To toast or not to toast (New York Bakery Plain Bagels)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	New York Bakery Plain Bagels
Date:	05/05/09 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tasty, make a change from bread, low in fat, high in fibre

Disadvantages: high in calories

Don't ask me how but the food fad that is bagels had previously managed to pass me by. I'm usually the first to try things out if they start appearing in the shops but I hadn't tried bagels until recently. The reason for this is the fact they are made with white flour, I don't eat much that contains white flour and prefer wholewheat items but this weekend I finally decided to give them a try.

New York Bagels currently sell for £1.13 for a pack of 5 from Tescos, they also stock the cinnamon and raisin version but as I had never tried them I decided to stick to the plain ones.

Bagels are a kind of bread, shaped like a doughnut with a hole in the centre, they are slightly sweeter than your usual white bread and heavier too. The outside is a kind of glazed light brown colour and smooth. Apparently the dough is boiled first which creates this outer coating then they are stonebaked to give them the colour.

Each bagel has the following nutritional statistics: 216 calories, 7.7g protein, 42.8g carbohydrates, 5.1g of which sugars, 1.6g of fat, 2.5g fibre. I was surprised to see they had 2.5g of fibre as I wasn't expecting there to be that much. I was also surprised to see how many calories are in a solitary bagel, they have sugar listed in the ingredients so this probably accounts for the high calories and the slightly sweet taste. They are low in fat though.

A quick word about the packaging, they come in a plastic bag exactly as the picture above and the ingredients and nutritional stats are on the wrapper underneath the bagels. The 5 bagels are stacked on top of each other. That's enough about packaging!

So what do you do with these doughnut shaped bread type things? Allegedly in the U.S there are differences of opinion about whether you should toast them or not. I read the bag and it recommended toasting them but the first one I had I wanted to spread low fat soft cheese on it and didn't want it toasted so I just had it as it was, sliced in half, with the topping spread on like a sandwich. Very tasty it was too!

The second one I had for breakfast and thought I'd try toasting it then adding a little bit of butter. You have to keep any eye on the coating when you toast them or it burns but once toasted and spread with butter it again tasted very nice.

But bagels really come into their own with things such as salmon and smoked ham. The third one I had with soft cheese and smoked ham sandwiched in between the two halves and that was delicious, absolutely gorgeous. The bagel stays firm and holds the filling really well and the slightly sweet taste alongside the cheese and ham makes a truly scrumptious snack.

The fourth one I had as it was, no toasting, no filling, just as it came from the pack with a cup of coffee and although they are a bit dry and stodgy like this it did the trick of filling me up for a few hours. I must point out I ate these four over four days and not all in one sitting to experiment!!

Would I buy them again? Yes I would. I like the firm texture, the doughnut shape means you use less filling than in a sandwich and the slightly sweet taste makes them a change from bread. The only downside for me is the amount of calories in each bagel but to be fair one would fill the majority of people up for a few hours so as long as you keep an eye on the filling they can easily be worked into your daily calories.

I recommend trying them at least once!

Summary: Try them for yourself