Gluten Free Asiago Cheese Bagels

Gluten Free Asiago Cheese Bagels

These have the perfect bagel texture.

Without going into too much detail and specifics about my son's "condition," I'm trying to limit my older son's gluten intake again. One of his very favorite (and disastrous) gluten-y eats is the asiago cheese bagels they have at church every Sunday morning. For the past month or so, I've had to deny my poor kid the joy of eating his half bagel on Sunday morning, because it just made him too weird come Monday at school. 
I tried a frozen gluten-free bagel a couple of weeks ago, and it was so bad, I had to spit it out. It was awful. Just awful. (Side note, my other son actually LIKED that nasty bagel and asked me to prep another one for him. It really makes me question all of the times the kid has told me I'm the "best cooker in the world." Hmmmm...)
Now that I've found Better Batter Gluten Free flour, I feel like experimenting more, and I was very excited to try a gluten free bagel. My gluten-limited son says these bagels are "weird, but good."
"What do you mean by 'weird'?"
"Um...uh. It tastes kinda funny, and chewy and fluffy, but good. In a cheesy bread kind of way."
We'll see if he finishes the others I placed in the freezer. 
(As for my other son, he LOVES them.)
The flavor here definitely isn't that of a wheat bagel, but my son, who knows asiago bagels, doesn't mind. I actually slice these for him, butter the cut faces, sprinkle with garlic salt, and broil in the oven, sort of like the Toasty Parmesan Garlic Bagels I love so much.
The first time I made these, I made 8 bagels from the recipe, but I think that made them too big and dense, and they didn't bake thoroughly. So the next time, I divided the dough into twelfths, and they turned out perfectly, as you can see in the pics. 
P.S. The second batch of these bagels have REALLy gone over well with my gluten-limited son. He's already breezed through this batch in less than a week, so I will be making them again this weekend. Ahhh...it does my mom's heart good to know my son has a replacement for his beloved Sunday morning cheese bagels, AND he can enjoy them any day of the week! 

Gluten Free Asiago Cheese Bagels

     --adapted from BetterBatter.org

Ingredients: 

• 4 cups Better Batter Gluten Free flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) instant yeast
• 2 1/4 cups warm water
• Better Batter Flour, for rolling
• Water plus sugar for the water bath (1 Tbsp per 2 quarts)
• 5 ounces grated asiago cheese, preferably good quality*

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Mix all dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attchment. Add the water and molasses mix on low until the mixture resembles very sticky play-doh.

Lightly flour a flat work surface (it should barely be covered with a fine film of flour). Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.

Gently roll the dough balls on the floured work surface until they’re smooth. Flatten each ball ito a disk, about 3 inches by 1 1/2 inches thick.

Very gently, with floured hands, poke a hole into the center of the dough an work it until the hole is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Repeat with all the dough. Let the bagels rise for 40-50 minutes, or until puffed (they won't double in size).

Heat a pan full of water, at least 3 inches deep to boiling. Add about a tablespoon of sugar per 2 quarts of water. Drop two or three bagels in at a time. They swell quite a bit as they boil, so don't crowd them.

Boil for 2 minutes, turn over, and boil for another 1-2 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon and drain a little on a paper towel. Place back on parchment paper. When one sheet of bagels has been boiled, carefully place about 2 tablespoons of cheese around each bagel. If some falls into the center, that's fine. It makes a nice cheesy center. Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until well browned and puffed.

Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before slicing.

Makes 12 bagels

*I say use a "good quality" asiago cheese because the ones you see pictured here were made with Target's Archer Farms brand asiago cheese. I tried Target's Market Pantry brand last time (which was also pre-shredded, as opposed to the Archer Farms chunk), and the Market Pantry asiago cheese turned a deep mahogany color. Still edible, but not as delicious as the previous ones.

Bagels set to rise

Boilin' some bagels.

I tried adding about 3 tablespoons of baking soda
to the boiling water to make these bagels
more pretzel-like. I don't think it changed the flavor,
but they do look nice, in my opinion.