Looking for a fantastic bagel for Valentine's Day? Try these Heart Shaped Bagels! Fun to make, cute to serve, fun to eat - and tasty!
These heart shaped Valentine’s Day bagels are a nicely sweet bagel, with a hint of vanilla.
The hot pink food colouring we used - and the heart shape itself - made them a fun departure from my normal bagel making, which seldomly involves fun colours or shapes!
We topped these homemade bagels with pearl sugar, which gives you a nice burst of crunchy sweetness as you’re eating it - more on that in a bit, though!
Anyway the flavour of these heart shaped bagels works really well with either a plain cream cheese, or pretty much any “sweet” flavour of cream cheese spreads.
We tend to go with plain and slice up some strawberries on top, but a strawberry or raspberry cream cheese would also be really nice.
If you’re looking for a fun, themed breakfast for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or a wedding anniversary, you should definitely consider making a batch of these!
Let’s get to it...
Ingredients
This recipe uses only a handful of really simple ingredients. You likely already have all of them, if you do much baking at all!
The basics you will need:
All Purpose Flour
Granulated Sugar
Active Dry Yeast
Pure Vanilla Extract
Salt
.... not much to say, here!
There are two other ingredients that I’d like to talk about, though:
Food Coloring
You’ll need some food colouring if you want to tint your bagels pink. Food coloring comes in 3 main formats:
Liquid food coloring: Generally found in the baking aisle at the grocery store.
Paste food coloring: Usually Wilton brand, you can find this style in craft supply stores and cake decorating supply shops.
Gel food coloring: Comes in a few brands, also found in the larger craft supply chains (sometimes), and in cake decorating shops.
I always use gel colors, as they give the most intense colour, without adding a ton of liquid. This is especially important when dealing with baked goods.
Specifically, I recommend Americolor (what I used when I was in the USA), or ChefMaster (Which is the option more readily available here!).
It is MUCH easier to get uniform colour if you introduce the food colouring with the other liquid, right up front - so try to use as much food colouring as you think you’ll need.
If you have to add it after the dough has come together, it’ll need a LOT more kneading... and may still not come out totally even!
Coarse Sugar
I like to have some coarse sugar - generally sold as Pearl Sugar - on hand at all times.
It’s a fun finishing ingredient for a lot of baked goods - you’ll probably be most familiar with its use on things like my Homemade Apple Turnovers, or on some of the muffins you can buy in bakeries.
I use it on things like my Gingerbread Scones and even sprinkled on my Perfect Pie Crust sometimes. It brings a nice, sweet crunch to whatever you sprinkle it on.
When it comes to bagels, I use it in place of coarse salt, when making certain sweet bagels - you may have seen it on my Gingerbread Bagels or Banana Nut Bagels, before this recipe.
Because it’s more of a garnish - and not structural - you can definitely skip it, if needed.
How to Make Heart Shaped Bagels
The full recipe follows - in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here is a pictorial walk through:
Make the Dough
Measure warm water into a glass measuring cup or bowl. Stir in sugar and yeast, allow to stand for 10 minutes – it should get very bubbly.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Pour in yeast mixture, vanilla extract, and some food colouring stir well to combine.
Alternatively, use a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 7 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
Once dough is fully kneaded, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for one hour, or until doubled in size.
Form the Bagels
Once dough has doubled in size, divide it out.
We divided the mixture into 8 equally sized balls, for medium-large bagels – but you can make them smaller or larger by dividing into 12, 10, or 6 equal sized pieces.
There are two main ways of forming bagels – with roll each lump of dough into a thick “snake” and secure the ends together, or roll each lump into a smooth ball before poking a finger though.
Once you have a hole made, stretch the ring of dough out a bit to enlarge the hole. Personally, I prefer the latter.
Directly across from that indent, pinch the outer edge of the bagel to form a peak - forming a heart shape, in the process.
Repeat with remaining bagels, then set them on lined baking sheets to rise for another 10 minutes.
Boil and Bake!
