Photo courtesy of Joans' GF Greatbakes
When I ate gluten, the only bagels I had came from Panera Bread in Atlanta. I never bought bagels from the store, but did love my Cinnamon Crunch bagel every so often. The bagel has a crunchy, cinnamon and sugar coating on the top. It’s the one thing I can think of, that I’ve never bothered to try and recreate a gluten-free version of. Most things I can just buy, and creating recipes is not my thing anyway.
While writing a review of the new Italian bread from Joan’s GF Greatbakes, I had the idea to take a cinnamon raisin bagel (Joan’s of course) and try and make my beloved once-in-a-while treat from Panera Bread. I popped a bagel in the oven and started mixing up a butter, cinnamon and sugar mixture. The butter was softened but not melted.
When the bagel was within five minutes of being done, I took it out of the oven, slathered my coating mixture all over it and put it back in the oven to finish baking. The smell itself reminded me of the Panera bagel, but of course the taste was what really mattered. The bagel had to cool for a bit as it does not cut well hot. When it was finally cool enough to slice, I put cream cheese on it and hoped for the best.
To say my bagel experiment was a success is an understatement. The results were more wonderful than I would have thought possible going in. Not only did it taste pretty much like the Panera bagel, it tasted even better than I remember the gluten version tasting!
My husband is not a huge bagel person. In fact, he never ate gluten bagels when I did. However, he smelled the bagel baking and wanted to have a taste for himself. I only made one bagel, but I was kind enough to give him two bites of it. He thought it was delicious and for someone who is not a bagel (or even a bread person), this is quite remarkable.
If you don’t have Joan’s bagels, but have another one you like (Kinnikinnick, Glutino, or Everybody Eats for instance), you should be able to make a Cinnamon Crunch bagel of your own. There is one gluten-free bagel that has a cheesy taste to it (Against the Grain, I think) and I do not think that would make a good Cinnamon Crunch bagel. Any plain or cinnamon bagel should work fine though.
If you make your own Cinnamon Crunch bagel, please let us know which gluten-free bagels you made it with.
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