I can’t tell you how much I’ve been learning and enjoying baking bread every week. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenges are giving me the opportunity to feel more comfortable working with yeast and my friends are definitely benefiting from all the homemade baked goods as a result! For week three of our Bread Baker’s Apprentice (BBA) Challenge the recipe we’re tackling are for bagels. Peter Reinhart provides a straightforward bagel recipe but I wanted to add some flavor to mine, specifically something savory.
One of my favorite bagels that I often order out includes Jalapeno Cheddar from Au Bon Pain. Here’s my chance to recreate them or at least be inspired by Au Bon Pain. To Peter Reinhart’s recipe, here are the ingredients I added to create Jalapeno Cheddar Bagels:
Jalapeno Cheddar: add the following ingredients when you begin to knead the dough:
– 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced finely
– 1 tablespoon mexican seasoning
– 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
… and top the freshly boiled bagels with shredded sharp cheddar cheese before baking
If you would like the recipe, you can find it starting on page 115 in Peter Reinhart’s book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.
Making bagels (or bread) is a lengthy yet easy process. Sure, you can very well purchase bread at the store but something about making it from scratch just amazes me. To make these bagels, I made a starter with yeast, flour and water.
After this starter fermented a bit, I added more yeast, flour, honey, salt, along with the additional ingredients to make my jalapeno cheddar bagels.
Everything gets kneaded together until you have a uniform dough.
The dough is divided into small balls to rise and create individual bagels.
Each ball of dough is then poked in the middle and shaped into bagels before resting again.
Finally, the dough is ready to be boiled in water…
Then topped with sharp cheddar cheese before baking.
After a few minutes in a hot oven, they’re cooled on a cooling rack before devouring.
ooh, these look so cheesy and good. nice work tackling the challenges of breadmaking!
AWESOME! Great job!
I love love love baking bagels now and I know my husband would love this version with the jalapeno cheddar…I’m definitely trying this!! YUM! Great job!
How ingenious of you! Great idea. They look so very good.
Susie
These look delicious–especially with the yummy melted cheese on top :).
Thanks for the step by step on these! I tried to make bagels earlier this week and had a mishap. I really want to try again. I love your jalapeno cheddar version.
mmm!!! At the coffee shop I used to work at, I could choose from ANY of the food for lunch, but I always chose a Jalapeño Cheddar bagel because I was addicted to them, especially toasted w/ butter. Thanks for this recipe!
Those look delicious. I’m imaging them toasted with a light smear of butter on them. Yum!
Oooo! YUM! These look fantastic. I love cheese on bagels. Mmmmm…
What a great addition to bagels!
Glad you are getting some practice working with yeast doughs. I still have a long way to go with them myself, but have gotten much better over the past year or two. I love how relaxing it is working with them!
Oh my… just when I thought I might be done with this bagel part of the challenge, you have to go post something as scrumptuous as jalapeno cheddar bagels. I must make them, I must!
Good job!
These look delicious!! Unfortunately jalapeños are very hard to find in Sweden. Have to find some substitute, maybe Turkish sharp bell peppers.
I was wondering what would happen to the cheddar when you boiled the bagels but it appears they come out unscathed. Your bagels look great. I’m going to make my next batch Cheddar and Jalapeno. Thanks for the inspiration and method.
Wow! These bagels look amazing! I’ve never made homemade bagels before, but you’ve totally inspired me. I can do this! They look super delicious.
those look fantastic.
Ohh yum! These look absolutely delicious. I keep saying I am going to try my hand at bagels one of these days…
Great job! They look professional. I continue to be impressed by the amount of food that you cook/bake on a regular basis.
Yay! My favorite flavor bagel! Yum!
Love these bagels! All that cheesiness right on top and I can imagine the spiciness when you bite into it. Just drooling . . .
awesome! i love jalapeno cheddar bagels!
These look amazing! Did they taste how you expected? I love savory bagels with veggie cream cheese. I”m going to have to try my hand at bagels one of these days!
jalapeno cheddar – My FAVORITE! Cant wait to try on my second batch in a real kitchen!! I loved making the bagels even in a three sided outdoor kitchen! Thanks for the info! Great job! Happy baking!
WOW these look amazing. My husband isn't much of a bagel kind of guy, but I think he would love these! *taking notes for next batch of bagels*
You are killing me!!! These look AWESOME!!
These look absolutely amazing — I’m definitely trying this the next time I make them. I used garlic, poppy seeds and sesame seeds on my BBA bagels but your combo really has me salivating. I imagine they make pretty great sandwiches, too. Congrats!
I envy your breadmaking skills! These bagels (especially the jalepeno and cheese combo) look incredble Joelen.