Greek Yogurt Everything Bagels

This month Kitchen Challenge, organized by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil, tackled the yeasty creation of bagels! This challenge wasn’t too daunting for me because I have made a few different kinds of bagels in the past, but I was excited to try out something new.

After my happy experience with Greek yogurt in pizza dough I thought to myself, why stop there? So I made Greek yogurt bagels complete with an everything bagel topping. Just like the pizza dough I was incredibly pleased with the outcome. They were the perfect texture, not dried out, and of course who can argue with an everything topping? I enjoyed eating them for breakfast smeared with peanut butter, for lunch as the bread of a sandwich and even made a pizza bagel for myself one night for dinner. Oh the versatility of bagels!

What should I add Greek yogurt to next? Pita bread? English muffins!?

In other news, 10 weeks from today I will be defending my dissertation and hopefully get to stamp “PhD” after my name! I am totally freaked out and nervous but excited at the same time. Now all I gotta do is wrap up lab work, finish at 100ish page novel on my research and find a job! Oh and be a bridesmaid in two weddings. I’m warning you, this blog might endure some pretty interesting recipes in the meantime. I’m thinking a long the lines of something related to the petri dish cookies and fat kid food.

Two years ago: Cosmic Brownies

GREEK YOGURT EVERYTHING BAGELS

Makes 8 bagels

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour

1-1/2 cup white whole wheat flour, divided

1 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1-1/2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used 0% Chobani)

12 cups water

1 Tbsp baking soda

3 Tbsp Everything Bagel topping

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flours (except for 1/2 cup) and salt.  Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine water, yeast and sugar.  Whisk together slightly and allow to sit for 3-5 minutes or until slightly foamy.
3. Add the Greek yogurt 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. Mix until the dough is no longer sticky. After 5 minutes, if the dough is sticky incorporate 1-2 tablespoons of flour 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 a lightly greased surface and let rest until risen but not doubled, 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with the racks placed on the middle shelves. Bring 12 cups of water to a boil then add the baking soda. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, sprinkle with cornmeal and set aside.
7. In batches, boil the bagels for around 1 minutes per side.  Remove from water and place on prepared baking pan.  As soon as the bagels come out of the water, top them with the Everything Bagel topping.
8. Bake for approximately 5 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450 degrees and continue baking for about 5 minutes, or until the bagels turn light golden brown.

Source: Adapted from Lemon Sugar.