GF Bagels!!!!

Anyone that knows me knows how much I LOVE bagels.  In grad school, Sunday mornings before church consisted of stopping by the bagel shop for my chocolate chip bagel.  Then, after I graduated, I would stop by the bagel shop on my way to work for breakfast...a fresh, warm bagel.  Needless to say, a good bagel has been sadly missed.  But no more!  These bagels meet my criteria for "a real bagel" unlike any other GF bagel I have had.  I'm still tweaking, so I'll update this as I improve.  Since I said I'd post it, here it is...   Btw, that's an actual picture below!!!

GF Bagels

1 1/4 cup warm water
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups Jules Inspired Rice Free Gluten Free flour mix

Boiling solution:
4 cups warm water
2 T sugar
1 tsp molasses (not necessary, but might add some color)

1 egg white, beaten with a bit of water added

Easy Directions: Mix wets(water/yeast/sugar), mix drys(flour/salt), combine wets and drys together, beat until smooth, divide into 6 on floured surface, form bagels with floured hands, refrigerate overnight, boil in sugar water, brush with egg, bake and enjoy.

Detailed Directions:
- Measure warm water in a measuring cup, add yeast and brown sugar then whisk to combine and dissolve yeast and sugar.  Let rest to be sure yeast is active.
-Measure out flour and add salt.
-Pour water mixture into mixer bowl, add flour mixture and beat for 3 minutes (or until it is smooth).
-Lay out a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap, and heavily sprinkle with flour.  Put dough onto flour sprinkled sheet and fold over a few times to work it in.  It will be pretty sticky at this point. 
-Get a knife and cut (or mark) the dough into 6 even parts. 
-With floured hands, flop one part of the dough between your hands forming a ball.  Poke your finger through to make the bagel shape.  Make the hole larger than you want it to be in the end.  Remember, the dough will rise and the hole will shrink by more than half.
-Place bagels onto parchment lined cookie sheet.  You could even sprinkle with cornmeal.
-When all 6 bagels are on cookie sheet, cover with saran wrap and place sheet into refrigerator overnight.  Putting it into the refrigerator overnight helps it to rise slowly, but it also allows the next step to happen easily.
-In the morning, turn oven to 425 degrees, and boil 4 cups of water (or a small pan full) and sugar.  Adjust to low boil and slide bagels one or two at a time into the boiling water, allowing to boil for about 30 seconds on each side then return to parchment lined cookie sheet.  When all the bagels are returned to the cookie sheet, brush tops with egg whites and place bagels into preheated oven.
-Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until golden.
That's it!!! :)  Enjoy!!
They are wonderful with eggs for a breakfast sandwich, toasted with butter or jam, or just eaten plain.  They will stay fresh about as long as a "real" wheat-filled bagel.  (I didn't like stale wheat bagels so I always froze whatever I didn't eat...so I'll do the same with these).
Seriously, these are amazing!!!  Gluten free, dairy free, rice free....but every bit as tasty as the "real" thing. :)

*again, sorry for the poor picture. :)

Gluten Free Pretzel Bites!

Yet another food you've probably been craving; a good gluten free, chewy, soft pretzel. Here you go!  Necessity is the mother of invention yet again.

Thanks to Better Batter for their inspiration for this Auntie Anne's clone. I halved the recipe because I didn't want to use too much flour in case it didn't turn out. But they were wonderful! This quantity will make one cookie sheet full of pretzel bites...maybe about 25? Just a guess, I didn't count them before we ate them all.

I mixed up this dough and formed the pretzel bites before heading to bed. I put the cookie sheet of pretzel bites into the refrigerator to rise overnight. In the morning I ran the bites through the baking soda solution, and baked them. It was way easier to do it this way, than wait for them to rise.

One final note, I used the Jules flour recipe, but made my modifications to substitute Sorghum and Millet for the rice flour.  You'll see these changes reflected in the link to the flour blend recipe.  I have not tried my recipes with a rice based mix, so if you are using rice, you may have slightly different results. :)

Gluten Free Soft Pretzel Bites

1 1/4 cups warm water

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups Jules Gluten Free Flour mix Flour, plus some for dusting surface

2 cups Warm Water

2 tablespoons baking soda

Instructions
-Put warm water and sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer; stirring to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast on top and stir again. Let this sit for a few minutes to make sure the yeast is active (you'll see it 'grow' and 'move').
-Add salt and half the flour and beat on high for three minutes. Dough will be very sticky (that is good). Add remaining flour (about 1 1/2 cups) and stir in. Drop it onto a generously floured surface and very gently fold over on itself a few times. You're looking for a dough that you can form with effort, but not one that you add tons of flour to because sticky dough will lend itself to a lighter end product.
-Get a piece of dough the size of a lemon and roll it out into a long roll about 1/2" diameter. Use kitchen scissors to cut into pieces about 1" long. You could also form this into a traditional pretzel shape too; make a U, cross the ends over twice and lay ends back down on top of the U.
-Lay the pretzel pieces onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap, and put in refrigerator overnight to rise.
-In the morning pull the pan out of the refrigerator, turn on oven to 450 degrees and prepart the baking soda mixture.
-Combine 2c water and 2T baking soda mixture in small pan and bring to a boil. Turn heat on baking soda mixture down to medium, and dip pretzels into baking soda solution for about 30 seconds. After dipping in solution, lay pretzels back onto parchment lined cookie sheet. At this point you can brush with egg to get a more shiny pretzel, and/or sprinkle with coarse salt (pretzel salt or kosher salt works).
-Bake in 450 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden.
Enjoy warm with a dip of mustard, or just eat plain. :)

**My appologies for the poor quality picture.  I took it very quickly this morning on a mobile device since the camera wasn't handy.  :)