I have spent many years of my life like many other New Yorkers: traveling to work in the early morning, stopping at my corner bagel shop. My order?
An everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese and sliced tomato. Sometimes a sunflower seed bagel, if I’m feeling wild.
If you also are from New York, you know that we take our bagels seriously. There are heated debates going on even at this very second about who makes the best bagel. Will we ever know the real answer? No. But here’s what we do know:
Put a bagel in front of us from a chain coffee store or a supermarket and we are nothing short of angry and offended.
That being said, I am a New Yorker who is heading down South. So what do I do?
I create the most amazing thing that satisfied even my incredibly-picky-bagel-loving self.
A grilled flatbread that is dense and chewy enough to pass as New York bagel innards, smothered in toasted everything seasoning, schmeared with homemade vegetable scallion cream cheese, and slices of juicy sweet tomato.
Heaven? Is that you?
This flatbread recipe was inspired and developed from Mark Bittman’s Lebanese Flatbread base. Mark uses za’atar to season his distinct dish, from The Minimalist column of the New York Times. I however, swapped the za’atar for Everything But the Bagel seasoning and added a bit more flour when kneading in the final stage, in order to make the dough more reminiscent of my favorite chewy bagel.
My “homemade” vegetable cream cheese isn’t homemade in the sense that I milked a cow this morning, and used the necessary procedure to create cream cheese. I bought a good quality non-whipped cream cheese, and mixed in my favorite farm stand veggies. Don’t wait to make this one, it’s a game changer.
Let’s get started. You will need for the flatbread:
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup warm water
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons everything but the bagel seasoning
For the cream cheese:
1 package thick good quality cream cheese
2 thin scallions, whites and greens roughly chopped
1/2 small garlic clove, chopped
1 small bell pepper, large chop
5 or 6 basil leaves, ripped or chopped
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
optional: 1 carrot, chopped
I begin with the cream cheese. The longer it sits in the refrigerator, the better the flavor becomes. I made the carrot optional because I am topping this flatbread with tomatoes. Carrots tend to make the cream cheese not only orange, but also sweet. I did not want the sweetness to be in the cream cheese because it was going to be from the beautiful tomatoes. Make sense?
Topping with lox, or leaving plain? Add the carrot!
In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients. Pulse until combined but vegetables still are a bit chunky. Let sit in the fridge until ready to use.
Did your cream cheese separate, or look grainy? It’s possible the water content in the vegetables separated the fat in the cream cheese. Do. Not. Worry. Simply whip until it begins to come back together, OR, my favorite option, don’t worry about it because it still tastes like a dream.
For the flatbread combine the yeast, sugar, salt, and water. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add in 3 cups of the flour, and mix until combined. If it is too dry, add warm water 1 tablespoon at a time until it is incorporated. I eyre on the wetter side for this flatbread, because I like to add a bit of flour in the last stage.
Cover with a towel, and let sit in a warm spot for an hour.
Once it has doubled in size, cut the dough into 3 equal pieces.
Using the other 1/2 cup of flour, knead each piece dough into a light, soft ball. The top should be completely smooth and not sticky.
Heat your grill until you can only leave your hand 2 inches over the grate for a couple seconds.
As if you were making a pizza, start pressing the center of each dough ball until it begins to flatten, working your way out towards the edges. Pick up the flatbread and begin to stretch it and rotate until it is about 1/4 inch thick all the way throughout.
Brush a bit of olive oil on each side of the bread, and grill. You know the bread is ready to flip when you see browning around the edges. Flip and cook through on the other side.
Once cooked, remove from the grill and top with the Everything Bagel Seasoning.
Serve this flatbread in the same style as you’d serve the most incredible cheese board…
Slather it with the cream cheese, and top with juicy tomatoes. Or leave it as a DIY situation.
Basically any way you make this, it’s going to be the highlight of everyone’s morning.
Everything Bagel Flatbread with Homemade Vegetable Cream Cheese and Tomatoes
See that schmear? That’s what it’s about.
My New York self is weeping with joy knowing I can now have what satisfies my bagel craving in any state we land.