Bread machine bagels (honey wheat edition).

I've had the bread machine for over a year now, and I only recently discovered that it renders bagel-making simple enough for weekday morning breakfasts. 

(At least, in my house.  Because I prefer to eat hot breakfasts, and I like to feed myself what I prefer, I'm used to scheduling my mornings around breakfast.  We are not a household that relies on cold cereal or granola bars to get out of the house on time.)

The sorts of things I have not yet been able to figure out for weekday mornings are breads that require a complicated shaping and then a long second rise before baking.  Cinnamon rolls are a perfect example of something I would like to make for breakfast (they're my favorite pastry) but don't, because there's that bit about rolling it out, adding the filling, cutting it into rolls with a length of dental floss, and then letting the darn things rise "until doubled in bulk" for an hour before baking.*  By this time, even with the head-start from the bread machine, I will have had to have been awake for an hour and a half at least before even putting them in the oven, and plus there's the mess of rolling out the dough, dribbles of filling everywhere, etc. 

Bagels, however, are surprisingly quick and low-mess (once the dough is made).   I set the bread machine and my alarm clock for the same time; I work for 25 minutes shaping, boiling, and topping the bagels; they bake for 35 minutes while I shower and get dressed; I come downstairs and take hot, crispy bagels out of the oven.   The hard part is waiting for them to cool enough so I don't burn my mouth.

Notice especially how few items are dirtied in the morning, and the quick hand-shaping that doesn't mess up a rolling pin or the counter.  Obviously, you can adapt this recipe to make the dough in a mixer, but then you probably won't want to make them for Wednesday morning breakfasts.  Unless you let the dough have its first rise in a cool place overnight, something I can never seem to get to work right.

Honey Wheat Bagels (for the 1 or 1-1/2-pound bread machine)

3 cups whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp wheat gluten

2 tsp bread machine yeast

1 and 1/2 tsp salt 

1 cup water

3 Tbsp honey

Ahead of time:  Add the water, honey, flour, gluten, and salt to the bread machine pan and level the dry ingredients carefully on top of the water.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the yeast.  Set the machine on the "dough" cycle to finish the dough 1 hour before the bagels are to be done.

When the dough cycle is complete:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Put a large pot of water on to boil.  Spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface (I flour a cutting board for easy cleanup) and cut it with a sharp knife into 8-12 pieces.  Shape each piece with your hands into a rope, then overlap the ends and work them together to seal.  Let the bagels rest a few minutes on the floured surface until the water comes to a boil.  Boil the bagels 4 at a time for 1 minute, turning them halfway through.  Remove them with the slotted spoon to the cookie sheet.

(Optional topping step:  Beat 1 egg white with 1 Tbsp water.  Brush this glaze on the bagel tops and sprinkle the bagels with toppings of your choice, such as sesame seeds, poppy seeds, coarse salt, onion flakes, cinnamon sugar, etc.)

Bake the bagels 25-30 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on a rack.

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*I tried shaping the cinnamon rolls and letting them rise in the fridge overnight a couple of times, but they didn't rise enough.  I have also made pseudo-cinnamon rolls with a refrigerator dough, and they were okay, but not great.

Comments

[Jamie]

Ideas for cinnamon rolls: you know how rise time decreases with each subsequent rise? What if you started the dough 24h in advance and let it rise/fall repeatedly in a quiet corner so that it didn't require a full hour's rising time in the morning?

What if you rolled it out the night before and let it rise overnight in the fridge as a covered oblong? It's the thought of a doughy rolling pin/surface first thing in the morning that makes me weary. If the filling was ready to go and the dough was rolled (more or less -- you'd have to tug the corners out again), it would be less onerous.

What if you made a cinnamon loaf instead of cinnamon rolls -- filled and rolled it up, then baked it without slicing it and iced the whole thing afterward?

[bearing]

Hmmm! The second suggestion sounds like a pretty good idea -- also because rolled out flat after the first rise, it shouldn't take so long to come to room temperature once out of the fridge. So, get up in the morning, take the risen oblong out of the fridge and let rest on the counter for a little while. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar/whathave you, gently roll up, slice, and bake?

[Jamie]

I was still thinking it would need a morning rise. I guess if I were doing it, I would mix up the dough around dinnertime and let it rise in a blob until the kids were in bed. Then I'd roll it out in a rectangle, stash it in the fridge, and mix up my filling. In the morning I'd smack the air out of the oblong, working from the center out to stretch it painlessly back to size. (My plans are always painless in their larval state.) Wouldn't it be awkward to work with the dough if you hadn't smacked it down? So anyway, then I'd fill, roll up, slice, leave for a quick rise in a warm spot, and bake.

The rolling part is my least favorite bit of making cinnamon buns. Buttery dough all over my countertops, sticky rolling pin, dough scraps drying in my eyebrows and making me itch later. (No, I don't know how the dough gets in my eyebrows.) That's why I was thinking I'd rather get it out of the way in the evening, because it's always a better day if I don't swear before breakfast.

Now I'm reading back through this, thinking maybe the first rise in a blob would be unnecessary. Can you do a first rise in an oblong? It seems like it's against the Baking Rules but I suppose it could work.

[bearing]

I would think the gluten wouldn't have developed enough for it to roll out properly if it hadn't sat awhile. Hm, will ponder this as I will probably not want to try until mid-week, and maybe some other ideas will be flushed out.

[Amber]

I've had good luck using Marilyn Moll's whole wheat cinnamon roll recipe as an overnight cinnamon roll. I just made it a couple days ago and they were great. I take them out of the fridge as the oven preheats in the morning, then bake them and they rise quite nicely. Of course they aren't exactly your typical cinnamon rolls since they are WW and without icing, but we like them!

Here's a URL - http://articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=748 - I made the dough in my bread machine the evening before, made the rolls, and refrigerated them overnight.