Karbon Kounty Moos

Many moons ago, (in a previous life) I was working at a coffee shop on the Lower East Side. It was a lot like the Olympia Cafe, and it was also a donut shop. I was waiting tables, and helping out at the counter with take out orders. It was here that I first encountered folks who added sugar to their hot chocolate.

One morning, the short order cook wasn’t going to be able to come in. The owner called an employment agency and they sent a fillin. He was a kid from the neighborhood who came in and just wandered around.
I said, “you’d better get the home fries started.”
He said, “Home fries?”
I said, “the potatoes.”
He looked lost, so we went to the kitchen.
I got the homefries started, as he watched, and then helped.
I asked him, “Where did you work before?”
He told me, “A tire shop.”
I shuddered, but the kid’s mama had taught him well, and he went right to work.
A couple hours later, the counter was packed.
I called out, “One buttered bialy!”
From the griddle, Angel called back, “What’s a bialy?”

Found at The Cook’s Thesaurus:

bialy Pronunciation: bee-AH-lee Notes: These chewy Jewish rolls have indentations on top which are filled with onions. Look for them in bagel shops. Substitutes: bagel

Back to the present - I found this recipe one food craving day and enjoyed it. In New York City, you’d never think about baking bagels or bialys. Why on earth would you? But I did make these here in Montana - they were easy and a little bit of heaven. This recipe was cut & pasted from i.chef - so the apostrophes are not mine!

New York Bialy’s
Average Rating: (4 votes)

Yield: 16 servings

Ingredients
2 c Warm (110 degree) water
1 pk Yeast
2 ts Sugar
2 1/2 ts Coarse kosher salt
1 1/4 c Gluten flour
3 1/2 c All purpose flour

————–TOPPING——————-
1 tb Vegetable oil
1 1/2 ts Poppy seeds
1/3 c Minced onion
1/2 ts Salt

Instructions
1. In large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup warm water, yeast, & sugar and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

2. Mix remaining 1 1/2 cups warm water, salt, gluten flour, and all purpose flourinto yeast mixture. Knead on a flour surface (or mixer) until smooth. (the dough will be soft).

3. Place dough ball in a greased bowl, turn it around and place with it’s greased side up. Let rise, cover with plastic until tripled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hrs.

4. Punch dough down, turn it over, cover and let rise until doubled.

5. Punch dough down and roll into 2 cylinders. Cut each into 8 rounds. Lay them flat, cover with a towel and let rest.

6. Prepare toppingby mixing all topping ingredients. Set aside

7. Pat dough into flattened rounds (a little higher in middle). about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on lightly floured board,cover with a dry towel and then a damp towel and let rise until increased by about half in bulk. (half proofed). takes about 30 minutes.

8. Press bottom of small shot glass in center of each bialy, to make deep indentation in bialy. Let rise another 15 minutes. (DO NOT LET THEM DOUBLE).

9. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

10. Put bialy’s on ungreased baking sheets. bake on upper and lower shelves of the oven for 6 to 7 minutes, then switch pans and reverse positions of pans(front to back) until bialy’s are evenly browned, about 5 to 6 minutes more.

11. Cool on racks. Store bialys in a plastic bag in fridge or freezer.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright © 2004

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 17th, 2004 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.