Bialy Challah
[Jeffrey] A number of years ago, in a cab in Warsaw, I asked my driver, an older gentleman, if he remembered anything about Jews from before the war. “I remember their bakeries,” he said. “The bread in Poland hasn’t been the same since.”
His words stuck with me. Especially during a visit to a Polish bakery outside of Lublin with my Gefilteria co-conspirator Liz Alpern to learn from the baker who specialized in a regional bread, Cebularz, once commonly baked by Jews in the Lubelskie province. Cebularz (se-boo-losh), first cousin once removed from the bialy, is a flat roll baked with a hearty helping of raw onions and poppy seeds sprinkled on top.
As baking is a universal language, but Polish is most certainly not, Liz and I followed the head baker’s motions, mixing caked yeast with flour, water and salt, and then kneading the mix into a pliable dough. At the ancient mechanical dough divider––whose gyrating motions were captivating––we formed balls of dough, which we then flattened and spread with the onion and poppy mixture. Then we slid the rolls onto the paddle and into the wood fired oven.
As we waited for our rolls to bake in the oven, our Polish baking guide smiled at us and playfully rolled the extra balls of dough into three strands, then braided three of them like a chalkah (a small braided brioche derived from challah). We smiled, picked up six strands of dough and began a six-braid challah. He was excited since he didn’t seem to know how to do the more elaborate braiding style. I showed him, weaving the strands together slowly, and we began trading techniques, without words, braiding the rest of the dough into increasingly elaborate-looking challahs with bialy and cebularz DNA.
When we returned to the US, I was inspired to add more onions and poppy seeds to my baking repertoire, and, specifically, to honor the Jewish bakers that my cab driver remembered so fondly. I wanted to pay homage to that moment in the bakery, too, to our distinct yet intertwined cultures taking shape in a loaf of bread. Liz and I began bringing a new dream challah to life. The result is Bialy Challah, an ode to the bialy and cebularz, and to the legacy of Jewish baking in Poland.
Serving Size
2 medium bialy challahs
Ingredients
2 (¼-ounce) packets active dry yeast (4½ teaspoons)
⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
¹/³ cup lukewarm water
1 cup boiling water
¼ cup vegetable oil or grapeseed oil
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten, 1 Tbsp reserved for egg wash
5 to 6 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed
For the onion filling:
6 tablespoon grapeseed or canola oil
4 large yellow onions, minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
8 teaspoons poppy seeds
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine the yeast, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, and the lukewarm water. Stir and set aside. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the remaining ⅓ cup sugar, the boiled water, oil, and salt. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the beaten eggs, pour in the yeast mixture, and stir to combine.
Add the flour 1 cup at a time. Start by stirring with a fork, then switch to kneading by hand or using the stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add more flour as needed to avoid a sticky dough. Knead the dough until it is soft and pliable, pulls away from the sides of the bowl and bounces back when you poke it with your finger. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.
While the dough is rising, prepare the onion filling. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, until they are shrunken and slightly caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the poppy seeds and salt. Split the mixture in half, in two separate bowls (one for each challah loaf) and set aside.
When the dough has risen, punch it down and split in half. Separate each half into three, even-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a long, thick strand (as you would with a regular challah strand). One by one, on a flour-dusted surface, flatten each strand with a rolling pin. Distribute onion and poppy mixture on the center of the dough strand, leaving a perimeter of dough around the filling. Fold over lengthwise, sealing the ends together with tines of a fork so that your onions and poppy seeds are wrapped up in a long dough bundle. Repeat this process with all 3 strands and braid the strands tightly into a loaf. It can be a bit messy, but allow any loose onion-poppy mixture to find its way onto the dough while braiding. For those who want a bit more of a challenge (and a more dramatic challah), separate each ball of dough into 6 pieces, fill the six challah strands as above, and use the 6-braid method to form a challah, folding it up tightly. Repeat the process with the remaining piece of dough to form a second challah. When you’ve braided your loaves, place on a parchment lined sheet tray and brush with egg wash. (Alternatively, roll out strands of dough, fill them as described above, and tie them into knots for sandwich rolls.)
Set aside the loaves to rise for 45 minutes, as it puffs up again. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the challah for 35 to 40 minutes, on the middle rack of the oven. At 30 minutes, check the challah by (carefully) lifting each one up and tapping the bottom with a knuckle. If it sounds hollow and the outside of the challah is a brownish color, it’s ready. If it sounds completely solid or is still pale in color or doughy in the places where the braids meet, bake for 5 minutes more and test again. Remove the loaves from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. The Bialy Challah lasts for a few days due to the moisture from the oil and onions. Bialy challah freezes well (wrap in foil, then place in a freezer bag). Just thaw and reheat slightly before serving.