Yup I have another bagel recipe for you guys. These Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels are fire! And I don’t think I’ve ever referred to anything as ‘fire.’ So you know they are good. Or I was just feeling extra millennial-y and needed to use that word. Who knows. When you’ve been quarantined since March you start to change up your descriptive phrases a bit to keep things interesting.
And by now, if you follow the blog, I guess you have can guess what my fave summer stress baking recipe is. Hello vegan bagel shop! Oh, and yes, these Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels are vegan. These are so crazy good, they remind me of me pre-vegan days when I used to devour any sort of cheese-infused baked good I could find. Well today’s my day for the vegan version….
DIY Bagels
Make your own bagels just once, and I promise you will never go back to buying them! Unless you hate baking and flour and getting your hands a little sticky with dough. Then maybe stick to buying them. But if you are like me and actually LOVE watching the yeast bubble and dissolve into water, and love watching how the dough rises, doubles in size and forms little bubbles. And if you love taking out any daily aggression by kneading a ball of dough, then molding it into whatever shape you want – well DIY bagels are for you!
Oh, and the last cravable step, watching shiny, boiled bagels bake up into poofy little gems all browned and perfect on top.
Jalapeño Cheddar Flavor
I have been wanting to make these Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels for a while and I finally got my hands on some jalapeños to do it. The cheddar part is pretty easy these days since there are sooooo many yummy vegan cheeses in stores.
I chose to use Miyoko’s farmhouse cheddar slices – and chop them into little bits. You could also use any vegan cheddar shreds. The amount of cheese can also vary. I used about 5 slices – and these are nice, thick slices. About ¾ cup of the cheddar bits.
As for the jalapeños, again, you can modify the amount to your tastes. I used one and a half large jalapeños. And I chose to remove the seeds from them, although a few slipped through and you can always taste that punch of heat when you hit a seed!!
I chopped my jalapeños into skinny half slices. You could do whole rounds of even finely chop.
How Do These Bagels Vary From the Other Flavors?
So one thing I noticed with Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels is that the dough was a bit wetter in the end. I attribute that to the jalapeños adding some moisture to the dough as it did it’s rising. The spiciness of the peppers may even soften the dough a bit. That is an absolute guess, but something about the dough felt softer than usual.
The base recipe for my bagels does not change… As seen in this bagels post.
Basic Bagel Recipe:
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 tablespoon yeast (or 1 packet which is 2 ¼ tsp)
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 4 cups bread flour + more for rolling out dough
- any toppings or add-ins you want
…that’s it. It’s been so fun to get creative with this base bagel recipe.
So, if you love a good savory bagel like me, give this Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels a whirl and let me know what you think!!
Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 tablespoon yeast, (or 1 packet , 2 ¼ tsp, will work too)
- 3 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups bread flour, + extra for kneading dough on surface
Fold in:
- 1-2 large jalapeños, sliced, seeds removed
- ½ – 1 cup vegan cheddar cheese, shreds or bits
- coarse sea salt, on top – optional
Boil:
- ¼ cup barley malt syrup, agave or coconut sugar will work too
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, sugar and water in a large mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve yeast and sugar. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Add in the salt and 3 cups of the bread flour. Stir or mix until sticky. Add in the jalapeños and the last cup of flour. Keep folding to combine.
- Knead the dough in the bowl or on a floured surface for about 3-5 minutes. Place the dough back in the mixing bowl.
- Cover the dough bowl and allow the dough to rise for two hours – or a bit less. Make sure your kitchen is warmish and not cold.
After the dough rising…
- Turn out the risen dough – onto a floured surface. Knead the cheddar into the dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. Add more flour if things get to sticky.
- Line your baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Fill a large soup pot with water and add ¼ cup of barely malt syrup – agave or coconut sugar will work too, but barley malt syrup is most authentic.
- Divide dough into 9 small rounds. Knead rounds and press into small balls. Press finger through the center to create a bagel hole.
- When water is boiling and bagels are formed, boil about three bagels at a time for 1-2 minutes. When done, using a mesh strainer, transfer the bagels to your parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat with all your bagels.
- Sprinkle coarse sea salt over top the bagels on the baking sheet. You can also add a few extra pieces of cheese and slices of jalapeño on top, if desired.
- Bake bagels at 450 degrees for 25 minutes, or until bronzed on top, poofy, yet still fluffy and soft inside.
- Remove bagels from oven. Cool bagels on a baking rack. If not serving all the bagels right away – when they are mostly cooled, slice and freeze as halves – this makes it easy to pop them in a toaster. Enjoy!
Equipment
- baking sheet
- large mixing bowl
- large soup pot for boiling + strainer for removing boiled bagels
nutrition estimate | per serving
