French Toast Flavored Bagels

This is a post for everyone who loves bagels and Panera. I have recently been introduced to Paneras French Toast Bagel. It is not done like french toast, it just tastes like french toast. And it is highly addictive. I find myself dropping off the kids and driving to Panera just for the bagel and a glass of tea more often than i should. And while sometimes I get the bagel for free and sometimes I get the tea for free it is not as cheap as eating at home. So I got to wondering if I could make a bagel that tasted like Paneras cheaper. So I started my bagel hunt. Youd be suprised how many recipes pop up for bagels done french toast still rather than french toast tasting bagels. I finally settled on a basic recipe and then did some additional tweaking.

Bagel:
1pkg dry yeast
2 1/4c warm water
1/4c sugar
6-7c bread flour
1T cinnamon
1T salt
1T vegetable oil
1T maple syrup
1 egg, beaten

Combine water, 1T sugar, and yeast in a small bowl and mix together. Let sit for at least 10 minutes until yeast begins to foam.

In a large bowl combine flour, salt, remaining sugar, and cinnamon. Make a well and add the yeast mixture, vegetable oil, vanilla, and maple syrup. Once mixed knead together for 10 minutes until it forms a smooth ball. Place in a well oiled bowl and cover with a towel to keep from drying out. Let it rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

French Toast Paste
1 1/2T cinnamon
4T brown sugar
1/2T nutmeg
1t vanilla
maple syrup

Mix together the cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg together. Pour in some maple syrup until your mixture forms a thick slightly crumbly paste. Add in your vanilla and mix together well. Set aside until time to use.

Punch down your risen dough and divide into 3 equal parts. Take each third and divide into 5 equal parts. You may get more or less depending on how equal your parts turn out. Even if you have the exact number of balls and I did they may be different sizes. So do whatever you like the best. Take the 5 equal parts and on each piece of dough place a tablespoon of the french toast paste on the ball.

Knead together and form into a ball. Take your thumb and make a hole in the center. You may want to fold the dough through the center of the hole to get a better look. Place on a lined baking sheet. Once you have done this with all 15 pieces cover with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

Take a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add 2T honey to the water. Place 1-2 bagels into the boiling water and let cook for 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Flip it over and cook another 45-60 seconds. Remove from water and place on a greased cookie sheet. Continue with remaining bagels.

Take your egg and if you want a slightly sweet top then add 1T or more of maple syrup or honey to the egg. Brush each bagel top with the egg wash mixture. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the bagels are browned.

At this point any unwanted bagels should be placed in a freezer bag and frozen until ready to eat. These will last for 6 months if sealed well. Take baked bagels not to be frozen and slice in half and toast. Eat with cream cheese.

The verdict? They were good. I wish I had added more of the french toast paste to each bagel. There was a small vein of the paste running through each bagel but not enough for my tastes. So next time I will add more. Perhaps I should have just add everything into the bagel and not done the paste separately but I like the looks of veins of flavor running through breads, I just wish there had been more flavor veins. but overall I am very happy with my bagels. I cannot wait to finish these and make different flavors. So if you like bagels like I do and want to experiment with flavors not found in grocery stores then try this. And enjoy!!