[Instant Pot] Defrost a Frozen Bagel

[theinfamousj]

There are many ways to defrost frozen bagels and using your Instant Pot to do it seems very cumbersome. But me being me, I've been in a situation where I had my Instant Pot to cook with and nothing else, namely: travel.



You see, when I cannot arrange a HospEx homestay through CouchSurfing or BeWelcome, I'll stay in a hotel that might or might not have a microwave. So I always bring my Instant Pot. I also bring an extremely good cooler with dry ice in so that I can keep frozen foods frozen, and bagels as well as some of my earlier mentioned portioned meals are usually enjoying the dry-ice chill.

So aside from taking a bagel out and leaving it on the counter overnight (which you know I don't do because I'm not one for thinking ahead), I figured out how to do it perfectly in an Instant Pot.

Ingredients/Materials

• 1 bagel, frozen
• 1-2 c water
• Instant Pot steamer rack
• covered, pressure safe container for pot-in-pot cooking (I personally have this one)
• Instant Pot

Procedure

1. Put the steamer rack into the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
2. Put an aliquot of water (something between 1 and 2 cups) into the inner pot of the Instant Pot. Anything less than 1 cup and the Instant Pot won't work, and anything over 2 cups and it will be taller than the steamer rack. I usually don't have precise measuring cups so estimate by pouring water in to just under the rack.
3. Put the bagel (1, frozen) into the covered container, and then place that on the steamer rack.
4. Put the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the top knob to SEAL and press the STEAM button. Set it for 10 minutes.
5. Quick release at the end of those 10 minutes.
6. Using hotel provided washcloths as hot-mitts, remove the covered container from the Instant Pot and remove your supple, no longer frozen bagel that is cool enough to hold in your hand as you add cream cheese.

Your bagel will be defrosted but not heated or toasted. If you want your bagel hotter, leave in the Instant Pot on steam for longer. If you want your bagel toasted, bring a toaster on vacation with you as well and just let the toaster defrost the bagel.