Pumpernickel Bagels

During one of my library's recent cookbook book club meetings, we all made recipes out of the Smitten Kitchen.  I decided to make the pumpernickel grissini for no other reason than I wanted an excuse to use the word grissini.  It's just the Italian word for breadstick, but it's fancy!  It was also an excuse to work with a type of flour that I never use - rye.  

However, it was more economical to purchase the five pound bag of rye flour.  However, I only need to 1/4 cup for the recipe.  What do these howevers equal?  It equals me needing to find other things to make with rye flour.  Enter pumpernickel bagels.

Bagels are a breakfast treat in my world.  I think college Sunday hangovers, stumbling to the coffee shop or diner to for greasy hangover-cure-food.  There is still something so devilishly wonderful about butter dripping off of eggs and sausage on a toasted bagel.  But...bagels are not something I ever considered making at home.  It just seemed like too much of a bother when I can just walk to the coffee shop and get a bagel.  With nearly five pounds of rye flour in the pantry though, my thoughts on bagels made the necessary shift to being my next culinary adventure.

Pumpernickel Bagels

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. warm water
1 c. whole-wheat flour
4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 c. rye flour
1/2 c. molasses
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp caraway seeds
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

Directions:

Mix warm water, whole-wheat flour, and yeast together in a small bowl. Let stand until the yeast softens and begins to froth and bubble, about 10 minutes. 

Look at those bubbles!

Mix rye flour, molasses, cocoa powder, vegetable oil, caraway seeds, and salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture and all-purpose flour.  Mix until it becomes a gummy dough then turn out onto a floured surface. 

 Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to greased bowl.

Cover with warm damp towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 hour. It was a pretty cool day so my apartment reflected that temp.  I let my oven heat at the lowest temp while I was making the dough, then when it was time for it to proof, I turned the oven off and put in my dough.

Once the dough has risen, preheat an oven to 450F and grease a baking sheet. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. 

Divide dough into 13 pieces and shape into balls. Using your thumb, press a hole into the center of each dough ball.  Pull the dough a bit to form a 1-inch hole in the center, keeping dough about 1/2-inch thick. 

Drop dough circles into boiling water, 3 or 4 at a time, and boil for 45 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain for about 1 minute. Arrange boiled bagels on prepared baking sheet. 

Bake bagels in the preheated oven until just starting to brown on the bottom, 8 to 10 minutes.

The bagels came out a lot smaller than I expected them too.  I really thought they would grow in the oven, but they didn't.  I'm not complaining though.  They baked up beautifully.  The outside was nice and chewy and they were completely cooked.  Because they were smaller, two made for a perfect breakfast with a little jam.