Gluten Free Bagel Chips

Did you ever wonder what it would take to make your own bagel chips from scratch and sell them for a profit? Ask El Smith founder of El's Kitchen and you quickly learn that it's not as simple as selecting some of your favorite bagels at the market, slicing them thin, and placing them in the oven until they're crisp...especially if you want them to taste good after being free of the top 8 allergens, made of whole grain at 100 or fewer calories per serving, and baked not fried.

El's Snaps stemmed from her own unsuccessful search for tasty snacks to serve her dinner party guests suffering from Celiac disease. She knew all too well that this affliction is much more than a food allergy and when left untreated can result in osteoporosis, thyroid disease, infertility, and cancer. Her Snaps result from her personal philosophy of accepting no reason to settle for a flavorless life just because your body rejects gluten.

"When we started making our bagel chips, we looked at others on the market but their texture was more like a crouton", says El. "Then we sliced and baked commercially available gluten-free bagels...with poor results." El and her partner Jo Burley started playing around in the kitchen with gluten free flours and baking their own bagels. Their winning recipe emerged from a long string of trials and errors including a couple of kitchen disasters.

After tasting both their Simply Sea Salt and Cinnamon & Sugar Snaps, I noticed that despite being gluten free, they had a true bagel chip texture. And herein lies El's secret, "Because there's no gluten in our dough, we need to give our Snaps more time to rise before baking to achieve their light and crunchy texture. After being slowly baked and cooled, they need to sliced and baked again."