This past summer we visited Montreal for the first time, and I’m sure this wouldn’t come as a surprise that we just LOVED it!!
The sights, the streets, the culture, the variety, the parks, the attractions and just everything was oh so great.
One of the greatest things I think I enjoyed is (surprise, surprise) the food. Not so much the food itself but more the variety of food. Or if I had to be more specific, the bagels 🙂
Before we drove to Montreal everyone kept telling us how great the bagels are over there, and I kept nodding, smiling and thinking to myself that a bagel is a bagel, what’s the big deal? Well, apparently it is a big deal, because once we had a taste it was hard to turn back.
After we came back home I really wanted to try and make bagels but guess what? I had no bagel baking pan, so it took eBay a while but I finally got my baking pan and of course I had to customize my bagel recipe to our (now) healthier menu so I made bagels using spelt flour.
Although these bagels do not taste like the Montreal Bagels, we were still happy to have them for breakfast with butter on top and a nice piece of smoked salmon.
You’ll find that these bagels are not as soft and fluffy as the regular bagels but they are really good. You just need to make sure you give the dough some love, and by that I mean mixing it enough to activate the gluten, because although it has a very low level of it, it’s still there 🙂
- 250gr Spelt Flour (I use whole spelt organic flour)
- 1 Tbsp Dry Yeast
- 1 ½ Tbsp White Sugar
- 4 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Xanthan Gum
- Pinch of Salt
- ½ Cup Lukewarm Water + 2 Tbsp
- 2 tbsp Butter – Melted for brushing on top
- In a bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, sugar, oil, xanthan and salt.
- Add in the water gradually while mixing. You may need a bit more or a bit less water depending on your flour. You should get nice soft dough that is a bit sticky.
- Cover the bowl with cling wrap or kitchen towel and let the dough rest and rise for about 30-40 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and prepare bagel (regular not mini) pan (brush with some oil first).
- Divide the dough into 6 pieces and using oily hands create a ring from each of the pieces (bagel shape) and place in the bagel baking pan.
- Brush the tops gently with some melted butter and let the bagels rest for another 10 minutes.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven.
