Bialys - cooking recipe

Ingredients

Makes 10 bialys
For the dough:
1 2/3 cups water at 100\u00b0
2 teaspoons dry yeast
4 cups unbleached bread flour (11 or 12 % gluten)
11/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Extra flour for bench work
For the topping:
4 ounces sweet onion (Walla Walla, Vidalia or similar)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoons bread crumbs
1 eggwhite mixed with 1 teaspoon water
2 Tablespoons good poppyseeds

Preparation

Mix all dough ingredients in large bread bowl. Turn out and knead 10 minutes. Return to bowl, cover and let rise for 3 hours at room temperature. Punch down and let rise 11/2 to 2 hours until doubled in volume.

Make onion topping:
Finely chop sweet onion; mix with salt and bread crumbs in a small bowl. Cover and let sit 4 hours.
Form the bialys:
Turn dough out onto work surface, forming a snake by turning the long edge in on itself to stretch the skin. Cut dough into short rounds of 3 ounces each. Tuck sides of each baby bialy under and stretch the tops into mounds.
Arrange bialys on two floured wooden peels or lightly oiled cookie sheets, cover loosely with a cloth and let sit for 30 minutes.

Top the bialys:
Using your thumb or the bottom of a small glass, depress the middle only of each bialy until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure before you continue that they 'slip'.
Brush the top of each bialy with a thin coating of eggwhite wash. Scoop a teaspoon of onion mixture into the middle depression, smear some up the inner sides and sprinkle a little over the tops. Finish each bialy with 1/2 teaspoon of poppy seeds.

Baking in a woodfired oven:
Your fire should be at least 11/2 hours old. Put a 3 inch thick log and a handful of kindling on the fire about 20 minutes before the bialys are ready, and push fire to the back. Brush the floor clean.
Bake five bialys at a time in a semicircle around the coals. Turn bialys once after 4 minutes. They will bake in about 8 minutes total.

Baking in a conventional oven:
Place a pizza stone or quarry tiles on the center rack. Preheat oven to 400\u00b0 for a half hour. Bake 5 bialys at a time, either directly on the stone or in the cookie sheet on the stone. The bialys will be ready in 10 to 12 minutes, depending on your oven.

See original content and other recipes at www.woodfiredkitchen.com.