These simple Weight Watchers gluten free bagels are made with just 5 simple ingredients and have only 3 SmartPoints each. Even if you’re not on (or even interested in) WW, you’re going to love how easy this dough is—and how it tastes!
These bagels have become Internet famous because they’re diet friendly, for sure. But the real reasons you’ll fall in love with them are the ease and the taste!
The perfect tang of Greek-style plain yogurt takes the place of an aged yeast bread dough and makes them super tender inside. They may not be classic New York-style dense and chewy bagels, but they’re in a class by themselves!
These Weight Watchers-style gluten free bagels are based upon the “2-ingredient Weight Watchers bagels” and pizza recipes that apparently took over Instagram at some point. Since I’m not active on Instagram at all (and mostly enjoy the photos of puppies and kittens and the occasional lifestyle bloggers whose life I simply cannot relate to but am fascinated by), I didn’t hear about these right away.
When they’re referred to as 2-ingredient bagels, it’s based on the ingredients’ being self-rising flour + fat-free Greek-style yogurt. If you’re in the U.K. (hello! 👋🏻), you most likely do have a self-rising gluten free flour blend in your arsenal, like Dove’s brand. If you do have that, try using it in place of the flour blend, baking powder, and salt below.
What’s with the Weight Watchers Recipes?
Each of these miniature bagels has about 2 1/2 SmartPoints (without the toppings), which I figure you have to round up to 3 SmartPoints but you can have 2 of them for 5. It’s like they’re on a two-fer sale! I care about things like that now a bit, and I thought you might, too. Here’s why…
When I first wrote my cookbook, Gluten Free Classic Snacks, I was intrigued by copycatting some Weight Watchers-style foods like their brownies. They were so good, but they weren’t available as gluten free, so I made them gluten free.
I have 3 children and although I’ve always been disgustingly naturally thin, I was never really quite the same after the third child—12 years ago. I’ve always hated it, but sort of chalked it up to early middle age and went on my way.
I also have 2 daughters, who are both rather naturally thin themselves, but I wasn’t raised with a healthy attitude toward food or weight or anything else really for that matter. I was terrified of my girls inheriting my somewhat distorted way of thinking, so I never complain about my body or my weight in front of them.
When a dear friend mentioned that she was on Weight Watchers for similar reasons to me (early middle aged, struggling to feel as good in her body as she always had), I thought I’d give it a try for a month. I literally haven’t mentioned a word of it my daughters, though. They never read the blog (too boring, I’m sure), so I figure I’m good.
Anyway, it turns out that I really really like it. I feel like I had half-heartedly tried every other “diet” (Paleo! keto! low carb!) over the last 12 years and nothing made a dent. Weight Watchers is not perfect, but I like the loose rules. They do most of the thinking for me. I like that. And it worked. I like that too!
Ingredients and substitutions
There are so few ingredients in this recipe that substitutions mostly come down to the flour blend used and the yogurt. The egg white and egg wash are really optional. Here are my tips:
Gluten free flour blend: I have only tried this recipe using Better Batter (the same as my mock Better Batter) and my Better Than Cup4Cup all purpose gluten free flour recipes. I’m planning to try variations on this dough made with Paleo flours, but I’m not there quite yet! I will be sure to keep you posted.
As always, I recommend you only use one of my recommended all purpose gluten free flour blends, either commercially available or homemade according to my DIY recipes. If you use a gritty rice flour blend or an unbalanced blend, the recipe just won’t likely turn out. All gluten free flour blends are not created equal.
Yogurt (dairy-free): I am happy to report that I have made this recipe successfully with dairy-free plain coconut milk yogurt. So Delicious makes a really great one and I find it at my local natural foods store.
Since the dairy-free variety was not a Greek-style yogurt, I found that I had to use 1 1/4 cups (175 g) of the all purpose gluten free flour blend, and did not add the egg white. The bagels browned a bit less (a function of the dairy-free yogurt, I believe), and the dough was a bit harder to handle (a function of the extra moisture). But the taste and overall texture were great. In addition, since the dairy-free plain yogurt was not fat-free, you’d have to recalculate the SmartPoints value.
If you can only use a plain yogurt of any kind that isn’t Greek-style, you can either add 1/4 cup (35 g) more all purpose gluten free flour or strain the yogurt until it’s thick enough to be Greek-style. Then, measure out 1 cup (245 grams) of the thicker yogurt and 1 cup (140 grams) of the flour blend.
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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Mine are in the oven now and smell great! I added the baking powder with the salt, but that step seems to be missing from the directions (or I need new glasses ☺). Can’t wait to try one! They were super quick and easy to pull together without waking the household. Thank you Nicole! Looking forward to my Sunday morning coffee and a BAGEL!!
Oh my gosh, Jean, I’m afraid I didn’t include when to add the baking powder in the directions! You are of course right, that it goes in with the salt. I’ve edited the recipe now. As many times as I review my work, something like that always seems to sneak through every now and again. Thank you for catching it. And I’ll think of you this Sunday morning, enjoying your alone time with coffee and a bagel—and maybe the newspaper? ;)
Looked at the recipe and was initially skeptical. Will this really work? But went to work. Pleasantly surprised at how easily it went together. Being lazy and not wanting to make a mess, instead of kneading on a floured board, I used a muffin-size scoop and scooped them onto a sheet of wax paper. Must have been a good size as I got exactly 6. Then using latex gloves and a little flour, I kneaded each blob in my hands, formed it, made the hole and put it onto the parchment paper lined pan. Into the oven. I didn’t use an egg wash or toppings..just naked. They rose nicely, looking a little bumpily but ever so cute and came out great. I did find that with just a little margarine, they had a great texture but the tanginess of the yogurt came through in flavor. Do think adding a tablespoon of sugar would counteract this and still work?
The tanginess of the yogurt is what makes these bagels have depth of flavor, Shirlea, so I’m afraid I haven’t given any thought to what might camouflage that! Maybe you’d like to try my Paleo bagels instead? Just use the search function.
Only problem is that they’re so good it’s hard to eat just one. Thank you!!
I know, Julie! They’re low in points, but they aren’t zero so they do require some moderation. :)