TWD: Onion Bialys

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Lauren Groveman

The bialy (pronounced bee-ah-lee), is similar, yet different than the bagel, and originated in Bialystok, Poland. The bialy does not have the hole in the center like a bagel, but is stretched very thin in the middle with the edges rising above to leave an indentation to hold an onion and poppy seed mixture; whereas bagels are boiled before baking, the bialy is not, it goes straight to the oven.

When I pulled them out of the oven I was disappointed at first, at how brown they were. I knew I should have pulled them out when my olfactory (sense of smell) alarm went off (my sister comes up with the best words :)). I thought they were going to be rock hard. But once I cut into one, and had that first bite, all was well.

They may have been a shade darker than I liked, but they were so wonderfully soft and delicious, not as hard and chewy as bagels.

You can put sautéed onions on anything, and I would probably eat it. I only wish there was more surface room for the onions - well, there was quite a bit, but after baking, the indentation shrunk. A lot.

The dough itself also has sautéed onions mixed in, however they were not very discernible. I would add more next time, along with extra on the outside.
 
These were fun to make; I can see myself making them again (with extra onions of course). It took only about four hours from start to finish. Not bad for a yeast bread! Some can take a full day or two. They really are best the day they are baked - like most baked goods are. The next day they had a staleness to them. However, once toasted they had a new and deliciously different life.

The only issue with slicing them in half to toast, is the filling falls out. Once removed from the toaster, I replaced the onion mixture that fell out - spread it out over the entire surface, then topped it with a poached egg. Yumm!

I still have six more balls of dough in the freezer. I used all of the onion mixture (I love sautéed onions..) on the first batch. So when I make the rest, I'm going to not only fill the middle with the onions, but press some onto the edges as well.

You don't want to brown the onions too much - they will brown more when baked.

Mmm, can't wait..

Oops. No more onion filling for the rest of the rolls. I couldn't imagine using less.

Where did the indentation go? 

I stretched the center really thin, and pricked the hell out of it. I'm not familiar with bialys - maybe this is how they are supposed to be?

Do make sure to check out my fellow (and amazing) cohorts results. You can find there links over at the TWD website, look for the link LYL: Onion Bialys.

TWD: Pumpernickel Loaves

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Lauren Groveman 

I have to start off by saying, the end of daylight savings time is killing me! Summer, hurry back, please.

Bread. I have found this to be the hardest to photograph. How does one make bread (muffins, etc.) look pretty? I took 123 pictures of the finished product alone. Crazy.

I know what most of you are thinking: This is what went into the bread? Strange. I agree. But it works. You don't really taste any of the individual components.

And if you Google traditional pumpernickel, you won't find them there, other than the molasses; but the coffee, molasses, supposed to be prune lekvar (prune butter - I could not find any and did not feel like making it, so I subbed plum preserves), and the chocolate is what gives this bread its dark (not as dark as I was expecting) color.

Also, the traditional recipe calls for a baking time of anywhere from 6 to 12 hours (this is where it gets its color from) at a low temperature of 225°F. Whereas this recipe only bakes for approximately 40 minutes. Yeah. I would have skipped this recipe if it had to bake that long.

After kneading and forming your dough into a ball, it has two rising periods before shaping. About two hours each - depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Once the loaf is shaped (for detailed photos - see my post for European Rye), place on a floured towel, this becomes a sling for a final resting period of forty minutes.

Lauren, the contributing baker, calls for you to poke holes in the corners of the towels, and to use an S-hook to hang them from. I think she is just wacky for doing so (I'm sure Julia [Child] did too) - kitchen towels don't come cheap. Do as I did, tie the corners together and hang from string or ribbon.

I was going to bake the bread on a baking stone, but to make a short story even shorter, I didn't. I used a half-sheet pan - covered with parchment. Then as directed, covered the parchment with some cornmeal, and added extra poppy and caraway seeds.

 I liked the look of the bread before it was baked! That would have made for a beautiful loaf.

After placing the loaves on the baking sheet (or stone), smooth side up, you slash the tops, give them an egg wash, and sprinkle with extra caraway and poppy seeds if desired, and bake away!

