My conference in San Francisco may have been a couple weeks ago now, but I have a story to tell that applies to this post today because it involves blueberry bread. Or at least what I thought was blueberry bread. We were out to eat at a place called The Cosmopolitan (which was delicious by the way) and as was typical of many restaurants, we were given bread prior to our meals arriving. The first slice I tried had little flecks of what looked like pieces of fruit, which I then tried to deduce. Beth and I decided that it must be blueberry after tasting them and I dove in for another piece. That was until the waiter laughed at us saying (to my dismay) that it was not blueberry bread at all, it’s olive. I hate olives. And of course I was then able to taste the olive-y flavor that I numbed from my taste buds while thinking it was blueberry. Curses! I did end up eating more of that bread because it was still good, but suddenly not quite as much after discovering it’s true nature. Stupid olives. At least the waiter admitted that he thought the very same thing when he first started working there.

But these bagels are truly blueberry, I promise. And even though this is only the second batch of bagels I have made at home, I am totally loving homemade bagels. (I’ve made asiago before.) These which I am sharing today were more scrumptious than expected. Obviously I chose to make them thinking they would be good, but didn’t realize how quickly I would devour them. Assured they were in fact blueberry of course .

BLUEBERRY OATMEAL BAGELS

Makes 8 bagels

Ingredients:

BAGELS

1 Tbsp instant yeast

2-1/2 cups bread flour

1-1/2 cups oat flour (I used ground up oats)

2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1-1/2 cups lukewarm water

3.5 oz. dried blueberries

BOILING WATER

2 quarts water

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

TOPPING

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

rolled oats

Directions:

1. Combine the first six bagel ingredients in a large bowl, or bowl of your stand mixer, and mix.  Knead for about 10 minutes.  Add dried blueberries and knead for 5 more minutes.  The dough should be stiff and smack the sides of the bowl.
2. Remove dough, coat same bowl with cooking spray and replace dough.  Roll the dough ball around to coat it in oil.  Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let the dough sit in a warm place for about 1 hour.  The dough should be roughly doubled in size.
3. Grease your work surface with cooking spray and turn dough ball out onto the surface.  Divide the dough into 8 equals portions (I used my kitchen scale to weigh out equal lumps of dough).  Roll each lump into a ball and loosely cover the balls with plastic wrap.  Allow the ball to rise for 30 minutes.
4. In a wide, shallow pan, combine water with the sugars.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees with racks placed on top and bottom 1/3 of the oven.
5. To shape the bagels, poke a hole in the middle of each dough ball.  Twirl the dough around the index fingers of your two hands until the hole stretches to about 2 inches.  Place the newly formed bagel on a parchment or silpat covered baking sheet.  Shape the remaining dough balls.
6. Drop the bagels, 3-4 at a time, into the simmering water.  Boil the bagels for 2 minutes and flip over to boil for another minute.  Remove from the water bath with a skimmer/strainer and let cool for a few minutes on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
7. Whisk together egg and water, brush each bagel with the egg wash and sprinkle with rolled oats.
8. Bake the bagels for 20-25 minutes (rotating half-way through), or until your bagels are golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack.

Source: Wilde in the Kitchen.