Staff Writer Jennifer Setek ’22

Original recipes by 

https://tasty.co/recipe/2-ingredient-dough-bagels

https://tasty.co/recipe/2-ingredient-dough-pretzels

Don’t we all love an easy way out? I know I definitely appreciate having a simple way to do a normally hectic activity at times, which is why making this 2 ingredient dough has almost changed my life. Normally while making a dough, it calls for many complicated, easy to mess up directions and somewhat irritating to use ingredients such as yeast. Instead of going through these frenetic steps and dealing with difficult ingredients to make your favorite recipes, such as bagels, and pretzels to pizza and cinnamon rolls, this stress free recipe has your back. 

For the dough you will need…

• 1 ¾ cups of self rising flour
• 1 cup of greek yogurt (preferably plain)
• 1 egg (for egg wash)

That is all! Instead around 13 that are in a regular bagel.

Now to make either of these recipes, they are necessarily the same steps, perhaps only a couple steps different.

For the bagels you…

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit 
• In a large bowl mix together the self rising flour and the greek yogurt until it holds its shape and forms into a ball
• Transfer the ball of dough onto a lightly floured surface and using your hands begin to flatten the dough, trying to shape it into a roughly 8 inch disk
• Using a knife, or truly any sharp cutting object such as a bench scraper, cut the dough evenly into 4 sections
• One at a time, roll each section of dough into a log shape, roughly around 8 inches long
• Take your log and shape it into a ring, trying your best to make sure the two ends are connected
• Transfer each ring onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
• Brush the top of each bagel with egg wash, and if you would like sprinkle with any of your favorite seasonings such as everything seasoning (I kept mine plain)
• Bake the bagels for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden brown

Now to make the pretzels you must…

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit
• Combine the self rising flour and greek yogurt in a large mixing bowl until it comes together to form a ball
• Transfer the ball of dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and use your hands to begin flattening and shaping the dough into roughly an 8 inch disk
• Using a sharp tool, such as a knife, cut the dough into 8 equal sections
• One at a time take each section and roll them into a roughly 14 inch log
• Take the end of the logs and twist them together, then take the twisted section and place it on the opposite end of the pretzel
• Transfer the pretzels onto a prepared baking sheet
• Brush the pretzels with egg wash and sprinkle salt over the top (or if you’d like cinnamon sugar)
• Bake the pretzels for 20 minutes, or until they are a deep golden brown

For the pretzels, to give them that more classic color and taste, you could try and first soak them in a bath of baking soda and water, which normally gives them a different appearance than regular dough.

Overall, I have very little to nothing to complain about with this recipe. It is super easy to make a quick batch of whatever dough required recipe you are planning on making. It takes so many less ingredients as well as less steps and time in the kitchen. It is a life saver when needing to make a quick appetizer, main course, or even dessert depending on what you decide to do with the dough, yet the possibilities are endless really. Because this recipe is so very simple, literally anyone can make it. It takes practically no skill, so it is worth giving it a go, and coming up with new ideas to use the dough, such as pizza “cinnamon” rolls, any sort of monkey bread, or rainbow dough recipes. The only thing I would watch out for while making this recipe, is making sure you have each ingredient correctly measured, and somewhat fresh. I only had access to whole wheat flour, which can (at times) require a different amount than regular flour. When combining the flour with the yogurt, I ended up having to put at least another spoonful of yogurt in in order to get it all to mix. When rolling out the dough, it sometimes had a hard time staying together, so at least for the pretzels I was not able to roll the log out to the full 14 inches, thereforth they look quite small. I believe this was mostly due to the whole wheat flour, so if you are planning on using a different kind of flour just be prepared for the dough to be a little bit tougher to work with. I realized the sticker the better in this case. 

How to make self rising flour…

Self rising flour is a mixture made up of regular flour, baking powder and salt. You can make your own by combining 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon fine salt.