Wholemeal Bagels: Pesto Caprese

I really like wholemeal bagels, they are ideal for breakfast and you can use them as a take away food, whenever you want to. Today, I have prepared a delicious combination of these bagels, which is made with pesto sauce and mini Caprese salad. Believe me, it is a very tasty combination! You can buy some fresh bagels if they are made exclusively from wholemeal flour, but you can also make them according to my instructions. Bon appetite!

• Difficulty: Medium
• Category: Breads & Pastry, Breakfast & Brunch, Main Dishes, Miscellaneous, Snack, Vegetarian food

Ingredients

Pesto Sauce

• 1 cup of fresh basil leaves
• 2 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
• 50 g cashews
• 1/3 cup of grated parmesan
• 4 tbsp olive oil

Caprese

• 1 tomato for each bagel (sliced)
• 8-10 pieces of mozzarella or each piece

Bagels

• 500 g wholemeal flour
• 1 piece of yeast
• 1 cup of lukewarm water
• 2.5 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• few tbsp sesame (for sprinkling)
• 1 tbsp oats (or sprinkling)

Instructions

For the bagels

1. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour and salt).
2. Mix the yeast well in lukewarm water and immediately add it to the dry ingredients.
3. Knead the dough. Depending on the flour, you may need to add water or some more flour. You should get medium soft flour, as for bread.
4. Put 1 liter of water and 2 tablespoons of honey in a saucepan and let it heat up.
5. Shake the pretzels until the water starts to boil, without pre-soaking. Boil the pretzels in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes.
6. Take them out of the water and put them on a dry cloth to rest for about a minute or two, but not longer. If you leave them for too long, the sesame and oats in which you will roll them will not stick enough.
7. Roll the cooked bagels in sesame seeds and oats, then arrange them in a pan on a baking sheet.
8. Bake at 200 ° C in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes, until crispy. Be careful not to overcook them, because wholemeal dough does not have the same structure when it is very hot and when it cools down.

For the pesto sauce

9. Mash the cashews. Add the fresh basil leaves, parmesan, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and blend to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Add another tablespoon of oil and blend again. Add the third tablespoon of oil, blend again and your pesto sauce is ready.

Final preparation

10. Cut each bagel in half, and coat both halves with pesto sauce.
11. Arrange slices of tomato and pieces of mozzarella on the sauce, then finish with a little more pesto sauce for decoration.