The instructions say to wait two to three hours before slicing. That wasn't going to happen. The bread was done about an hour before dinner was served, and this bread was on the menu.

I was pleasantly surprised at how moist this bread is - even the next day.

I was hoping to have a picture of a delicious looking turkey sandwich, but I forgot to buy turkey - hence the buttered slice - it will have to suffice. (Ha! I'm a poet, and didn't even know it!)

My husband and daughter enjoyed this bread. Me, I am still undecided if I care for pumpernickel in general. My only recollection of having pumpernickel before, is the small, dark, dry, little squares that you can purchase in the deli department of your grocery store. The ones they use to make those little tea sandwiches with. (Update: Yeah. This is good.)

I did enjoy it with a slathering of butter. Butter does make everything better..

Please visit my co-baker's blogs to see their experiences and takes (the prune lekvar is not an easy find) on this recipe. You will find their links over on the TWD website - under the LYL: Pumpernickel Loaves link. 

The recipe is on page 95 of Baking with Julia, or you can find it here on Lauren's webpage.

To see Lauren making this bread herself, click here for the video.

TWD: Bagels | Everything & Jalapeño - Cheddar

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing baker: Lauren Groveman



                                            Everything Bagel

I'll definitely try my hand at making bagels again. These were good. Especially the jalapeño-cheddar bagel.

The only downside was that the everything bagel was dry and tough the next day, as where the jalapeño-cheddar bagel was still soft and moist; probably due to the cheese I added to the dough. I'm wondering if the vegetable shortening that I had inadvertently omitted would have any effect on the texture of the bagels. The reason I question this is that other recipes I have seen do not call for shortening or other fats to be added.

I halved the dough after mixing and to one half I added chopped jalapeños and grated cheddar cheese. Before baking I also topped them with additional cheese and jalapeños. I did not add anything to the remainder of the dough itself, but I did top the remaining bagels with a mixture of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic, dried onion, and salt.

Lauren's recipe makes ten large bagels. I wanted to have plenty to go around so I divided the dough into approximately 2 ounce portions which yielded 24 bagels. They turned out to be the perfect size.

I decided to go with Peter Reinhart's (author of The Bread Baker's Apprentice) instructions to form the bagels before retardation*. He also has you do a "float test" (shown below) to make sure they are ready to be refrigerated. This would save a lot of time in the morning. I would just have to boil, top, and bake before delivering them to the boys in time for their morning break.

*Retarding is a second, slower rising of your bread dough. It is done by placing the dough in the refrigerator which causes a slower fermentation, or rise, of the dough. Retarding bread dough is often done overnight when the dough is placed in the refrigerator so that it can be freshly baked in the morning. It is also done to increase the flavor of the bread and to give the crust a darker color when baked. (Source: about [dot] com.)

In making of my bagels I used three separate resources:

1. Baking with Julia for the initial recipe.
2. The Bread Baker's Apprentice for dough preparation.
3. Brown Eyed Baker for the everything topping recipe.

Success meter (1-3): 2

"The float test". After the bagels are formed and have rested

for about twenty minutes, check to see if they are ready to be

retarded (placed in the refrigerator) by placing a bagel in a bowl

of cool to room temperature water. If it floats within ten seconds 

they are ready. Return the bagel to the pan, pat it dry and continue

with the recipe. Should the bagel not float, return it to the pan and

let the dough rest for another ten to twenty minutes and try again.

These are my favorite.

I left two plain - just in case.

All packed up and ready for the boys!

(Only to drive up and find them all

standing in the middle of the shop

eating breakfast sandwiches!)

The directions say the bagels will keep

for a day in a paper bag which I did not

have. Wrapped in parchment is so much

cuter anyway - great gift idea!

Bagels are really easy and fun to make. If you would like to give it a try visit our host Heather at Heather's Bytes for the recipe or one of the other resources I mentioned above.

Do make sure to check out the results of my fellow bakers; there are always interesting variations and techniques to accommodate ingredient & equipment availability, personal preferences, and health restrictions.