Stuffed Bagel Balls

These stuffed bagel balls are baked till golden with lovely cream cheese inside, topped with everything bagel seasoning. 

During the pandemic, I’ve been borrowing e-books like crazy through the Libby app, which allows you to add a number of library cards and search for books in your own local libraries. I have three cards, two here in Texas and one in the UK so I have had a wide variety of books to choose from. 

One of my recent loans was the cookbook Family Meal, published to raise money for the Restaurant Workers’ Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund. Since I didn’t buy the book I made a donation but I wanted to tell you about it, in case any of my readers might want to buy one. Or to make a donation to the fund, click here. 

Each recipe is preceded by a personal introduction from the chef or bakers and I really enjoyed getting to know many of whom I had never heard like Dominque Crenn, Gina Homolka and Sam Sifton and many I already love/admire like Ruth Reichl, Kwame Onwauchi, Ina Garten and Eric Ripert, among others. 

Stuffed Bagel Balls 

This recipe is based on the one Gina Homolka shared for her family’s favorite Bantam Bagel balls which she says they normally buy at their neighborhood Starbucks or in the freezer section at their local supermarket. I've never tried to buy them so I cannot verify this but she says they are often out of stock. No more worries when you can make them at home! I don't know about you but I almost always have these ingredients on hand as well. 

Ingredients

4 oz or 113g cream cheese in a block

1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading, dusting, etc. 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

3/4 teaspoons fine sea salt 

1 cup or 245g non-fat Greek yogurt   

For topping: 

1 egg white, beaten

Everything bagel seasoning

Method

Chill the cream cheese block in the freezer for about 15 minutes and then cut it into 8 even pieces. Pop it back in the freezer while you make the dough.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk well. Add the yogurt to the flour mixture. 

Use a fork and a light touch to gradually mix the flour into the yogurt. Gina says you'll get small crumbles but mine was wetter and more clumpy than that. 

Use a small strainer or sieve to lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out on it. 

Knead the dough, sprinkling with flour as needed when it gets too sticky. You want a smooth dough without lumps. Cut the dough into 8 pieces of equal size. I am a electronic scale user so I weighed the whole ball of dough and then I calculated how heavy each piece should be when divided by eight. Or you can eyeball it, your call. Roll each piece into a ball. 

Remove the cream cheese from the freezer and use clean damp hands to roll each piece into a ball or at least a cube with rounded corners. Return to the freezer. 

Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner. 

Flatten one ball of dough into a circle about 3 1/2 in or 9cm and then put one ball (or rounded lump, if we are being realistic) of cream cheese in the middle. 

Pull the sides of the circle up to cover the cream cheese and pinch the dough to seal it well. 

Roll it between your hands gently and place it sealed side down on the prepared baking pan. Repeat the process with the other seven dough/cream cheese balls.

Finally, use a pastry brush to brush the balls with the beaten egg white and sprinkle liberally with the everything bagel seasoning. I am a "the more toppings the better" kind of person. If I'd thought I could get away with rolling them in the egg wash and then the seasoning, I'd have totally tried it. In retrospect, that would have worked, so you do you. Next time! 

Tip: If you have an extra (read: clean/dry) pastry brush, use it to sweep up the seasonings on the pan from time to time so you can reuse it for sprinkling. This avoids waste but also stops all the toppings from burning on the pan, which no one wants. 

Bake the bagel balls for about 22 to 25 minutes, or until golden, turning the pan 180° midway through so the bagel balls brown evenly.

Let them cool for at least 10 minutes.  Then enjoy! 

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, so that means it’s time for a Foodie Extravaganza party. As you might guess from the list below, our theme is all things bagel. Many thanks to this month’s host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Bagels and Lox on the Casual Side by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chicken Donut Kebab Bagel Sandwich by Sneha's Recipe
• Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole by Making Miracles
• Everything Bagel Seasoning & Avocado Topped Bagels by Palatable Pastime
• Marbled Rye Bagels by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Piquant Veggie Bagel Spread by Magical Ingredients
• Stuffed Bagel Balls by Food Lust People Love
• Za'atar-Dusted Bagels by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board

Pin these Stuffed Bagel Balls!

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Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery #FoodieExtravaganza

Bacon ranch stuffed celery is an easy appetizer that satisfies our need for crunch! And who doesn’t love cream cheese seasoned with loads of bacon, chives, parsley and plenty of black pepper? It makes the perfect filling for celery, not to mention baked potatoes.

As a child, my favorite dressing was always thousand island because I loved its creaminess with just a bit of bite. As I got older, I taught myself to love blue cheese dressing. Not sure exactly where I got the idea, but I decided it was more sophisticated than thousand island and that I should like it.

Every week in my high school cafeteria the menu seldom varied. Thursday was rigatoni day. It was our favorite meal of the week. Big rigatoni pasta with Bolognese sauce and a side salad. Despite not liking blue cheese, that’s the dressing I chose week after week, until sometime in the middle of possibly sophomore year, I actually really liked it. Yeah, I know, I’m weird. Blue cheese became my favorite.

