The Bialy and Pletzel

Have you ever heard of a bialy (or pletzel for that matter)???  Everyone knows bagels, but bialys… not so much (aside from Mel Brooks hanging the name on his naughty Max Bialystock in the Producers) and that is a crying shame.  The bialy is the ‘other’ NYC roll -- flatter but with attitude since it’s got a savory onion poppy-seed filling that is just too delicious for words.  The bialy has such a great back-story that Mimi Sheraton wrote an entire book about it called The Bialy Eaters. For 8 years (1975-83) Mimi Sheraton was the food critic for the NY Times and if anyone knows NYC food, this is the lady.

Mimi Sheraton

The book is a great read, and opens with a sage observation: “few aspects of life inspire such persistent nostalgia as the foods of one’s childhood, reminders of the joyful security of home and family.”  This nostalgia (could it be saudade?) was acknowledged by the Chinese poet-statesman, Lin Yutang, when he wrote “What is patriotism but the longing for the foods of one’s homeland.”  The book covers the history of the bialy or bialystok kucken from their birth in the Jewish Quarter of the small Polish town of Bialystok (decimated by WWII) to the lower east side of NYC where they became a favorite in NY delicatessens (always eclipsed by the more popular bagel). This may have been because they have a very short shelf life and must be eaten or frozen within 6 hours of baking (old timers would pass up rolls that were less than an hour old for those just out of the oven).  They are easy to make however and a minute (or less) in the microwave and they are thawed and ready to toast for a perfect breakfast.

Sheraton actually went to Poland to separate fact from legend.  Bialys were hard to track down even with rock-hard samples brought from NYC, but many people had small glimmers of recognition and a 1939 film showed local children eating them… they were from Bialystok!

Although they may have been related to the Polish tsibele pletzel  (the sheet version is called an “onion board” in America and the name of the Jewish ghetto in Paris— with a texture like crisped pizza), it had none of the earmarks of the flatbread save the onion poppy seed topping.

The extra dusting of the dough with flour may have had something to do with the name since bialy means white in Slavic languages and the coat of arms of Poland is the Orzel Bialy or white eagle (chosen by Lech, the founder of Poland) so white is a popular appellation in Poland… but that is pushing it.  I think it’s just named for the place that invented it. 

The bialy is soft and chewy when fresh.  Delicious split, toasted and shmeared with butter or cream cheese and/or stuffed with smoked salmon (from Russ & Daughters if you can manage it), it is a rough tough little guy from the old neighborhood that makes the well-upholstered bagel seem so… bourgeois.  Pletzels were a huge hit in my household. Try bialys and pletzels for your next NY style brunch, oy, you’ll thank me!

  Jewish Quarter in Bialystok, Poland in the 20’s.

Bialys (based on Mimi Sheraton’s Bialy’s with a little help from Kossar’s Bialys in NYC) 
Makes 12 - 3 ½ to 4” bialys

1 ½ to 2 Lbs (5-6 cups) bread flour

3 cups cold water

2 T kosher salt

1 package yeast

Topping

1 m onion, finely chopped (do not process)

2 T coarse toasted breadcrumbs

salt to taste

2 t oil
3 T poppy seeds

Mix the crumbs into the onion and set aside for a few hours till there is no liquid… add more crumbs if this doesn’t happen.  Add the salt and oil and the poppy seeds.  Some people sauté the onion first… your call.

Put the yeast in a bowl with ½ c of the water and blend, then add the rest of the water.  Put the flour and salt in a mixer and blend for 8 minutes… it should be sticky.  Put in a clean bowl and allow it to rise till double in volume 3 to 3 ½ hours.   Then knead the dough with a dough hook for 10 minutes and by hand 5 – 10 minutes.  Allow it to rise for 1½ hours till it springs back when touched lightly (I let mine rise overnight).

Preheat oven to 450º with pizza stone or sheet pan upside down. Make 4 ropes of dough and cut each into 3 rounds.  Make a circle out of these and make an impression using your thumbs… make the bottom thin, if it isn’t it will blow up and you will lose the filling.   Sprinkle the filling on each bialy and put them on the preheated baking surface.  I put mine on parchment and slid them on the baking sheet on the parchment… if well floured on the bottom you can just use a spatula to move them.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes.  Cook and freeze or eat.

Pletzel

The recipe for the Pletzel, comes from George Greenstein's Secrets of a Jewish Baker: Recipes for 125 Breads from Around the World

Topping:

3/4 cup yellow onions, chopped
1-2 tsp. poppy seeds (more to sprinkle on pletzel
1-2 tsp. olive or canola oil
salt to taste (about 3/4 tsp.)

Mix all topping ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  Some people like to sauté the onions in oil before putting them on the top… the French like them soft and cooked and sliced in rings or half rings

Dough:
1 1/2 T. dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup ice water
2 large eggs
4 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp. salt
2 T. canola oil
2 T. sugar
2 T. malt syrup

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, stir. Add remaining ingredients and mix until dough forms a ball in the mixer. Add additional flour if needed. Knead for 5 minutes in a mixer. Let the dough rest for 15-30 minutes.

Oil two large cookie sheets. Divide dough in two, and roll as thin as possible, letting dough rest if it is hard to roll. Place dough on the cookie sheets. Brush with canola oil. Stipple all over with a fork, spread with onion topping, sprinkle with additional poppy seeds, and bake at 400° (with a pan of water for steam in the oven) for 20-30 minutes until brown. The texture will be somewhere between pizza and a cracker.  It is addictive!  You could also put some whole wheat in them if you want them a little healthier.  I might add, since they do not raise really, I am not sure why all that yeast is needed.... see what you think.

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday