commentbialys
whew, if feels like it’s been forever! how are you? i’ve been better. actually, right now i’m feeling pretty healthy, but for the past week i was feeling particularly unhealthy – the kind of unhealthy that makes you not want to go anywhere near the kitchen. the kind of unhealthy that makes you wish you had bought stock in the kleenex corporation a week ago (not to mention nyquil inc). but i have returned, and i did miss you all. i bring you wishes of good health this spring, and this recipe for bialys, because why not have breakfast all day long?
i had never even heard of bialys before (which explains why when i asked the girl about them, i kept calling them “bilays”), but the way she described them – lots of onion and lots of poppy seeds – i had to have one. i love onion bagels, and i love poppy seed bagels, so combining them and getting rid of the hole – essentially adding more bagel – is genius.
i’ve read extensively about this, but i’m pretty sure there is no fool-proof way to keep from crying when cutting onions. i’ve tried cutting next to an open flame and cutting next to a running faucet, which both work for a brief amount of time, but sure enough, 3 minutes later, i’m bawling like i’m watching that aspca commercial with sarah mclaughlin. my method has pretty much become cut, stick head in freezer to stop from tearing up, cut for another few seconds, stick head back in freezer, repeat. oddly enough, it takes me a long time to cut an onion and i always end up with a wicked brain freeze.
since the recipe is from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, it’s a cinch to make. the drawback is that the finished bialys are missing that “something” that you get from a good new york bagel dough. this can be traced back, most likely, to the absence of malt syrup, but sometimes the benefits of an easy dough can simply be too great. plus, the sauteed onions and poppy seeds give the bialys a sweet richness that makes you wish the whole thing was coated in the filling (maybe next time…).
this will definitely not be my last experience with bialys. for some reason, when it stays lighter later at night, i’m inspired to have breakfast for dinner, and bialys are a food that just begs to be experimented on and tried with different fillings. what if i cracked an egg in the middle? added bacon? sausage? bacon and sausage? and cheese? this is going to be good.
bialys
from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. makes 15-20 bialys.dough
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
6 1/4 cups fourtopping
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 tsp poppy seeds
salt and pepper
whole wheat flour for pizza peel1. mix the yeast, salt and sugar with the water in a large bowl. mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon or a standing mixer. cover the bowl with a towl and allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours. it can then be used immediately or refrigerated in a lidded container for the next 2 weeks.
2. dust the surface of the dough with flour and cut off a 3 oz piece of dough (about the size of a peach). dust the surface of the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by streching the surface of the dough around the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. press the ball into a 3-inch disk and let rest on floured surface for 30 minutes. repeat with as many bialys as you want to bake.
3. about 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450F with a baking stone on the middle rack and a broiler tray on the bottom rack.
4. while the dough is resting, saute the onions in the oil over medium heat until they are transluscent and slightly golden. remove from the heat and add the poppy seeds and salt and pepper to taste.
5. press the center of each bialy to flatten it, working your way out until there is a 1/2-inch rim of dough that is not pressed flat and the bialy is about 4 inches wide. fill the center with 1 Tbsp of the onion mixture and press it securely into the dough.
6. dust a pizza peel with whole wheat flour and put the finished bilays on it. slide the bilays directly onto the hot stone, making sure they are spaced out so they have room to expand. pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. bake for about 12 minutes, until just golden brown. cool on a wire rack before serving or eating.
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I have got to get that darn book!
This looks amazing, it truly does.
Pete…to diminish stinging eyes (which is caused by the resultant sulphuric acid formation), keep your eyes out of the “stream” of onion spraying, ie, when you cut an onion, the little sacs of juice pop and spray in your direction (I don’t let my face hang over the onion being cut). The mix of wet eyes and this spray makes acid, so to keep your eyes from getting sprayed…not totally but helping…cover your eyes, eg, wear glasses or (the extreme) goggles or…. be creative. Also, I’m wondering if a sharper knife helps to minimize the spraying…I haven’t run tests on this (chemist here).
Try it and I’m sure varieties are involved, also.
Pete, these look great. If bilays are not how to pronounce it, how DO you pronounce it? Bi-AH-lis? I’ve never heard of them, either. Can’t wait to try them!
They researched the onion topic on the Food Network show “Food Detectives”Episode-”double dippers”. The best thing to do is wear special goggles that block the sulphur, or if you’re like me, contacts eliminate any tears. Otherwise some things that help include refrigerating the onion for a couple hours ahead of time, cutting from the end furthest away from the root, and cutting with the sharpest knife possible to avoid crushing more cells in the onion to release more sulfur.
Awesome job! Those look like bialys worth crying for!
Oh, and egg, bacon AND cheese in the middle sounds like an idea worth exploring!!
My onion trick is that I breath only through my mouth, not my nose as I am cutting them. I use my sharpest knife and work quickly. I still have to walk away periodically, but it works a little. Great job on these bialys!
As for the onions, try putting them in the fridge first. I never seem to cry as much cutting a cold onion as a room temp one.
Now, for the bialys – I made the same recipe for a few friends and me when we were heading out on a road trip in the wee hours of the morning. Absolute nirvana and a trip back to home (NY) without the airfare. Outside of NY and maybe Miami, I don’t think many people know what good bagels and definitely a bialy is. Welcome to the world of good bread.
