CAPSULE REVIEW: Stacy’s first burst onto the scene in 1997 with Pita Chips—an original, tasty cracker alternative and crunchy snack that propelled the small company into national prominence. Now, Stacy’s given the bagel the same treatment as the pita: bite-size chips, baked, not fried, in a variety of flavors that can be served with soups, dips, or eaten from the bag as a healthier alternative to other salty snacks.
Stacy’s Bagel Chips are a hard-working little multi-tasker: crunchy bites that can be enjoyed with a variety of foods as a cracker, or straight from the bag (or, more civilly, from a bowl) as a snack. Unlike large bagel chips that are sliced horizontally with a hole in the middle, these mini-chips are cut vertically, from the hole to the outer edge of the bagel, creating a much smaller but hole-free chip.
There’s no cholesterol or trans fats: The ingredients are all natural, including enriched high gluten wheat flour (or whole wheat flour), high monounsaturated canola oil and/or sunflower oil and sea salt. There’s sweetener, but it’s evaporated cane juice. The chips are baked, not fried, and net out at 130 calories per one-ounce serving.*
All of the flavors are equally tasty, depending on what you’re in the mood for.
Everything combines garlic, onion, poppyseed, salt and sesame seed
Simply Naked is simply seasoned with sea salt
Toasted Garlic is a nice garlic fix
Whole Wheat is a whole wheat flour version of Simply Naked, topped with sea salt
If you tend not to add salt to your foods and are looking at the bagel chips as a substitute for toasted [bland] bagels, the flavor profile may seem a bit salty at first. But it’s a quick adjustment in both palate and perspective: these aren’t bagels but bagel chips, a salted cracker and snack alternative.
A bowl of Stacy's Bagel Chips is healthier
munching than other crunchy snacks.
Serving Suggestions
Tempting as it is to simply eat these chips by the handful from the bag, we did our best to inject an element of “cuisine” into the experience and enjoyed them:
With soups and salads
With cottage cheese and yogurt
With spreads and low-fat yogurt dips
As components of casual “hors d’oeuvres” (we topped them with sliced boiled eggs and roasted red peppers, Swiss cheese and olives, e.g.)
As a salty snack—but portion them out or you’ll eat half the bag
The company website has a fun Recipe Generator: You check off what ingredients you have at hand (or enjoy eating)—spices, meats, vegetables, condiments, pretty much the whole supermarket—and it comes up with spreads, dips and other foods that go with the Bagel Chips.
