Hold the Salt…please
So you like bagels but the doctor advises you to stay away from high sodium foods and cut down on your carbs - forget the bagels. I did a little research after a few customers requested that I make bagels without salt. Can this be done? Should this be done?
First, let’s look at the facts.
The average store bought bagel probably has less sodium than the New York Style Bagel. Thomas Bagels as well as Lenders hover around 410 mg while the very popular Ess a Bagel in New York boasts 800 mg of sodium. The beloved Bay Area Boichik bagel reports 570 mg per bagel. Please note these are plain bagels.
I looked at my existing recipe, one that been loosely based on several others from the King Arthur Baking School and I decided to get serious about sodium. So how much sodium is in a Sherry’s Bagel? Drum roll please………600 mg.
If you are on a low sodium diet, this is about one third of your daily sodium intake. (You can also think of it as one meal). I know what low sodium dieting is all about. My husband lived with kidney disease and I didn’t even have salt on the kitchen counter or dining room table. We found a variety of other spices, especially garlic and other herbs to lend flavor to the food. But salt does more than add flavor when we are talking about bagels.
According to the cooking experts with King Arthur Baking Company
Salt impacts the kneading process as well as flavor. What does salt do?
Controls the rate of yeast fermentation
Strengthens gluten
Improves crust color
The good news is that unlike a loaf of bread, the bagel process including the high gluten flour, overnight fermentation and boiling process mitigate some of the failures often found when baking bread with less salt.
What’s next? I plan to introduce a low-sodium (LS)bagel and reduce the salt- you be the judge. Order your bagels and let me know if you would like a low-sodium bagel. My LS bagels will have 450 mg of sodium, about 25% of the daily recommended intake for a low-sodium diet. I might even try reducing down to 300 mg.
If you are interested in LS bagels, please contact me for some free samples as I test these out.
