Bagel Bites

I'm a bargain shopper. I love deals which I get from my Dad. When I was a child we would go shopping at Safeway on Saturdays and he would give me coupons and I would run around trying to find the items. He trained me at a young age to be frugal and so here I am today. There was cream cheese marked down at the grocery store by my house and I thought that would be perfect to use in bagel bites from the-baker-chick. Not making the cream cheese would simplify the whole process, and I was able to whip them up in the morning before meeting up with my parents to assist with Easter Dinner.

Bagel Bites:
adapted from thebakerchick

filling:
one container light cream cheese ( I used vegetable)

dough:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups water
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I forgot to put oil in.)

scoop out 16 balls of cream cheese on to a pan and place in freezer.
In a bowl combine flour, salt and yeast.
pour in water and oil and mix until a shaggy dough is formed.
on a floured surface knead dough for about 8 minutes. You may need to add more flour to form it to the texture that is needed. when done kneading the dough should be smooth, slightly sticky and come back when poked.
place in a bowl and cover. let rise for 45 mins.

preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
once risen remove from bowl onto a lightly floured surface.
cut the dough into 16 pieces.
form each piece into a round disk about 3 inchs in diameter.
place frozen ball of cream cheese in center of each dough disk.
bring sides of dough around cream cheese and pinch. roll dough in your hands to form a nice smooth bun shape and place on a parchment lined pan.
now you can brush with butter or egg and sprinkle with your desired toppings.
-my dough was sticky, probably stickier then it should have been so I just took each ball and dipped it in a small amount of chili pepper flakes and they stuck just fine.
bake the bagel bites for 20-30 mins. until golden and cream cheese starts to burst out.
once they are done, you can allow them to cool slightly and try to tuck the cream cheese back in or just leave as is.

I think my dough ended up being too sticky, and I think I may have not formed the dough even enough around the cream cheese thus allowing them to explode prematurely. Even though they aren't super pretty, they still taste pretty damn great. Being a person who doesn't eat bagels or cream cheese all that often I found these to be just perfect for me.