Until 🎵dum dum da dum 🎶 RANCH DRESSING entered my consciousness. I first tried it at a Texas buffet restaurant I adored called Souper Salad, where one could fill one’s plate with salad ingredients too numerous to count, along with myriad toppings, like crumbled bacon and cheeses, sliced boiled eggs and sunflower seeds. The vats of dressing were enormous, like the ice cream tubs in the cooler at Baskin Robbins. They also served soup and some of the best cornbread on the planet.

After that, I wanted ranch on All The Things. And possibly some crumbled blue cheese.

Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery

Sure, you could just dip your celery sticks in ranch dressing but my way is much more delicious. Mix the ranch flavors into cream cheese and stuff the celery full. It doesn’t drip off on your shirt like dip does and it’s more delicious to boot.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 thick slices bacon, fried till crispy, crumbled
8 oz or 226g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup or 60ml mayonnaise
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives/green onion tops
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt, to taste
8 ribs celery (mine were about 8 in or 20cm long)

Method
Put the minced garlic in a large bowl and add in the lemon juice. Set aside for 10 minutes. This mellows the garlic so it isn’t as sharp but it’s still got plenty enough garlicky flavor.

Use a fork to mash the room temperature cream cheese into the lemon juice and garlic.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Taste and add salt if needed. With the cream cheese, bacon and mayonnaise, all of which are salty, you probably won’t need much, if any at all. I don't usually add any.

Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow the flavors to meld.

Use a plastic bag with the corner cut off or a pastry bag to pipe a healthy amount of the filling into your cleaned celery ribs. Run the tines of a fork over the top to score the filling and gently push it into the celery so it won’t fall out.

Cut your celery into 2 inch or 5cm lengths and arrange them on a serving plate.

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are celebrating National Celery Month by sharing our favorite recipes with celery. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the great recipes:

• Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery from Food Lust People Love
• Braised Celery Over Cheesy Polenta from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Celery Leaf Pesto from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Homemade Celery Salt from Sneha's Recipe
• Italian Celery and Mushroom Salad from Making Miracles
• Shaved Celery and Apple Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Shaved Celery Salad with Sauteed Scallops from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

Pin this Bacon Ranch Stuffed Celery!

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Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins #MuffinMonday

These fluffy lemon cream cheese muffins are the perfect breakfast or teatime treat, with just the right amount of sweetness to balance the zippy lemon juice and lush cream cheese.

If you have only ever lived in one place, you might be amazed at the disparity of ingredients that exists from one country to the next. I’m not talking about specialty items either but things we completely take for granted in one place, that is unavailable in another.

When we were living in France, for example, I had no problems at all finding whole fat yogurt for our infant and toddler who, since they were younger than two years old still needed the milk fat for brain growth. Or so said the nutritional authorities at the time. But when we were on holiday visiting family in Houston, all the yogurt seemed to be low fat.

The reverse is true of firm cream cheese in blocks. They are standard in every American grocery store but many places overseas, for instance here in the Channels Islands, cream cheese comes in tubs and is whipped, completely unsuitable for recipes calling for normal cream cheese.

I get around these problems by having a shopping list for every country I travel to. In Malaysia, I buy crispy chili prawn paste, dried shrimp, good morning towels, Chinese sausage, curry powder and chili pork, just for a start.

In the US, there are many items on my list, which includes but is not limited to smoked sausage, dried black beans, Jif peanut butter, microwave popcorn, Crystal Light lemonade mix, Aunt Jemima Butter Light syrup, Karo, pecans and Crisco. You get the idea.

Recently we took the ferry to France and the shopping list was long! Wine, cheese, duck confit and saucisson, of course, but also practical things like rubbing alcohol, concrete nails and our favorite mayonnaise by Lesieur. Also on the list was cream cheese in blocks! Just so I could make these muffins.

What do you haul home from your travels, whether abroad or from another city or county close by? Extra points if it’s an ingredient I’ll then feel the need to add to my shopping list!

Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins

Fresh lemon juice and zest are preferable but if all you’ve got is lemon juice in a bottle, make these muffins anyway. They’ll still be delightful.

Ingredients
2/3 cup or 132g sugar
Zest 1 lemon
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice
2 eggs
5 1/3 oz or 150g cream cheese

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by lightly brushing it with oil or lining it with silicone muffin cups.  When I am baking with cheese, I find it’s best not to use paper muffin liners because the cheese can stick to it. If you have a non-stick muffin pan, that would be ideal.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your sugar and lemon zest. Set aside a rounded tablespoon of the lemon sugar for topping.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the sugar bowl and mix thoroughly.

In another smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, lemon juice and eggs.

Cut the cream cheese into cubes and add them to the flour mixture. Stir gently to coat the cubes so they don’t stick together.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and fold until just combined. A little flour might still show.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups and top with the reserved lemon zest sugar.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Check out all the delicious muffins my Muffin Monday friends are sharing today:

• Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Peach Zucchini Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Sourdough Oatmeal Raisin Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Zucchini Morning Glory Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

Pin these Lemon Cream Cheese Muffins! 

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