Heart bagels- perfect for a quick lunch!

We are so excited to have started our half term holiday. I think this time around, the most excited one is mum as I don’t have to be a Primary School teacher for the next week and trust me, it was hard work 🙂 So, now we have full 10 days ahead of us to fill with adventures and of course, we are limited on what we can do. No traveling, not mixing with other families etc, but we won’t let this bring us down! We are going riding this weekend as the horses still need to be exercised and cared for regardless of lockdowns so at least we have that to look forward to for tomorrow. We have decided to bring our lunch along and make a day out of it and thats why these bagels were made. Just to keep the kids busy I decided to make our own sandwich bread. I usually buy the pita style bread from @farinalondon because its soft easy to eat for kids while being big enough to make a good sandwich size even for the adults. Plus as they deliver it every morning, we always have it freshly baked. But for this occasion I made the kids do all the hard work instead and we made these delicious vegan bagels using a slightly modified recipe from Bread Ahead Bakery we found in Metro newspaper online 🙂 Bread Ahead makes really delicious breads and pastries and has a fabulous online school that I wish I had a membership for. Check them out for sure and if you are in Borough Market area, do visit their bread shop. So now on to the recipe. Bear in mind that you really need the fesh yeast. You can find it in Ocado or sometimes if you ask in the bakery section of larger supermarkets they will sell it there too. This recipe makes 7 regular size bagels. 14g fresh yeast 7g syrup (you can substitute honey if desired) 270g cold water 465g strong white bread flour 7g fine sea salt 60g sugar Oil (for brushing) Seeds (optional)  Bread Ahead explain: ‘Begin by dissolving the yeast and the malt syrup in the water. Add the flour and salt. Bring the mixture together until incorporated. Put your dough on the table and begin to stretch and tear the dough. You need to do this for 6 minutes to develop the gluten. Put back into the bowl, cover and leave for 1 hour.  ‘Divide the dough into pieces, roughly 110g each. Shape in to a round’ This is where we started making things different to make our heart shapes. We put a bit of oil in a finger and made a hole in the middle of each ball and stretched to make the ‘hole’ on the bagel larger. Then shaped each donut into a heart shape (or as close as we could get!). Once ready we placed each heart bagel on a lined and oiled tray leaving plenty of space for the dough to raise slightly. Set aside for 10 minutes while you prepare the water bath. This sounds strange but its very easy and quick and its what makes the difference between bagels and a regular bread roll. Add the sugar (we always use unrefined cane sugar, but any sugar will do for this part) to a large pot full of simmering water and gently dip the bagels for 20 seconds on each side. Brush the bagels with a bit of oil and sprinkle with seeds if desired.  Bake at 200 degrees Celsius until golden-brown. Enjoy filled with your favourite foods. I am thinking of eating mine filled with vegan gravlax and cashew cream cheese with dill. Would you like these recipes as well? We are so excited to have started pour half term holiday. I think this time around, the most excited one is mum as I don’t have to be a Primary School teacher for the next week and trust me, it was hard work 🙂 So, now we have full 10 days ahead of us to fill with adventures and of course, we are limited on what we can do. No traveling, not mixing with other families etc, but we won’t let this bring us down! We are going riding this weekend as the horses still need to be exercised and cared for regardless of lockdowns so at least we have that to look forward to for tomorrow. We have decided to bring our lunch along and make a day out of it and thats why these bagels were made. Just to keep the kids busy I decided to make our own sandwich bread. I usually buy the pita style bread from @farinalondon because its soft easy to eat for kids while being big enough to make a good sandwich size even for the adults. Plus as they deliver it every morning, we always have it freshly baked. But for this occasion I made the kids do all the hard work instead and we made these delicious vegan bagels using a slightly modified r ecipe from Bread Ahead Bakery wefound in Metro newspaper online 🙂 Bread Ahead makes really deliciousbreads and pastries and has a fabulous online school that I wish I had a membership for. Check them out for sure and if you are in Borough Market area, do visit their bread shop. So now on to the recipe. Bear in mind that you really need the fesh yeast. You can find it in Ocado or sometimes if you ask in the bakery section of larger supermarkets they will sell it there too. This recipe makes 7 regular size bagels. 14g fresh yeast 7g syrup (you can substitute honey if desired) 270g cold water 465g strong white bread flour 7g fine sea salt 60g sugar Oil (for brushing) Seeds (optional)  Bread Ahead explain: ‘Begin by dissolving the yeast and the malt syrup in the water. Add the flour and salt. Bring the mixture together until incorporated. Put your dough on the table and begin to stretch and tear the dough. You need to do this for 6 minutes to develop the gluten. Put back into the bowl, cover and leave for 1 hour.  ‘Divide the dough into pieces, roughly 110g each. Shape in to a round ball’ This is where we started making things different to make our heart shapes. We put a bit of oil in a finger and made a hole in the middle of each ball and stretched to make the ‘hole’ on the bagel larger. Then shaped each donut into a heart shape (or as close as we could get!). Once ready we placed each heart bagel on a lined and oiled tray leaving plenty of space for the dough to raise slightly. Set aside for 10 minutes while you prepare the water bath. This sounds strange but its very easy and quick and its what makes the difference between bagels and a regular bread roll. Add the sugar (we always use unrefined cane sugar, but any sugar will do for this part) to a large pot full of simmering water and gently dip the bagels for 20 seconds on each side. Brush the bagels with a bit of oil and sprinkle with seeds if desired.  Bake at 200 degrees Celsius until golden-brown.

Enjoy filled with your favourite foods. I am thinking of eating mine filled with vegan gravlax and cashew cream cheese with dill. Would you like these recipes as well?