These Vegan Sesame Whole Wheat Bagels are made with partly whole wheat flour and sprinkled with sesame seeds and sea salt. Toast and top with your favorite spread!
Brett and I are getting antsy for America.
We absolutely love living in China, but I think with my grandpa's passing and our continued vacations outside of China--which remind us of how nice convenience is--we could really go for the comfort of home right now. We actually go to Korea on Wednesday (eeekkkk!) so we will thankfully get our fix of westernization while we're there. We're also praying that a trip to America in July for my cousin's wedding and a family reunion will happen.
Ah, that would be nice.
Reentering back into China after our time in Thailand this past January was a little harder than I expected. There was just so much spit and trash and stares and language barriers... Thankfully my culture shock lasted about 2 days before China felt like home again. But coming back to China after Thailand really made me envy the Wester conveniences of home and most other countries in the world.
Canned goods for instance. Gosh, it would be so nice to be able to find canned beans, tomatoes, coconut milk, etc. at the groceries stores in our city instead of having to stock up on my rare trips to Walmart or order canned goods off line.
Whole grain products are also deeply missed around these parts. While bao zi and hua juan are some of my favorite foods, I so miss being able to buy whole grain breads, tortillas, crackers, etc. from the grocery store.
It's the little things, ya know?
But let me stop myself before I start sounding like I'm complaining, cause I'm not. It has been such a gift to have limited access to foods because I now appreciate the things I took for granted while living in the states so much more. I've also been forced to grow in my baking and cooking skills, which has felt really rewarding. Pulling a fresh loaf of yeast bread out of the oven and then slicing it open to get whiffs of yeasty steam is so so rewarding. Even more rewarding is making yeasted bagels from scratch!
I've posted a Whole Wheat Bagel Recipe on my blog before, but I've honestly learned so much since then about baking breads. While I love using whole wheat flour and only whole wheat flour to make my Homemade Sandwich Bread, using just whole wheat flour to make bagels leaves you with a really dense, chewy bagel...and we don't want that. In an ideal world I wouldn't be consuming white flour, but gosh does it make bagels so much tastier and easier to eat! I've decided to give in and use a mix of white and wheat flour to get the perfect bagel consistency.
Now I by no means came up with this recipe. Bagels are a pretty straight forwards art and I just choose to tweak a classic New-York Bagel Recipe a little to get exactly what I was looking for. A little extra yeast here. Some added whole wheat flour there. Presto, yummy Vegan Whole Wheat Sesame Bagels!
Please let me know if you've ever made bagels before and some tips and tricks you've learned from you experience. Let me know if you give this recipe a try as well. Leave a comment down below or tag #theconscientiouseater on Instagram so I can see your creation!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Sesame Whole Wheat Bagels
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 ½ tablespoon sugar
- 1 ½ cups warm water divided
- 3 ½ cups flour I used 1 ½ cups whole wheat + 2 cups white
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- Optional Toppings: coarse salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.
Instructions
- Add ½ cup of warm water to a small bowl and pour in the sugar and yeast. Allow the yeast to sit for 5 minutes before stirring together.
- In a large bowl, mix together the two kinds of flour and the salt
- Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture.
- Add in another ⅔ cup of warm water to the well and mix until a dough starts to form. You'll need to add in more warm water as you go (I usually need about another ⅓ cup) in order to get a firm dough.
- knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
- Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover the bowl with a damp cloth. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about 1-1 ½ hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Punch the dough down and allow it to rise for another 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal sections and roll them into balls.
- Poke your finger into the center of each ball and pull slightly to form a bagel shaped round.
- Place the bagels on a baking sheet and allow them to rise for another 10 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 425 °F degrees and bring a large pot of water to boil.
- Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer. Place the bagels into the boiling water, taking turns so they don’t touch if needed, and allow them to boil on each side for 1 minute (2 minutes total) before removing them and placing them back on the baking sheet.
- If you are topping your bagels with any of the optional toppings, sprinkle the wet bagels now with the toppings.
- Continuing boiling the bagels until all the bagels have been boiled.
- Place the bagels in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- Store in an airtight container or slice and freeze for later.
Natalie | Feasting on Fruit says
Wow you are tackling the tricky stuff here! Yeasted bread, and bagels nonetheless--I'm impressed. They look so beautiful and fluffy and bagel-shop perfect!
Faith says
It's been fun being forced into experimenting! Hopefully I'll keep getting better and better. Thanks Natalie!