Tuesday, January 24, 2012

AH, AT LAST NORM'S ONION ROLLS...

When things are good, they're very good, and this week's bake lived up to my Brooklyn standards. I can't remember the last time I had a real ONION ROLL, but my house has never smelled so good. This recipe was the one that started the insatiable hunger for these old Jewish bakery recipes, leading to the book.

The most important thing I learned about using fresh onion on top of bread is NOT TO USE FRESH ONION because it tends to burn. The better technique is to use dried onion. Soak it for 30 minutes by covering with boiling water, then drain & blot dry with paper towels.  After that you can mix it with the other topping ingredients. Because the reconstituted onion contains so much moisture, it browns instead of burns.

After dividing the dough into individual rounds, they rested briefly then the top was flattened in the onion-poppy seed-salt-oil mixture.


They were placed twelve per pan, covered and allowed to rise.



They really plumped and started touching each other...how romantic.

 
Just before going in the oven, each one was "belly-buttoned",
by pushing my very sterile finger into its center, thereby 
creating the navel. No signs of lint were detected.


They almost looked like bagels, but it's a very different softer dough.



The aroma was heady and they were beautiful. It was hard 
to wait long enough to try a few, but we were patient...sorta.


Our brave and patient Taste-Testers were on hand to dive into
the warm bread, along with assorted homemade jam. These Onion 
Rolls have a thin crisp crust with a billowly soft interior crumb, 
perfect for a great sandwich. I made one with rare roast beef, 
lettuce and Russian Dressing...heavenly. The only thing better 
would be a Kaiser Roll, but that's later on this challenge. 
Hope I can wait that long.

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This is the week that I bake for a local food co-op
and will have the following available:
Blueberry Lemon Muffins
Cranberry Orange Muffins
Vegan Pumpkin Date Raisin Muffins
Breadstix (Assorted, Kalamata or Rosemary Parmigiano)
Various Homemade Jam & Chutney 
Vegan Dark Belgium Chocolate & Cherry Cookies  

email bonnibakes@gmail or call (941) 746-6647 
to reserve  for pick-up

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This Friday Jan 27 come taste our next bake

MANDELBROYT 
the classic Jewish version of Biscotti 

Anna & I will be giving out samples between 2-4 at
my home, The TreeHouse, just down the driveway at
932 12th St., Bradenton (Village of the Arts)

If you want to order some Almond Chocolate Chip Mandelbroyt for pick-up Friday, email me.

Limited availibity. Orders are only guaranteed if you receive an email confirmation.
 

2 comments:

  1. Would you be willing to post the recipe for the Onion Rolls? -they sounded awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This looks seriously fantastic.....!lovely n delicious .it tastes yummy too!
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    ReplyDelete