These aren't your typical bagels. They look like bagels, smell like bagels and taste like bagels, but they have a very soft crumb courtesy of the cottage cheese and egg. I came up with the recipe while looking for ways to add structure to a new recipe for chocolate bagels. After success with the chocolate bagels, I omitted the chocolate and ended up with what soft bagels that work well for sandwiches.
Soft Bagels
These are softer than usual, but the bagels are still chewy and have a crust that peels right off. A stand mixer is key because the dough is soft and sticky, yet also very elastic, which makes kneading by hand without adding too much extra flour difficult. It's also a sneaky dough because it starts out looking dry after the first cup of flour, but once you knead it with the dough hook, it goes soft again. I recommend using a stand mixer with a dough hook.
Rundown of Steps for Cottage Cheese Bagels
The procedure is simple. You start by proofing your yeast directly in the mixing bowl. While that is happening, mix together cottage cheese and egg, then warm them slightly. You then add all ingredients to the mixing bowl to make a soft dough. I recommend adding flour incrementally since the amount may vary from batch to batch. 220 grams of King Arthur bread flour works well for me.
This dough rises for an hour as usual, but after shaping you're going to do something a little different. Instead of letting the bagels rise at room temperature, put the shaped bagels in the refrigerator for 2 hours. They will barely rise, but the dough will firm and chill and stand up well to the boil. When boiled, the bagels puff up a bit, then puff up a lot more while baking. I think the dough behaves a little differently in these higher protein bagels.
Variation: Chocolate Bagels
I recommend trying to regular bagels, but if you love the idea of chocolate bagels these are so good! I have not put the chocolate variation in recipe card format, but if you want to try it, I've described how below.
For chocolate bagels, you will need 1 tablespoon of butter to replace the teaspoon olive oil, 1 ½ oz dark chocolate and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
- .Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 ½ oz of dark chocolate in a saucepan.
- Add the cottage cheese and egg to the chocolate in the saucepan and proceed with the recipe as written. In addition, add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients. The dough will be a little stickier, but still shapeable.
- When shaping the bagels, press the dough into oblongs, roll chunks of chocolate in each piece to enclose, then chill the shaped bagels as per the recipe.
Recipe
Cottage Cheese Bagels
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water (56 grams)
- 1 ⅛ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 ½ cups King Arthur Bread Flour plus more as needed (220 grams)
- 3 tablespoons sugar** (36 grams)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil or softened butter
- ½ cup whole milk cottage cheese (120 grams)
- 1 large egg (50 grams)
Instructions
- Heat the water to about 115 degrees and put it in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast and let proof for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix together the cottage cheese and egg in a small saucepan. Heat just until warm. Do not cook the egg, the goal is just to take any chill off.
- To the mixing bowl, add 1 cup (140 grams) of flour, sugar, and salt.
- Add the warm cottage cheese mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a scraper until everything is mixed. It should be about the texture of chocolate chip cookie dough. Add another ½ cup (70 grams) of flour and stir well.
- This dough can be sneaky. It will look dry at first and you may think you've added enough flour, but after the dough hook does its work the dough gets sticky and soft looking again. 230 grams of flour as been the magic number for me.
- Attach dough hook to the stand mixer. Set the bowl on the stand and let the hook knead the dough for about 5 minutes. It should cling to the hook, but also stick to the side of the bowl. Scrape it off. It should feel very elastic. Try to shape it, and if it feels very sticky, add another tablespoon or two of flour and knead for a couple more minutes. When ready to rise, the dough should still be soft, but very elastic. Scrape it into a smooth ball and put in a different greased bowl or just keep it in the stand mixer bowl.
- Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about an hour. If you used quick rising yeast it might only take 45 minutes. After the rising time is up, put the bowl of dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This makes shaping the bagels easier.
- Turn cold dough onto a pastry mat and divide into 6 pieces. Shape into balls as you would dinner rolls, then put your finger through the center and lasso it around to make an elongated bagel hole. Set the shaped bagels on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and allow them to stand for about 20 or 30 minutes while the oven preheats and you get your water going.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. To flavor the bagels, add a squirt of molasses and honey or add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar to the water.
- Drop a cold bagel into the boiling water. If it sinks, wait for it to come back up and allow about 90 seconds for the total boiling time, turning halfway through. If you drop your bagel in and it doesn't sink, that means it's fully proofed and only needs a 45 second boil. Never boil bagels too long or they will flatten.
- After you've boiled and drained all the bagels with a slotted spatula, arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with egg white if you'd like shinier bagels.
- Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes. Check at around the 12 minute mark in case you need to shield them from getting too brown. Let them cool completely.
Notes
- With 3 tablespoons of sugar, these have a touch of sweetness. Feel free to reduce to 2.
For Chocolate Bagels: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 ½ oz of dark chocolate in a saucepan. Add the cottage cheese and egg to the chocolate in the saucepan and proceed with the recipe as written. In addition, add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients. The dough will be a little stickier, but still shapeable. When shaping the bagels, press the dough into oblongs, roll chunks of chocolate in each piece to enclose, then chill the shaped bagels as per the recipe.
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