Healthy Mini Whole Wheat Bagels

 
I’m partnering with Red Star Yeast^® to bring you today’s recipe! I’m the biggest fan of their products. They’re the only yeast products I use in my baking!

One Saturday during my senior year of college, after returning from a long run and showering, I headed into the kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal. I reached into the refrigerator first to grab the milk… And laughed when I remembered I had finished off the carton the morning before!  

I slipped into sandals and walked to the grocery store directly across the street from my apartment complex. (So convenient!) To get to the dairy section, I passed through the bakery, and I paused when I saw the baskets of freshly baked bagels. They looked really tempting!
 

 
A few minutes later, I left the grocery store with milk in one hand and a brown paper bag holding a multigrain bagel in the other. Back at home, I slid the milk into the refrigerator and settled into my favorite spot on the sofa with my bagel.

In my excitement, I had completely forgotten to consider buying cream cheese, so I tore off pieces from the bagel to eat plain instead. Soft chewy dough inside, a hint of a crust on the outside… I slowly savored every bite, and for a while, that became my new Saturday morning routine!
 

 
I’ve tried making my own bagels from scratch a few times since then, but none of them came close to tasting like those freshly baked bagels… Until I baked these Healthy Mini Whole Wheat Bagels! They have that same iconic bagel texture—soft and chewy insides, thin crust on the outside—and they’re just 49 calories!

Which means I’ve been known to eat a second… Or third… 😉
 

 
Nerd alert! I’m sharing all of my tips and tricks on how to make these healthy bagels! It looks like a LOT of information, but that’s just because I want to make sure you end up with the best whole wheat bagels in your kitchen too!

So let’s dive in! You just need 6 ingredients + water for this healthy bagel recipe. How simple is that? I bet you have most of those ingredients in your pantry already!
 

 
You’ll start by mixing together warm water, a teeny bit of olive oil, a small amount of pure maple syrup (like this!), and a dash of salt. Once the salt and syrup are fully dissolved, you’ll sprinkle instant yeast on top. I always use Red Star Yeast products! My favorite is their Quick Rise Yeast (this one!) because it performs so much better than any other brand I’ve tried, and my bagels (and bread and cinnamon rolls!) always turn out with the perfect texture every time.

Once the yeast looks fluffy, then you’ll stir in whole wheat flour and a hint of cinnamon. In my kitchen, I’ve found that this whole wheat flour works much better than other brands! When paired with Red Star yeast, all of my baked goods rise to double their original size. It’s like magic!

As for the cinnamon, it just adds a subtle warmth and fullness to the bagels’ flavor. I use that trick in my ultimate healthy whole wheat rolls too! This is my favorite cinnamon because it tastes really rich.
 

 
Now comes the first key step! You’re going to knead the dough until it’s stretchy and tacky. Unlike my cinnamon roll recipes, I actually recommend doing this with a machine, rather than by hand. It’s easy to over-knead cinnamon rolls and end up with dense treats, but extra kneading is actually the key to getting that perfectly chewy bagel texture!

I used my food processor and its dough blade attachment. My stand mixer is still in a box somewhere from when I moved… Oops! But a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer with a dough hook should work fine as well.

You’ll use your machine to knead for 4 minutes. At that time, turn it off and touch the dough. Is it sticky and still look a little wet? Add a bit more flour, and turn your machine back on for another minute. Check again—sticky or tacky?

It sounds strange reading that… But when you see and touch your dough, you’ll notice there’s a difference! Sticky = the dough is still wet and needs more flour. Tacky = the dough is taught, looks like there are super thin strands running through it (that’s the gluten and a good sign!), and barely clings to your fingers when you touch it. Tacky is the texture we’re aiming for!
 

 
Then shape your dough into a ball, roll it around in a lightly greased bowl, and put that in a warm place to rise until it’s about double in size. See how much it rose from the picture above to the picture below?
 

 
Time to shape your bagels! But first, another key step… Cut three sheets of foil about 4” to 5” wide, generously coat them with oil, and place them on a large baking sheet. You’re going to put your shaped bagels onto these foil sheets to let the bagels rise again.

The generous amount of oil prevents them from sticking when it’s time for the next step! If you forgot to oil the foil, then you’d have to tug to get the bagels off… And that tugging would cause them to deflate and turn out flat. Not good!

To form your mini whole wheat bagels, cut the dough into 3 segments. Working with 1 segment at a time, cut that segment into half, and cut both of those into 3 pieces. You should end up with 6 pieces of dough from each of those 3 original segments!

Roll each small piece into a ball, and tightly pinch the center with your thumb and forefinger to create a hole. Gently widen the hole until it’s between ½” and 1” wide. There’s your first mini bagel! Put it on the prepared foil, and continue with the remaining dough.
 

 
Time to let those healthy bagels rise! See how they puffed up from the picture on the left to the picture on the right?

One last key step! To get that classic bagel crust, you briefly boil the bagels before baking. Just 1 minute per side! Once the bagels have been boiled, they won’t rise or change their shape at all… So be very careful and gentle when peeling them off of the foil and putting them into the water!
 

 
You’ll also leave these in the oven a bit longer than most miniature baked goods. That’s because we want to get that nice crust on the outside! So set a timer, wait as patiently as possible, and…
 

 
Enjoy your well-deserved healthy bagels! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your bagels!

View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points

This post was sponsored by Red Star Yeast^®. As always, all text, photos, recipe, and opinions are my own.
 
 
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡  The Ultimate Healthy Whole Wheat Rolls
♡  The Ultimate Healthy Cinnamon Rolls
♡  Everything Bagel Quinoa Crackers
♡  Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte Cinnamon Rolls
♡  The Ultimate Healthy Monkey Bread
♡  Healthy Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls