boiled bagels to a parchment-lined baking pan. Quickly send them into the oven. Bake at 390 °F (200 °C) for 20 minutes.

13. Cool on a cooling rack.

14. Optionally and highly recommended, cut a bagel in half, and spread on some blueberry cream cheese. *See content below for how to make homemade blueberry cream cheese.

How to make Blueberry Cream Cheese Filling:

1. Add 1/3 cup (about 60g) of sugar and 1 cup (about 150g) of fresh or frozen blueberries to a sauce pan.

          * We usually add a large amount of sugar in fruit jam to inhibit microbial growth, and some lemon juice to “set” the jam. People usually add sugar and blueberries at a ratio of 1:1. I prefer my blueberry sauce to be less sweet, so I reduced the amount of sugar. You can adjust it based on your preference.

    And since we are just making a small amount of blueberry sauce for the bagel filling, we don’t need to worry about the preservation in this recipe. Therefore, it’s totally fine to skip the lemon juice and use less sugar. 

2. Cook over medium heat, keep stirring until thickened. It will take about 10 minutes.

3. Check the status of the sauce by dropping a dime-size drop of the sauce to cold water. Gently shake the water bowl and observe, if the blueberry sauce drop is able to hold its shape in cold water, you can take the saucepan off the heat.

*Since we reduced the amount of sugar and skipped lemon juice, it’s normal for the jam to have a rough and loosen edge instead of a smooth and clear edge. As long as the sauce drop doesn’t fall part in cold water, the blueberry sauce is good to go.

4. Transfer the blueberry sauce to a small jar. Once the sauce has cooled to room temperature, close the lid, keep the jar in the fridge until the sauce is fully cooled and set.

5.  Leave a block of cream cheese (8oz) at room temperature for about an hour or until soften. Or use microwave method to quickly soften the cream cheese. Add 3 tbsps of blueberry sauce to the cream cheese.

6. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to whip the mixture at medium speed for about 2 minutes until the color looks even and the texture is fluffy.

7. Taste and add more blueberry sauce if you want. Spread a generous amount of blueberry cream cheese on half a bagel, enjoy.