Peanut Butter Banana Bagels

The idea for these bagels spawned from reading a post on A Beautiful Mess, where Emma mentioned that her favorite bagel was from Panera – a peanut butter and banana bagel in fact! I never had the chance to try this gem, as it has been discontinued, but decided to take on this challenge of recreating what I imagine they would have been like. The execution of making these bagels however, poses the problem of  adding two wet ingredients to dough, which would just result is needing more flour. But I have made bagels using pumpkin puree in the past and therefore substituted with mashed banana and used PB2’s powdered peanut butter instead.

I had hoped for a very obvious flavor, but the result was more subtle and I may need to try folding in real peanut butter for a swirl or try peanut butter chips. Or maybe my desire for a super peanut buttery-banana-y bagel is unrealistic, and this is as close as it gets. Don’t get me wrong, these were wonderful bagels! I wouldn’t be sharing them on my blog if they were not, just not a “wow that’s an explosion of peanut butter-banana flavor”. That response might be reserved for moister items such as muffins and blondies. To compensate, these were particularly good with a smear of Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. Peanut butter on top of peanut butter – that’s just how I roll!

Actually, I recently discovered that cake batter flavor exists, and upon searching their website while writing this post found both banana and peanut butter flavorings. I feel like it would be a cop out to use them instead of real banana and peanut butter, but maybe a couple drops would get this bagel flavor up to the next level. What are your thoughts?

Two years ago: Baked Blueberry Almond Pancakes

PEANUT BUTTER BANANA BAGELS

Makes 8 bagels

Ingredients:

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 cup PB2 powdered peanut butter

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup warm water

2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast

2 Tbsp sugar, divided

1 large very ripe banana, mashed

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the two flours. In a large bowl, whisk together 2-1/2 cups of the flour, powdered peanut butter, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine water, yeast and 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of sugar.  Whisk together slightly and allow to sit for 3-5 minutes or until slightly foamy.
3. Add the mashed banana and mix using a dough hook, then begin to slowly add the flour mixture.  Mix for 5 minutes or until smooth, alternating between slow and medium speeds as you add flour. You want to mix it until the dough is no longer sticky. After 5 minutes, if the dough is sticky, incorporate the remaining flour, a little at a time.
4. Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large bowl. Cover and allow the dough to double in size, around 1 hour.
5. Remove the dough and punch it down. Divide into equal pieces.  A digital scale is very helpful, but if you don’t have one just eye out 8 even pieces of dough.  Press your finger through the middle of the ball, and form into a bagel shape.  They will rise some more, so if you want a hole, make it bigger than the size of a quarter.  Repeat with the the rest of the dough. Place on prepared baking sheet and let rest until risen but not doubled, 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bring 12 cups of water to a boil with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
7. In batches, boil the bagels for around 20 to 30 seconds per side.  Remove from water and place back on prepared baking pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool before serving.

Source: Adapted from Pumpkin Bagels, inspired by A Beautiful Mess.