One Dough, Two Breads

This past week, I used half of my recent crispy sourdough bagel recipe to make bagels, of course, but then I skipped the kettle boil and used the other half to make bialys.

What are bialys? Bialystok, Poland, early 1900s. A Jewish breakfast roll and what we eat now traveled west with bakers who'd already landed in the Lower East Side. (Mimi Sheraton wrote the rest of the book if you want it—and it's great).

Since you're already making bagels, you already have a great dough for bialys.

You can do as I did: after rounding all the dough, use half to shape into bagel rings. Then just place the other balls on a baking sheet to proof (or leave in the fridge for up to 2 days). When you want to make bialys, take the dough out a few hours before, press a deep well into each with two fingers, fill with caramelized onion and poppy seed, and bake hot. Twenty minutes from shaping to cooling rack.

The result is not a bagel-shaped consolation. It's its own bread. The interior stays soft and open, and the crust shatters. The filling steams the well into a chewy onion pocket that tastes sweet/sour and probably like a Lower East Side bakery in 1955.

(See below for the caramelized onion recipe.)

Two notes. Press the dimple all the way down to your counter, then use less filling than you think you should (I used like 1 teaspoon).

If you have bagel dough this weekend, save half for bialys. Two breakfasts out of one mix, and the second one might be the one you remember more.
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Have a look:

In this week's newsletter:

• Recipes: Crispy sourdough bagels, bialys, and caramelized onions
• Baking Help: How hot is too hot for proofing dough?

🍞 Sourdough bagels and bialys

Make these amazing sourdough bagels and save half the batch for bialys:

1. After shaping your bagels, leave the other half as round balls. Skip the hole.
2. Set them on a cornmeal-dusted sheet pan (just like the bagels), well spaced, and cover.
3. Cold-proof overnight alongside the bagels (or leave them in there for up to 2 days).
4. When you want to make the bialy, remove the pan from the fridge and let it proof for 2 hours until the balls are puffy. Then, skip the boil entirely. Press a deep well into each ball with two fingers, fill with caramelized onion and poppy seed, and bake hot (I baked the same way as my bagels in the recipe).

Twenty minutes from dimple to cooling rack.

Read on for the caramelized onion recipe.

GET BAGEL RECIPE

🍞 Caramelized onion, poppy, and sesame for bialys

There are many ways to caramelize onions, but here's how I do it. Keep in mind you need to cook them longer than you might think.

Half a large yellow onion, sliced thin (I pulsed mine in a food processor). A small heavy pan over medium-low. A tablespoon of butter or olive oil and a pinch of salt right away to draw out the water.

Then walk away. Come back every five minutes and stir. With this little onion in the pan you'll get there faster — twenty-five to thirty minutes instead of forty-five. If the pan goes dry before they're brown enough, splash in a teaspoon of water and keep going.

Pulled too early, they're sweet and grassy. At the right time, they're something else. Brown, almost jammy, a little bitter at the edges.

For six bialys, let the onions cool and stir in a teaspoon of poppy seeds and a small splash of olive oil. Spoon into the wells just before baking, and sprinkle on top some white sesame seeds.

One note: a smaller pan matters here. Spread half an onion across a 12-inch skillet and it'll scorch before it browns. An 8-inch pan keeps the depth right.

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💬 Member Discussion of the Week

100°F is way too hot for enriched doughs like these. At that temperature, the butter can literally melt out of the dough. Proof at room temperature instead and just give them more time. Keep them covered so they don't dry out, and let them go until they feel extremely gassy and delicate when you gently poke them.

It's hard to give you an exact time since it depends on your kitchen temp and how active your dough is, but the visual and tactile cues are more reliable than the clock anyway.

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🛟 2 Ways I Can Help You Today

• Heading out on vacation? Here's how I store my sourdough starter in the fridge.
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• Use my starter and levain calculator if you ever need to quickly adjust your feed ratios, flours, or hydration.

Happy baking!