The Blueberry 🫐 Life

I love a great blueberry bagel! I think this specific liking goes back to my childhood when my mom and I would have a kind of mother-son day and we would go to a local “bagelrie” that sold toasted blueberry bagels that would be served lathered in melted butter and a blizzard of powdered sugar. It was heaven! The tangy tartness of the blueberries, the sweetness of the powdered sugar and that wonderfully melted salty butter were a perfect combination!

I think that’s where my expectation of what a blueberry bagel ought to be originated. But what’s so cool about food is that food is really supposed to be an experience. Whether that experience is a multi-course meal with family and friends or a 30-second quasi-sacred moment cut out of your day it’s the experience with food that matters.

I want to make a blueberry bagel that captures for me the essence of what I loved as a kid having those butter-dripping powdered sugar blanketed toasted bites of heaven I used to have. I can’t recall the last time I had a truly great blueberry bagel. The ones from the store that come in a bag always have a weird stickiness and that faux freshness to them. They kinda smell like blueberry but the feel is just all off. Don’t tell me about the ones at the national franchise places. If it’s not the bready crumb on the inside that gets to me it’s the obvious lack of actual blueberries! I mean, yeah, they’re there . . . but like me in school they’re just not there-there.

TOB’s blueberry bagel is going to be a real treat. It’s going to be brimming with delicious blueberry flavor and blueberries. There will be blueberry powder, spiced simmered blueberries, and of course dehydrated & frozen blueberries that will all work together to create an amazing symphony of blueberry harmony! The dough itself will be accented with hints of citrus and orange zest. A gentle but noticeable accent of thyme is added to bring a hint of herbal tempering to help reign in the natural tartness of blueberries. But the pièce de résistance will be a cinnamon/blueberry with lavender and lemon zest sugar crisp topping. It’ll bring that harmonizing sweetness, crackling texture, and bring out the blueberry-ness of a bagel that deserves it! 🦦