When I worked in Manhattan, every morning I picked up for my boss from the deli downstairs from our office, a fried egg on a grill toasted bialy with swiss cheese. YUMMMY.
Yum, how lovely. I’ve never had a bialy before and may have to remedy this by trying to make them myself.
For some reason, I’m immune to crying when cutting onions … they rarely make me tear up at all.
Awesome bialys!!! I’ll be honest with ya though, the only bialys I’ve ever seen are more long than round… But I like this way so much better! Bacon, egg and cheese sounds like a fantastic idea… but those would definitely have to be served warm. Hmmm…. I think that’ll be a good idea for Sunday’s brunch…
Anyways, I have always found that a really sharp knife makes for easier chopping onions. I didn’t know all the stuff that Christine was talking about w/ the onion “stream” but I know that the sharper the knife, the smoother the cut, the faster it goes. Also, I always wash my onions after I’ve peeled off the skin… That helps me. And I wear contacts normally, but the one time I was chopping w/ glasses on only, was the one time I was bawling my eyes out. So I never have exposed eyes anymore, contacts all the way!
Or you can just buy a Vidalia Chop Wizard and then you’re golden!
If you are going to experiment with bacon then Google on “bacon bun”. This is a Lithuanian favorite. In Lithuanian cuisine all food is white and bacon is a spice.
New to your site- so happy to have found it!
Wow! Those look so yummy! I’m hungry now….
They look great! The picture in my head of you cutting onions and sticking your head in the freezer was too funny!
My uncle told me the other day to keep a piece of bread on my tongue and breathe through my nose. I haven’t tried it yet,but he says it works.
These look excellent. You mentioned bagel dough, which is boiled first then baked…..have you tried that with these bialys? To me they look excellent just like they are!!
i haven’t tried to make bagels with this dough yet – although i have made bagels with a more complicated dough (http://www.peterandrewryan.com/baking/2008/04/building-a-better-bagel/)
Cut onions w/ few tears:
Peel onion, cutting off root and top down to usable part.
Cut in 1/2 from top to bottom. Lay on cutting board with round part up & cut part on board
Cut in a fan shape into pieces, but Don’t separate. It should all hold together
Turn & cut across the fan shaped cuts into dices (square pieces). Start at the top (non root end) of the half-onion. The first ones you cut can be very small, and the later ones, closer to the root will be large, because it’s harder to keep the pieces together.
The reason this doesn’t make you cry is that it exposes very little of the cut onion to the air, when air touches the cut pieces it aerosolizes the sulfuric acid in the onion that irritates your eyes.
If you cut Huge amounts of onions you will eventually get teary. To delay that time I cover the bowl I’m dumping into with a plate to confine the sulfuric acid. I’ve cut HUGE amounts of onions this way (10-20 #) with little problem.
Yum – these look great! I’m liking the sound of your suggestions for other flavours too.
no matter what bialys are, i’m gonna try to make it definitely. thanks for sharing.
Ah… I’ve found the only way I can handle chopping onions is to wear my swim goggles. Even the fresh butt kickin onions straight from the garden have no power over me
You’ll look absolutely ridiculous, but you can chop as many onions as you need without a tear in your eye. 
And I screamed with excitement when I saw the word Bialys! My favorite bagel by far that I never knew a thing about making! AWESOME!
[...] tried this recipe, following it pretty much as it was, except I made a smaller batch and I adjusted the oven [...]
I am already making the olive oil dough from AB5M/D for tonight’s pizzas. I’ll have to now whip upa batch of these wonderful looking bialys too.
Your bialys (bee-all-ees) look great (and the baked one in the top of the photo near perfect). We have them out here on the West coast (in Bellingham, north of Seattle) and I understand they are comparable to the ones made in New York (so I often just run down and buy them…they are indeed excellent). I’ve tried making them a few times, but always had trouble getting them flatter and maintaining the crisp center “floor.” I read another recipe for them that mentioned setting a heavy cookie sheet on them before the last rise. Interesting and I’ll try it sometime. Saw yet another website that sells bialys that talks about their new cinnamon raisin bialys, which also intrigued me. I’ll be keeping up with your site for sure, too!
haha.. Instead of sticking your head in the freezer, why dont you stick the onions? If you google it, a trick is to put the onions in the freezer for 10-15 mins before cutting because it reduces the amount of the acid enzyme released into the air. This looks delicious and I will add it to my list of recipes to try.
OK. I know I must be doing something wrong….
I’ve made these twice, cooking them in four different batches. My oven is properly calibrated, yet the onions always burn before the bread is done.
I’ve tried making them thinner, but then they puff up (like pita bread), and the onions end up on the dome and… burn. Heh.
If they don’t puff up, I’ve been able to scrape off the burnt top layer and yum!
My next plan is to drop the oven temp to 400 after I put them in.
First time I’ve visited this site – but definitely not the last!!! I’ll be watching for emails from you!!
I just found your site and love it! I live in the UK and almost died when I saw a recipe for english muffins, something they don’t have here but I love. Can’t wait to try Bialys as well! Do you have a good recipe for bagels? ~Sarah
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!!! I grew up eating bialys from a bagel shop in my hometown of Encinitas, CA. I finally tried making them tonight, and they turned out perfectly! I also tried the bacon chocolate chip cookies this past weekend to rave reviews… can’t wait to see what else you come up with!