This is about a tasty roll that was nearly lost to history.
Around a hundred years ago in Poland’s largest northern city, Bialy culture took over in a mad rush, flamed, and went out. You could buy one of these rolls – with their signature oniony middles – from any of a hundred places in the neighborhood. But by the end of World War II not a single resident of the Jewish quarter of Bialystok remained. The Bialy and its creators had been wiped from the planet.
Enough people remembered these little beauties to bring the Bialy back from the brink. Mimi Sheraton tells the story so well in her book The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World that I recommend it to anyone.
A cross somewhere between a bagel and a tiny pizza, this roll has a flattened center which gets filled with onion that ‘cooks’ in salt for hours while the dough rises quietly elsewhere. A ‘Bialy’ as it’s known, when fresh from the traditional woodfired oven, has a mildly smoky flavor and a crust that billows around a kind of belly button of lightly caramelized onion at its center. The poppy seeds add a crunchy tang.
I think about the ghosts of Bialystok and their lost culture as I knead the dough, stretch it out, and mix the onion. There’s the girl with the deep dark eyes whose face lights up as the baker hands her a Bialy; she grabs the roll lovingly and skips away into the mist. The young couple courting over Bialys and tea who I can barely make out in the shadows behind a low window. And there’s always the old guys huddled in the square right near the white clock tower, who adjust their black hats against the cold. I imagine those old dudes rubbing their hands together in some Ashkenazim gesture and musing over my antics; their breath fogs the air. And as I take the rolls carefully from the oven, with the sweet smell of onion rising in the heat, one of them makes a quarter turn and assesses my rolls with his sharp eyes.
‘Not bad for a Goyem baker,’ I hear him say, turning back to the others and chuckling. ‘Not bad at all.’
Bialystok Rolls crusted with Salted Onion and Poppy Seeds
Makes 12 Bialys
For the dough:
2 cups water at 100°
1¼ teaspoon dry yeast (double for faster option, below)
4 cups or 20 ounces of unbleached bread flour (11.5% protein content)
1 ½ teaspoons of sea salt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 cup of flour for bench work
For the topping:
6 ounces of finely chopped sweet onion
1 teaspoon of sea salt
2 Tablespoons of herbed bread crumbs
1 eggwhite+1 teaspoon of cold water
2 Tablespoons of poppy seeds
Faster option: As with many small breads, these rolls are meant to rise and bake quickly after the dough goes through a long slumber, which for me means overnight. You can double the quantity of yeast and let the dough rise at room temperature for 3-4 hours if you like, with some subtle changes in flavor and texture.
Make the dough: Add yeast and ½ cup water to a large mixing bowl. Stir vigorously and let sit for 10 minutes to let the yeast hydrate. Mix in the flour and the other 1 ½ cups of water and leave for 30 minutes before kneading.
Add salt and canola oil and knead for 5 minutes to make a soft dough.
First rise: Put dough into a clean bowl which is at least 3 times the volume of the dough. Cover and let sit in a cool place for 8 hours or overnight (55-60° is optimal).
Make the onion topping: Finely chop the sweet onion, and mix it with a teaspoon of salt. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 4 hours or overnight. The salt in the mix will ‘cook’ the onion so that it exudes moisture and matures in flavor. Drain the exuded liquid and mix the onion with breadcrumbs just before topping.
Second rise: Punch down dough, knead and fold it for a minute on a floured surface and return it to the bowl. This time, let rise at room temperature (68-70°) for 2 or 3 hours until doubled in bulk.
Heat the woodfired oven: Your fire should be 2 hours old with enough moderate heat to sustain the oven for an hour’s baking. Every 20 minutes for the last hour, move your fire side to side to evenly heat the floor tiles. A few minutes before putting in the rolls, push the mature coals to the back center of the oven and brush the floor clean of ashes. There should be little or no flame when the Bialys go in.
Heat a conventional oven: Line a center rack with a pizza stone or quarry tiles. At least 30 minutes before baking the first rolls, preheat the oven to 425°. You will need to stagger the next steps to have half the Bialys ready 20 minutes after the first lot.
