Teaser….
A quick bialy post for Mellow Bakers, last one of the month; we’ve had French bread and a very serious rye and this is the fun one, so I saved it to now.
Some of the other Mellow Bakers who have made these so far:
Natashya at KitchenPuppies
Paul at Yumarama,
Steve at Burntloafer
I read what the Mellow Bakers who have made them already had to say about using raw onion and breadcrumbs, and the consensus seems to be that they didn’t like them, so for these I sweated some chopped white onion in a spoon of butter for about twenty minutes till sweet and golden and then added them to some Polish breadcrumbs I found in the cupboard. Don’t ask me what they were doing there, I think I went out to get Panko and came home with these one day.
The extremes I go to….
Made dough, folded dough, proved dough, then scaled dough into 12 pieces. Shaped dough into tight rolls and left on trays. Links to recipes elsewhere on the net below if you need one.
Looks organized doesn’t it?
Forewarned about the tendency of these rolls to spring back to life like some mad Bouncy Castle and either ping their toppings off, or engulf them, I left the rounded doughs for a lot longer than Mr Hamelman advises (well, I like to pretend that I did this on purpose but as you who know me might realise, I forgot about them) and the dough was well and truly proofed and starting to stick together by the time I remembered again.
Fully proved
The good part was that the dough was pretty tired by the time I got back to it, so it was really easy to make the flat middle bit….
shaping the flat bits
And then, Dear Reader, I filled ’em and baked ’em, they don’t take long in a good hot oven, and out they came. Looking golden and smelling of hot onions….
….but they are chewy, I think they are supposed to be. Sort of thing to keep you occupied as you wander through New York City early in the morning on your way to work, chewy because who wants crumbs down their work clothes, chewy, well just because…..they are
BIALYS!
Where is no 12?
Recipes for bialys on line if you want to have a go….Here’s one done in cups. If you want Mr Hamelman’s version you might have to get the book, but it is apparently a standard sort of recipe.
PS I’ve just looked them up on Wiki which says they are named after Bialystok, a city in Poland, so my breadcrumbs are appropriate which is a bit spooky.
Have another one ! Don’t mind if I do….
Zeb Bakes 
Joanna they look good. I like the shape of them, they look perfect for a lunch or snack on the run.
Makes kossar’s look like bad imitations!
Nice!
Jeremy
Jo, they look perfect! Mine turned into puffballs. Very very delicious, though. Might have to go make more now… :)
These are beautiful, Joanna! Just perfect! And look so delicious . . . kind of makes me want to make them again right now. =)
Joanna, these look superb! Glad you figured out how to keep the middle from disappearing.
And the garden shot is cool too.
So how long did these take you overall, with the “extended on purpose” proof?
Now don’t they look just so tasty.
I’ll have one please, if there’s one going.
Your polish bag looks familiar Joanna: Gill’s pic here
The chap in the market last week said it’s for damplinks.
Is there going to be a second wave of bialys? There are some interesting variations on MB, cheese, bacon, all sorts. Go for it Abby, Celia.. and Brydie are you tempted?
Sorry, Paul I really don’t know how long the ‘extended proof’ was. An hour more maybe? They were very soft and puffy but not so delicate that I couldn’t handle them relatively easily. They still had enough going on to spring round the rims in the oven. Maybe I just got lucky…
Hi Jeremy, thanks for the compliment and dropping in, I’m flattered !
Ah dompleengs Gill, mine usually resemble something you’d use to stop a hole in a Dutch dyke or rent out to the local St John’s Ambulance for practising Heimlich maneouvres….
Joanna, they look just perfect – methinks your ‘forgetfulness’ was inspiration in disguise :)
I think the original bread makers and wine makers and all our long ago ancestors preparing food must have had the same inspiration from forgotten foods, milk, beer, cheese, bread – all products of fermentation and seemingly random events. A lot to be said for being forgetful ;)
What an interesting looking bread! I imagine they would be very tasty. I like the thought of sweating the onions first…. :)
lovely lovely…you did a wonderful job here on the blog and the bialys.
Not spooky at all – you understand bread. These look so good and would be great for my breakfast as I am rushing down the road in the mornings late for my train as usual and not wanting to get crumbs all over my work clothes.
hee hee and then you would annoy everyone on the train by smelling of delicious buttery onions and warm bread….
Jo, that freegan article in your Witterings is just mindblowing. Couldn’t believe the photos.. :(
Celia, Gill and I met Tristan last Bank Holiday, he had the stall next to hers, He is running a great campaign.
What those pictures make you appreciate is the gulf between what the individual can do at home and what big business gets up to.
Those are adorable. They remind me a bit of knishes, are they similar at all? Also, thanks for your comments! The Mellow Bakers have been really nice.
I still haven’t totally figured out the website though–where do you find the recipes? (It is entirely possible that my search was just too haphazard to find it. The recipes probably have their own section or something.)
Hi Flour Child ! I don’t know knishes, I’m English, but I will go and look them up in a moment…. thanks to you too!
The Mellow Bakers are baking their way through ‘Bread’ by Jeffrey Hamelman and the idea is if you want to get involved in that project then it’s probably a good idea to get a copy of the book as there is loads of good stuff in it as well as the recipes themselves. Having said that, if you want to bake a few of the recipes and write about what you bake on the forum over there, that’s fine. Where Paul, (who started MB) knows of published versions on the net he puts links in, so that people can bake along. Wild Yeast, the Fresh Loaf and BreadCetera are some of the blogs/forums where you can find versions of many of the recipes in the book. Send Paul a PM if you want more info! He’s very friendly.
I dropped this into #shortandtweet 18: Perfect Pita, Simple Bagels & Double-Corn Bacon Muffins because the density and crumb notes sound relevant to bagels and it’s useful to see how you topped them in case people feel inspired to experiment with their bagels.
Thank you – I think we preferred these to the bagels we made but I haven’t had a lot of practice at either, these are easier as there is no boiling vat of water involved :)
This is precisely the sort of thing of which I want to make more. Bread and “filling” in one easy package. Nice post!
Thanks Will, I ought to make them again soon :)