This is a follow-up to Glenn's question regarding bialys. No recipes I've
seen regarding making bialys has been remotely close to the real thing, as
my wife and I remember them. The best the recipes seem to produce are
good, though somewhat strange looking onion rolls. The closest I've been
able to come has consisted of making ciabatta dough without the milk,
forming into 4" rounds, dumping them into flour for easily handling (it's a
very very wet dough), letting them proof, poking a depression (not hole) in
the center, and putting in about a quarter to a half teaspoon mixture of
minced onions and bread crumbs, baking at 450F. till browned. But they're
still not right, in my opinion. If anybody's gotten good results and is
familiar with the real thing I'd love to hear from them.
Notes: The ciabatta recipe I use is from Carol Field's "The Italian Baker", a
wonderful book. Milk. Since observant Jews don't consume meat and milk
together, no authentic Jewish bread would ever have milk products as an
ingredient. By leaving out milk, the bread could be eaten with either milk or
meat products (but not at the same time). This makes it very easy to
eliminate many published recipes for "NY" rye bread and bagels -- creative,
maybe, authentic, no.
Mark Judman <Mark_Judman@colpal.com>