What is a bialy?
In her definitive book The Bialy Eaters, Mimi Sheraton describes a bialy as “the squashy, crusty, onion-topped bread roll eaten as an alternative to the bagel.” She then goes on to say that “I cannot remember when I first ate one of these fragrant rolls, but surely it was addiction at first bite, starting with the mouthwatering scent of onions and yeast and the crisp bread’s affinity for sweet butter and fluffy cream cheese.” Sheraton and I don’t agree on much, but we both share a passion for these rolls that a cheeky waiter at New York’s Barney Greengrass restaurant once described to an uninitiated friend of mine as the Jewish English muffin. A toasted bialy (and you must toast a bialy, unless you get one fresh out of the oven) is the perfect vehicle for cream cheese or butter. It’s light and substantial, crunchy and pliant, and just salty, yeasty, and oniony enough. Though many bagel bakeries across America sell holeless bagels they call bialys, in reality only a handful of bakeries
A Bialy, simply put, is a form of a roll that comes from a place called Bialystok (meaning: White Rolling Hills) in Poland. It is based on a simple-but-tasty recipe of only natural ingredients consisting of flour, water, yeast, and salt, topped with onions or garlic. The process is a simple one, yet it is labor intensive. Our bakers employ old-style care and craftsmanship in creating the finest tasting bialys in the world. Kossar’s is proud to say that we hand bake everything, with little automation. From the mixing of the dough, to the hand-crafting of the dough balls (tagelach) into the bialy’s trademark shape, to the actual placement on the peels and into the brick oven and baking. This method ensures the proper texture that is often lost when placed on a conveyor. Our Ingredients are basic and simple, but complex when mixing. We use the finest high gluten flour, the best brewers yeast, New York tap water, fine salt, and freshly ground onions. The right mixture of the ingredients al
