Yeast Breads: Chocolate Chip Bagels

Everyone loves chocolate chips. so putting them in bagels is bound to be popular. They're certainly one of my favorites. It's no more difficult to make these than it is to make plain bagels, so have some fun and indulge your sweet tooth.


You can use any type of chocolate chips you like. I use milk chocolate, but you can use semi-sweet, dark, or even white chocolate.


Ingredients


1¼ tsp bread machine or quick rise yeast
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup water
½ cup chocolate chips
 2 tbsp honey
1 egg, lightly beaten


Preparation


There's no need to dissolve the yeast, so place yeast, flour, salt, brown sugar, and water in a large bowl and mix until you have a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Add chocolate chips and knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. The chocolate chips should be evenly distributed throughout the dough. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover loosely. Set in a warm location to rise until doubled in size. This will take about an hour.


Punch down the dough to remove all air bubbles. Shape the dough into bagels either by rolling out the dough and using a bagel cutter or dividing the dough into 12 pieces and shaping those pieces into bagels by hand. Either method works. Place your shaped bagels on a prepared baking sheet and cover. Set aside.


Heat oven to 375°F. Fill a small pot with water and add honey. Bring to a boil. Uncover bagels and boil them, one at a time, for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The longer you boil them the chewier the finished bagels will be. Place the boiled bagels back on the baking sheet. Use a pastry brush to lightly coat the bagels with the beaten egg.


Bake for 22 minutes, until bagels are golden brown. Remove immediately from baking tray and cool on wire racks. These bagels can be kept for up to 5 days in an airtight container.