Outside of New York City, it is extremely hard to find bialys, the good news is that they are really easy to make at home – I use a multi-purpose yeasted dough, easy to prepare and forgiving of mistakes, which is my “home dough” and which I use for other pastries (which I will talk about in the workshop). I also took liberties with the toppings, and in addition to the classic bialy, with sweet onions and poppy seeds, I also make a bialy with a twist – a bialy for children with tomato sauce and cheese. You can watch the video (in Hebrew) here: https://vimeo.com/882465518?share=copy
Please note: the amounts of filling listed in the recipe are enough for 8 pastries
Ingredients for Bialy with a twist
For the Dough:
- 1¼ cups (300 grams) water cool
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) Dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) Onion Powder (for the classic version; optional)
- 3 ½ cup + 1 tablespoon (500 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ tablespoon (10 grams) Salt
For the Classic Filling:
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- ⅓ teaspoon Salt
- ground black pepper (optional)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil excellent quality
For the Pizza Filling:
- Tomato Sauce of any type you like
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- olive oil excellent quality
- 7 oz (200 grams) mozzarella grated
- basil leaves fresh, chopped (you can use dry if you want)
- parmesan cheese grated (optional)
Instructions
Prepare the Dough:
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1. In the order listed, place all the dough ingredients in a bowl and mix until you get a uniform dough.
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2. Remove the dough from the bowl, turn out onto a work surface and knead for 10-12 minutes until you get a flexible dough.
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3. Gather the dough into a round and smooth ball and transfer to a lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour at room temperature, until the dough doubles in volume, or overnight in the refrigerator.
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling:
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4. For the onion and poppy filling: mix chopped onion, poppy, salt and pepper in a bowl.
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5. Heat olive oil in a pan, add all the filling ingredients and fry on a medium-low heat until the onion is nicely golden. Remove from heat and cool.
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6. For pizza filling: mix tomato sauce with crushed garlic and set aside.
Shape, fill, and bake:
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7. Heat an oven to 480F (250C) degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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8. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts weighing 3.5 oz (100 grams) each. Roll each part into a smooth and tight ball and place on the sheet at intervals. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and let rise for 15 minutes, until the dough balls double in size.
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9. Using your fingers, gently press the center of each ball of dough to create a wide, flat dimple (be careful not to puncture the dough).
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10. Place a level spoonful of the onion and poppy seed filling, or a spoonful of tomato sauce and two spoonfuls of grated mozzarella, in the cavity of each pastry; you can sprinkle a little cheese all over the edges as well.
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11. Bake the bialy for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is golden. If you are making pizza bialy, you can sprinkle chopped basil leaves or dry basil and grated Parmesan cheese and pour a little olive oil on the prepared bialy. Serve hot.