Preheat oven to 350F.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then turn heat down a little, allowing water to simmer rather than boil.
2 or 3 at a time, drop your bagels into the simmering water, allow to cook for 1 minute, then flip each and allow to cook for another minute.
Drain well, place on a lined baking sheet, and sprinkle generously with coarse sugar.
Bake for 35-40 minutes if you made 8 bagels. Otherwise, aim for 32-35 minutes (small) or 40-42 mins (large), until golden brown.
Allow to cool slightly before cutting. Serve with cream cheese, jam, and/or fresh fruit.
Leftovers
Leftovers can be cooled to room temperature before being stored in an airtight container - we like freezer bags - in the fridge for up to 5 days.
They’ll still be ok after 5 days, they just won’t taste as fresh.
More Valentine's Day Ideas
Looking to do something a bit different for Valentine's Day? Here are a few ideas!
6 Inch Cheesecake
Baklava Cheesecake
Balsamic Mushroom Baked Brie
Booze Bouquet Tutorial
Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova
Chocolate Ravioli
Dark Chocolate Truffles
Deviled Strawberries
Fondant Chocolate Leaves Cake Tutorial
Heart Shaped Beer Pretzels with Jalapeno Jack Dip
Heart Shaped Pavlova
Mini Eclairs
Mushroom Goat Cheese Braid
Pepper Crusted Tuna with Wasabi Cream Sauce
Phyllo Crab Triangles
Red Velvet Bagels
Red Velvet Brownies
Savory Tomato Shortcake
Traditional Raspberry Mousse
Valentine's Day Deviled Eggs
Special Diet Treats
Need it gluten free* or low carb? Check out these Valentine's Day recipes on my other blogs:
Gluten-Free Crab Cakes
Gluten Free Crepes
Gluten-Free Fried Brie
Heart Fruit Skewers with Raspberry Cheesecake Dip
Keto Creme Brulee
Low Carb Chocolate Mousse
Keto Crab Cakes
Low Carb Tiramisu
Keto Cheesecake
Seafood Cobb Salad
* Some of the recipes in the first link section are inherently gluten free, too!
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense. Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Finally, if you love this recipe, please consider leaving a star rating and/or a comment below, and maybe even sharing this post on social media!
Heart Shaped Bagels
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups warm - not hot - water
- ⅔ cup Granulated Sugar
- 4 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
- 3 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- Pink Gel Food Colouring
- Coarse sugar Pearl Sugar
Instructions
- Measure warm water into a glass measuring cup or bowl. Stir in sugar and yeast, allow to stand for 10 minutes – it should get very bubbly.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Pour in yeast mixture, vanilla extract, and some food colouring stir well to combine.
- Dump dough out onto a floured surface, knead until soft and elastic, 5-10 minutes.
- Alternatively, use a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 7 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
- Once dough is fully kneaded, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for one hour, or until doubled in size.
- Once dough has doubled, punch it down, and divide it out.
- We divided the mixture into 8 equally sized balls, for medium-large bagels – but you can make them smaller or larger by dividing into 12, 10, or 6 equal sized pieces.
- There are two main ways of forming bagels – with roll each lump of dough into a thick “snake” and secure the ends together, or roll each lump into a smooth ball before poking a finger though. Once you have a hole made, stretch the ring of dough out a bit to enlarge the hole. Personally, I prefer the latter.
- Once you have all of your bagels formed, use a chopstick to make a hard indent from the side of a bagel.
- Directly across from that indent, pinch the outer edge of the bagel to form a peak - forming a heart shape, in the process.
- Repeat with remaining bagels, then set them on lined baking sheets to rise for another 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then turn heat down a little, allowing water to simmer rather than boil.
- 2 or 3 at a time, drop your bagels into the simmering water, allow to cook for 1 minute, then flip each and allow to cook for another minute.
- Drain well, place on a lined baking sheet, and sprinkle generously with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes if you made 8 bagels. Otherwise, aim for 32-35 minutes (small) or 40-42 mins (large), until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
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