making blueberry bagels

Paulie, Elizabeth and I decided to make bagels Sunday afternoon while the younger two slept. I've made bagels using the recipe in Baking Bread with Children a few times, so I felt comfortable enough with the recipe to change things up a bit. (If you don't already have a book with bread recipes to make with children, this is a wonderful resource!)

Instead of the egg, we used 1/3 cup of ground flax seeds, and we replaced half the flour with whole wheat pastry flour. Then we added about 3/4 cup of freeze dried blueberries. Freeze dried blueberries work really well at giving the full punch of blueberry flavor without adding extra moisture that might skew the results.

My two helpers dutifully rolled and shaped the bagels. We had some pretty odd sizes and shapes to start with.

But somehow they all looked pretty bagelish after the second rising.

After the boiling step, the bagels all have that spongy look about them.

And then you have homemade bagels! I frequently have a hard time getting a shot of the finished product before hungry children swoop in to eat the fruits of their labor. Blueberry bagels were no exception to that rule although Elizabeth did manage to secretly hoard one for her lunch on Monday to make her beloved pb&j bagel sandwich.