Gluten Free Cheese and Vegemite Bagels
Updated: Feb 22
These Gluten Free Cheese and Vegemite Bagels make the perfect breakfast, lunch, or snack. Soft, Vegemite-laced dough topped with a Vegemite glaze and crispy cheese, this easy recipe will be on rotation in your house!
Regular cheese and Vegemite bagels have been available in supermarkets here in Australia for quite some time, but I've definitely never seen anything like this in the gluten free aisle! With this recipe I wanted to create something fun, delicious and easy to grab for breakfast or lunch. They're simple to make, freezer friendly, and they can be easily made dairy free or vegan!
How to make my Gluten Free Cheese and Vegemite Bagels:
Mixing the dough: the process for mixing this dough is simple. As always, we get the yeast and psyllium ready first, mixing each of them with some of the water and sugar and setting them aside while we measure everything else. This dough is easiest to mix with a stand mixer if you have one, but if not, you can use a rubber spatula to start mixing the dough and then go win with your hands to make sure it's really well mixed. The dough is a bit of a funny colour with the Vegemite through it, but I promise it tastes better than it looks!
First Prove: I like to coat my dough with a bit of olive oil to make sure it doesn't dry out during proving. Cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and choose a warm spot to proof it if you have one, but regular old room temperature is fine too. The dough should double in size over about 45 to 60 minutes.
Kneading: this dough doesn't require much kneading, but I do find it helpful to knead it until smooth to knock the air out before shaping. It should only take a couple of minutes on a lightly floured surface to smooth it out.
Shaping: I have so much fun shaping bagels! First, we need to divide the dough into six pieces. I weigh my dough to make sure they're all even, which is the best way to make sure all your bagels cook properly. Then, we need to shape each portion into a ball. I do this by kneading one piece of dough until I have one really smooth side. Next, I just press the dough, smooth side down, onto a floured surface into a rough circle, fold all. the edges into the middle and pinch to adhere. Flip the dough over so it's seam side down, form your hand into a loose cage over the top, and move your hand in a circle on your work surface. The dough will tighten into a nice ball. Now the fun part! Sprinkle the top of the dough with a little more flour and plunge your index finger through the centre, all the way down to the work top. Gently use your finger to spin the dough around on the work top to widen the hole and you should have something very much resembling a bagel!
Second Proof: Proofing these bagels is a bit easier than some of my other breads. I just give them about 20 minutes or until they're nearly doubled. I use that time to get my poaching liquid ready for the next step.
Poaching: it sounds dumb, but this is actually the part that I found most difficult when developing my basic bagel recipe (available in my FREE cookbook!). Timing the water to boil when the bagels are ready to go was tricky - 3L of water takes a long time to boil! I solved the problem by filling my stock pot with hot tap water, then placing it on high heat to come to a boil 10 minutes before the bagels are finished proofing. I find this means my bagels are pretty much perfectly proofed, but you could tweak it to be slightly longer or shorter if need be.
Vegemite Glaze: I glaze these bagels with a mixture of egg and Vegemite. It sounds a bit gross, but I promise it comes out of the oven absolutely delicious! It's easiest to place the Vegemite in a bowl and gradually add the beaten egg, whisking well after each addition. This ensure the Vegemite mixes easily with the egg and there won't be any lumps in the glaze. If you need to avoid the egg you can get a similar effect by mixing the Vegemite with 2 tsp of warm water, the bagels just won't be quite as shiny when baked.
Baking: baking these bagels is the easy part! A pile of cheese on top and in they go. I rotate mine after 13 - 15 minutes for even browning, but that's as complicated as it gets!
Ingredient Substitutions
Sorghum Flour: if you can't get sorghum flour, brown rice flour makes a good substitute.
Cheese: if you need to avoid dairy just sub in your favourite dairy free cheese.
Egg: to make an egg-free glaze for the top of the bagels, mix the Vegemite with 2 tsp of warm water and whisk until smooth. The bagels won't be quite as shiny in the end, but they'll still have lots of Vegemite flavour!
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How to store Gluten Free Cheese and Vegemite Bagels
Like all homemade bread, these bagels will be best on the day they're made. However, any leftovers will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days, but they'll be best toasted from day two onwards. To freeze, slice the cooled bagels in half and place in a freezer safe bag. I love to toast them straight from the freezer for a convenient and delicious breakfast!
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