Posted by Jill Whalen | Posted in Food, Healthy Eating, Recipes | Posted on 08-21-2014
Tags: Paleo
After I made my paleo toast recipe last week, I couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not it would be possible to also make a grain-free bagel! So I checked Pinterest, and sure enough there were some recipes. Rather than follow any particular one (they all seemed to have ingredients I don’t have on hand or prefer not to use), I decided to modify my toast recipe instead.
I wasn’t sure how I would get the appropriate shape with hole, etc., as I didn’t have any fancy pans like most of the recipes called for. Plus, I wanted mine to mainly cook in the microwave like my mug muffins, because it’s so quick (and I have no patience!). The healthy bagel recipes I saw appeared to make multiple bagels at a time in a regular oven. Because I’m always making breakfast just for myself, I love being able to make single-servings!
At first I thought I’d just mix up the dough in the rectangular baking dish I used when making my toast recipe, and somehow form the dough into a bagel loop. However, it was quickly apparent that my bagel dough wasn’t “doughy” enough to form into anything.
So I devised a new plan using a medium sized pyrex glass storage bowl and a small juice glass (for the hole!)
To my delight, this was perfect!
Off to the microwave it went, where I zapped it the same amount of time I do for my healthy mug muffins and paleo toast.
I was psyched when the microwave “binged” it puffed up as I had hoped!
It easily peeled out of my contraption, but definitely looked a bit anemic!
One toast cycle in the toaster oven, however, and now I had a decent looking paleo bagel!
In all honesty, I didn’t have high hopes for how it would taste or for the mouth-feel. I haven’t been thrilled with paleo bread items that have coconut flour (which I added to this to thicken it up). But I guess because I only added a couple of teaspoons, in the end I couldn’t taste it one bit. (I also used olive oil instead of coconut oil, which probably kept that taste at bay.) Overall, it was surprisingly yummy. So much better than I had ever expected and very bagel-like!
Obviously, any grain-free bagel isn’t going to be exactly like one made with wheat flour (especially when it’s mostly cooked in a microwave). But damned if this one won’t satisfy your breakfast bagel cravings. I had mine with a little butter on it, which would be what I probably would have done with a “regular” bagel. But I imagine this sucker with some cream cheese would be really good. That said, it’s so filling and tasty that it doesn’t really even need toppings!
Without further ado, here’s my grain-free bagel recipe:
Ingredients (these are approximate):
[Added 9/24/2014: I’ve been experimenting with this a bit more and think I actually like it better omitting both the yogurt and the coconut flour altogether. The coconut flour seems to make it more crumbly. Therefore I’ve put “optional” after those ingredients.]
- 1 TBLS Olive Oil (I’ll probably also try it with coconut oil and get back to you with whether that worked)
- 1 Egg
- 1 Heaping TBLS Plain Greek Yogurt (I used full fat) (If you’re dairy free, try it with some coconut milk or almond milk.) [Optional]
- 1 TBLS Ground Flax Seeds
- 1 TBLS Nut Flour (almond, cashew or hazelnut should all be fine)
- 2 TSP Coconut Flour [Optional]
- 2/3 TSP Baking Powder
- Few Shakes of Salt
- Dash of Garlic Powder
- Sesame Seeds (or whatever else you might want to put on top and/or bottom)
How to Make:
- Mix all ingredients except for the sesame seeds together really well with a fork. (If using caraway seeds, you can mix them right in.)
- Place a small, round juice glass in the middle of a deep, round, microwave safe bowl.
- Spoon out your “dough” into the bowl around the glass. (You can mix it all in the bowl the begin with and then make a hole in the middle for your glass if you want one less dirty dish!)
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds (Or whatever topping you wish. I’d love to buy some caraway or poppy seeds for these. I also sprinkled salt on top for my second one).
- Microwave on high for 3 minutes (probably less for you if you’re microwave isn’t 28 years old like mine is).
- Remove from your bowl and toast for one toast cycle. (You might want to turn it over after one cycle and toast the other side a bit if both sides didn’t brown well.)
Enjoy your guilt free delicious, healthy bagel with whatever you would normally put on a bagel, or simply plain.
–Jill
P.S. I tried this again this morning and my bagel came out gigantic, but really fluffy and yummy. I think the only thing I did differently was put more of the Greek yogurt in than my first one. It definitely made it less dry.