Onion Poppy Bagels: Truth or Dare Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Each month a group  of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crafts projects, book review and/or a technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Truth or Dare.

There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here’s a peek at what we all came up with:

I made Onion Poppy Bagels.

Onion Poppy Bagels

"I dare you". Those are pretty scary words, especially coming from your kid. 

I talk to the boys often about this blog, whether to continue writing or if it's time to just let it go. The last time we spoke, I was met with a dare. "Try something outside your comfort zone, Mom, make it more of a challenge".

It's a funny statement coming from my sons. The recipes I develop changed quite a bit once they came along. Before kids, I was more adventurous with ingredients, but once I started cooking for a family, I had to make foods I ultimately thought I had a chance of them eating. So my recipes here have been less avant garde and more pedestrian. They are now grown adults, but they are here for dinner now and then and although their tastes have progressed, they are still rarely adventurous in the foods they are willing to try. And face it, who wants to put their heart and soul into a dish just to throw it out?

One thing I have tried, over and over again, and I have to admit, this is hardly an exotic ingredient, more something most people use fairly regularly, is making breads. The truth is, yeast hates me. We have a history, a longstanding war. I have won a battle or two, but the white flag clearly keeps ending up in my hand.

When the boys had the nerve to dare me to make a bread . . . well, what choice did I have. So for my truth or dare post, I made bagels. Did I cheat? Yes. But I still fulfilled the challenge of this group post.

There is a recipe going around the interwebs, a very popular one for 2 ingredient bagels. I started there, but made some adjustments in ingredients and in the baking. My recipe has just 7 ingredients, all of which I had in the house.

I mixed up the dough and unlike the recipes I'd seen, flavored it. I then kneaded and formed the bagels. Many recipes called for an egg wash, but I used melted butter. And although I used poppy seeds for our topping, since that is a favorite around here, next time I'll try a few different toppings including sesame seeds and dried minced onions.

I baked them in a hotter oven than the recipes I'd seen and this worked out perfectly for me.

Even though they smell delish baking, I let them cool completely before slicing.

 

They came out great, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Perfect.

We toasted ours, smeared with cream cheese and topped with some green onions.

Yes, I cheated. I didn't live up to the spirit of the dare. I did make a bread product, but I avoided using my nemesis ingredient. So for the purposes of this post I chose truth, admitting my ongoing, embarrassing defeat to a fungus. And, I made a delicious breakfast we all loved. Take that, yeast!

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Surviving the Beach with Kids.

 

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares her recipe for  Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce and Homemade Chocolate Whipped Cream.

Tamara of Part-Time Working Hockey Mom shares Truth or Dare, a handful of truths and dares:

Rabia of The Lieber Family Blog shares Dare to Wear:

Be sure to stop by again next month for more theme based projects.

Onion Poppy Bagels

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/8 cups flour, divided
2 1/4 tsp baking powder, divided
3/4 + 1/8 tsp salt
2 TBSP dried minced onions
1 cup unflavored Greek yogurt
1 TBSP butter
4 tsp poppy seeds

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt butter and set aside.
*Mix together 1/8 cup flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/8 tsp salt and spread over your kneading surface. 
*In a bowl, mix the remaining 1 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt with the 2 TBSP minced onions.
*Mix in the yogurt until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. Transfer to the prepared surface. Knead for 5 minutes. The dough will come together but still be sticky. Divide into quarters.
*Roll each dough quarter into about a 9 inch log. Form a circle and pinch the ends together. You will have to pinch one side, turn it over and pinch the other side a few times.
*Brush the tops with the melted butter and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.
*Place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Cool completely before serving.