Form the Bialys: Turn the dough out onto a work surface, and form it into a snake. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces of about 3½ ounces each. Tuck the sides of each ball under and stretch the tops into mounds. Flatten each piece with your palm and let rest on the counter for 10 minutes before proceeding. Meanwhile, cut 2 pieces of parchment paper to fit the backs of two cookie sheets.
After a rest, stretch each piece of dough out like a 5” pizza, making a thick rim with a depression in the center. Put 6 of these onto each piece of parchment paper. Cover loosely with a cloth and let sit for 30 minutes before topping.
Top the Bialys: Mix eggwhite and water. Mix drained onion and breadcrumbs. Brush the top of each roll twice with eggwhite wash and then scoop a teaspoon of the onion mixture into the middle depression, smearing it up onto the sides as desired. Finish each Bialy with ½ teaspoon of poppy seeds.
Bake in a woodfired oven: If the floor of the oven is well heated and swept clean with the fire pushed all the way back, you can easily bake a dozen Bialys at a time in your oven. Put half to either side, let bake for 5 or 6 minutes until puffy, and carefully turn the parchment sheets around. After turning, my parchment sheets always want to slip out with the peel, but as long as the rolls have been turned it doesn’t matter. Let bake a further 5-7 minutes until the tops begin to brown.
Bake in a conventional oven: Bake the rolls (six at a time) on the parchment paper directly on the quarry tiles for 8 minutes at 425º, turn carefully around and bake for a further 7 or 8 minutes, until the onions begin to brown.
Pull the Bialys from the oven with a metal peel or spatula and let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes to an hour. That is, if you can wait that long. And I can guarantee that if you share some of these great rolls with any of your neighbors who grew up in the Bronx or Brooklyn, you’ll have friends for life. L’chaim!
What a lovely post. The Bialy Eaters has been on my want to read list for a long time. You’ve inspired me to go find a copy. And to make your Bialys.
What a beautiful and tasty looking roll. It kinda looks like a bagel. Thank you for including both the conventional and wood fired oven instructions. I’m wanting to try these.
Enjoyed your writing and vivid descriptions of ghosts of Bialystok and their lost culture. Very much liked reading about its history and people.
I’ve never been terribly successful at bread making…. but once again there’s another bread that I’ve just got to try and see if I can make!
Thanks for sharing
mmm Looks so yummy, it reminds me of Focaccia bread.
Of course I have never heard of them Don but they sure do sound delicious. I would love the opportunity to try this piece of history.
Those look fabulous!!
I love bialys. I am so glad you shared this little story.
The rolls look fantastic! I will have to go with the conventional oven to try these… they sound delicious. I really like the topping… I’m sorta in love with poppy seeds. 🙂
I tried bialys once before and it came out really good. Yours looks great.
I miss fresh tasty bread in the US and your posts make it possible to make my own. Thanks for sharing.
These rolls look amazing along with everything you make in that awesome woodfire oven of yours! Have I mentioned Im jealous yet? 😉
Um, you better start shipping 🙂
I’m trying to cut back on bread, but your pictures seduced me. Must Make Bialys!
Hello: I had better start now, because I am going to do these for Easter.
I don’t have quarry or pizza stone.
Would the cooking time and temp be the same if I just do them on a cookie sheet?
Thanks
Hello!
I made your buns, and liked them.
However I have a few questions, before I make them again.
I followed your recipe, the dough when it finished raising, was very sticky, (is it supposed to be like this?)
I followed instinct and added enough flour to make it workable.
The buns were very heavy and dense.
I know European breads tend to be like this, but I have always known buns to be lighter.
Did I do wrong by adding the extra flour?????
Thanks!
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
Yes, this is a soft dough that some might consider ‘sticky’. Best to work it in the early stages with a dough scraper or to let it rest 30 minutes before kneading.
The finished bun should not be dense if you follow the recipe.
Cheers,
Sortachef
P.S.- For a good conversation about bialys, see The Fresh Loaf.
Can the bialys be baked in the oven if the fire is totally cleaned out and the oven ~500 degrees