Bielis / Cebularz / Bialystoker kuchen / Bialys

A pastry between New York and Poland.

The Bialies are a yeast pastry with a high, soft ring in the center of which is a crisp dimple with onion and poppy.

A random walk on the Internet led me to discover the article "100 Most Jewish Foods" on Tablet Magazine.

Mimi Sheraton, author of the books "The Bialy Eaters" and "1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die," tells about a Bialystoker kuchen, a yeast pastry with fried onions and poppies in the middle.

Now we will go back in the time tunnel to the mid-late 19th century when the Babilis were baked in the bakeries of Bialystok, Poland.

We will move a little toward the beginning of the 20th century to the time when Jews from Eastern Europe immigrated to New York, they brought with them a desire for a new future and a good life, but did not forget the tastes from the old house.

The changing fashions and the years pass, we are in New York at the time, when Jewish mafiosis in Bialis sell to every Pole who misses her home ... A little more to the future and the existing argument is that today only one bakery continues to prepare the Babilis in New York.

You certainly remember what I and Bialystok had , so I decided to look for some more information about the interesting pastry. There are stories in the Net about the descendants of the Jews of Bialystok who emigrated to the United States, claiming that the source for Biyalis comes from their family, it is a bit like searching for the source of a focaccia ...

I read many articles and comments, the most interesting of which was a Polish girl who wrote that Sheylis in general are called Cebularz.

In the wake of that Polish girl I looked for a bit more of the Ballys, Kvolhertz, whatever you choose to call them ...

Further searches led to the discovery of additional claims that this is actually a pastry from Lublin! And today it is even officially recognized as a Lublin bakery ... From here the story only gets complicated.

Search results interesting recipes were written, the fact is that a basis is: water, flour, salt, yeast, onion and poppy ... So I chose to focus on the recipe that brought food blogger I rely on recipes she brings, it comes at Smitten Kitchen , made him following the match My preparation.

A last touch of a lady from the days of Sheraton, she relates that the New York Bayels are smaller than Bialystok's, the size of a salad plate. I chose to design them in New York Style.

There are those who like to add butter from their top, others rich cream cheese and salmon, I say that it does not matter if you focus on them as they are or that they will accompany your breakfast, they are irresistible.

In our case the Ballys accompanied a delicate tomato soup with a Tuscan scent, and I served rich cream cheese with them, too, and they carried nice compliments for a light lunch.