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Delicious fresh-baked bialis (I ate one!)
A biali is a soft roll with an oniony center. Bialis (and bagels) are ridiculously fast and easy to make (rising time is not required). Even living in New York City, bialis are well worth making - Orwasher's bakery charges more than $3.00 per biali, while I can make much more delicious organic bialis for about $0.20 apiece!
I use a bread machine and a pizza oven. Bread machine makes the dough in 25 minutes (while I do other things), and baking in a regular oven (which I don't have) takes another 20 minutes or so. I can make 5 at a time in the pizza oven, with each round taking 6-7 minutes. The actual preparation time is maybe 15 minutes to chop onions and shape the bialis. When timed correctly, the whole process is around 50 minutes:
00:00 Start bread machine on dough cycle 00:15 Preheat pizza oven, chop onions 00:25 Remove dough and shape 5 bialis 00:30 Place the first 5 into oven, shape rest 00:37 Remove first 5, start on second 5 00:44 Remove second 5, star on rest 00:51 done!
You can knead the dough by hand if you wish. If you want to bake bialis in a regular oven, parchment paper helps keep the baking sheets clean.
Topping ------- 1/2 cups onious chopped fine (2-3 5mm great slices of large onion) 3 Tbsp veg. oil (sunflower or olive) 1 tsp seasalt Dough ----- 1 1/8 cup water 2 tsp yeast 1 Tbsp sugar 500g Bread or all-purpose flour 1 tsp salt
Start your bread machine on dough setting.
While the dough is rising, chop the onions fine, place into a small bowl or cup and pour in the oil. Mix with salt and let sit. Traditional Jewish bialis are made with fried onions, which I _hate_ -- so I make mine with fresh onions. Do as you like.
Preheat the oven.
When the dough is ready, dust your surface with flour and divide the dough into 12 balls (70g - 75g each). I use a kitchen scale to make them even, but if you don't have OCD you can eyeball it. If you have time, let the balls sit a few minutes.
To shape a biali, place the ball on a well-dusted surface and push it down in the middle with your fingers a few times. Flip it over and repeat. Pick it up and press it in the middle between your thumb and fingers, while rotating it all the way around. If the center rips, repair it with remaining dough and flatten again.
Some people recommend just squishing the middle of the ball with the heel of your hand, but I like leaving the bready ring unbruised. Try it a few different ways and do what you like best. If all else fails, watch some youtube videos.
Shaped, onioned, and ready for baking
When enough bialis are shaped (5 for pizza oven, or all of them for real oven), spoon in about 1/2 teaspoon of onions into the middle, and take the opportunity to shape the onion-well with the spoon by pressing down with the edge.
Now bake - about 7 minutes in the pizza oven on hottest setting or about 15-20 minutes in a regular oven at 450. You want the bottom to crust up nicely, and the top to start turning brown (although I often like my bialis scortched).
Not quite ready - another couple of minutes!
My bialis have a tendency to turn into a ball when baked, so I take extra time stretching and flattening while shaping.
