Ingredients
Hot sauce (a few drops to taste, for spread)
4 Tbsp. milk (for spread, 48g)
4 Tbsp. fresh dill (finely chopped, for spread, 4g)
4 Tbsp. fresh parsley (finely chopped, for spread, 6g)
4 Tbsp. fresh thyme (finely chopped, for spread, 4g)
1/2 tsp. pepper (for spread, 3g)
1 tsp. salt (for spread, 6g)
4 garlic cloves (minced, for spread)
16 oz. cream cheese (for spread, 454g)
2 logs goat cheese (10 oz. per log, for spread, 566g)
wheat bran (reserved from the whole wheat flour, for coating)
1/2 tsp. black pepper (for onion filling, 3g)
5 tsp. poppy seeds (for onion filling, 15g)
2 tsp. salt (for onion filling, 12g)
3 cups yellow onion (finely chopped, for onion filling, 396g)
4 Tbsp. olive oil (for onion filling, 40g)
3 tsp. salt (for dough, 20g)
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast (for dough, 9g)
2 1/2 cups water (for dough, room temperature, 540g)
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (milled from whole wheat grain, bran sifted and removed, for dough, 220g)
3 1/4 cups bread flour (for dough, 500g)
1 tsp. salt (for preferment, 6g)
1/2 tsp. instant yeast (for preferment, 2g)
2/3 cup water (plus 2 Tbsp. (360g / 200ml), room temperature, for preferment)
1 1/2 cups dark rye flour (milled from rye berries, for preferment, 180g)
2 cups bread flour (for preferment, 280g)
Step by step
Equipment needed: KitchenAid® 7 Qt. Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer, Dough Hook, Flat Beater, Grain Mill Attachment, Baking stone, Sheet pan
Mill the grains: Attach Grain Mill to Stand Mixer. Mill approximately 2 cup (240g) rye berries to get 1 1/2 cups (180g) fine rye flour. Repeat with whole wheat grain kernels. Mill 3 cups whole wheat grain to get 2 cups (250g) fine whole wheat flour.
Make the preferment: Add preferment ingredients to large bowl with salt and yeast at opposite ends. Mix together. Cover with plastic wrap or use a plastic container with a lid. Leave for 12 hours overnight at cool room temperature, until doubled in size. Make sure the bowl has enough room for the dough to double without touching the plastic wrap or lid.
Make the dough: Sift 2 cups (250g) whole wheat flour through a fine sieve to separate the fine flour from the bran. Reserve in separate bowls.
Attach Dough Hook to Stand Mixer. Add 3 1/4 cups (500g) bread flour, 1 3/4 cups (220g) whole wheat flour with bran removed, 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast and 2 1/2 cups (540g) water to mixer bowl. Mix on speed 3 for a few minutes until a shaggy dough forms. Let rest in bowl for 30 minutes.
Add preferment and 3 teaspoons (20g) salt to dough in mixer bowl. Mix on speed 2 for 5 minutes.
Place dough in a covered and oiled bowl. Let rest for 75 minutes.
Pour dough onto a well-floured surface and sift additional flour across the top. Press dough out gently to flatten. Divide into 24 portions (88g each) and shape each into a ball. Arrange balls on countertop and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Let rest another 60 minutes.
Place a baking stone in the middle rack of the oven and preheat to 500°F.
Prepare the onion filling: In a small sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and salt, then sauté, stirring often, for about 7 minutes or until translucent. Remove from heat, add poppy seeds and pepper, then stir to combine. Set aside to cool.
Shape the Bialy: Line an 18"x13" sheet pan with parchment and sprinkle with a little of the sifted bran removed from the whole wheat flour.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, hold the dough ball with both hands, both thumbs on the bottom of the ball and first two fingers on top. Pinch the center of the dough tightly between your thumbs and fingers and gently stretch the dough to around 5" in diameter, forming a three finger wide crater in the center where you pinched. Lay dough on the sheet pan and continue to shape. Avoid pushing down on the edges so they stay puffy and risen. You will now have a 5" bagel, but instead of a hole in the middle, there is a bowl shape where you can spread filling.
Continue shaping each dough ball until you have six finished rounds on the parchment-lined pan. To the center crater of each bialy, add a heaping teaspoon of the onion-poppy seed filling and smooth it out to fill up the center.
Mist the top of each bialy with water and sprinkle more of the sifted bran around the edges, avoiding the center filling.
Bake the Bialy: Bake the sheet pan directly on a baking stone for 10 to 12 minutes at 500°F, rotating the pan halfway.
While the first six bake, you can shape the remaining 18 dough balls on separate parchments laid out on the countertop.
Transfer cooked bialys to a cooling rack and bake remaining batches until all 24 are done.
Make the goat cheese spread: While bialys cool, attach Flat Beater to Stand Mixer. Add all spread ingredients to mixer bowl. Beat at speed 1 until well combined, then increase to speed 5 for 1 to 2 minutes.
Tips: To serve, cut bialys in half and spread with goat cheese.
When baking bread doughs, measure ingredients by weight in grams for consistent results. Flour density packed into a cup measurement can have differences of up to 70 grams or more.
Coating the bialys with the bran keeps the inside crumb of the bialy soft while retaining the nutrition of the whole wheat bran.
If you don’t have a squirt bottle of water for misting the bialys, you can lightly brush them with a damp pastry brush instead.
Lox or cold smoked salmon and sliced cucumbers are a wonderful addition to this recipe.
You can substitute any kind of hot sauce, but Tabasco works well.