I think bialys are bagel dough but made in a bun shape and not boiled....and often made with onions and poppy seed filling.
All the recipes I have seen are just a basic flour, water salt yeast with a little bit of sugar dough.
Do a google search, I am sure there are lots of recipes...and I have a couple if you want...but not tried and true as I have never made them.
Linda C

I've got one but I'll be away the next couple of days. I'll post it then.
Hmmm, maybe I should make some. It's been a while.

Been looking for an excuse to make these. Maybe the act of typing it out will serve as a spur. Recipe is from the March, 1996 issue of Eating Well:

Onion Bialys

2 tbls active dry yeast
5 tsp sugar
4-5 cups white bread flour, preferably unbleached
1 tbls kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
1-2 tbls cornmeal for sprinkling baking sheets
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 1/2 tbls poppy seeds
1 tbls vegetable oil
1 large egg

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, yeast and sugar until the yeast dissolved. Stir in 1 cup of the flour. Stir in 1 tbls of the salt and enough additional flour to make a soft dough, about 2 1/2 cups.

Turn the dough out onto a lightlhy floured surface and knead, gradually incormporating more flour as needed to prevent sticking, until the dough is smooth and elastic, 8-10 minutes. Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and let rise 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, lightly sprinklw with cornmeal and set aside.

Stir together onions, poppy seeds and oil in a small bowl and set aside. In another small bowl, whisk the egg and 2 tbls of water together.

When the dough has risen, punch it down and divide it into 12 equal pieces; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll or stretch each peice into a 4-5-inch oval and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Brush each bialy with the gee & water mixture and sprinklw with a heaping tablespoon of the onion-poppyseed misture and some salt. Cover with a floured dish towel and let rise until the appear fuffy, 30-40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the bialys in the oven, recue the heat to 425 and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 12 bialys.

These are the ones I make:

New York Bialys
(Servings: 16)

2 cups warm water
1 package yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons coarse Kosher salt
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups gluten flour

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/3 cup minced onion
1/2 teaspoon salt

In large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the warm water, the yeast and the sugar, and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add remaining water, salt, flour and gluten flour to yeast mixture. Knead on a floured surface (or in a mixer) until smooth. The dough will be soft.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to ensure all the dough is coated with oil. Leave to rise in a warm place until tripled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down, turn over and leave to rise again until doubled.

Punch dough down again and roll into two cylinders. Cut each cylinder into 8 rounds. Lay them flat, cover with a towel and let them rest. Prepare topping by mixing together the oil, poppy seeds, minced onion and salt. Set aside.

Pat dough into flattened rounds a little higher in the middle than the edges, about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on a lightly floured board, cover with a dry towel and then a damp towel, and let rise until about half increased in bulk, about 30 minutes.

Press the bottom of a shot glass into the centre of each bialy to make a deep indentation. Place filling in the indentation. Let rise another 15 minutes (do not let them double).

Preheat oven to 425F. Put bialys on ungreased baking sheets and bake for 6-7 minutes before switching pans and turning them around so they will brown evenly, and bake another 5-6 minutes.

Cool on racks. Store in plastic bags in the refrigerator or the freezer.

These are fiddly but not difficult, and VERY yummy!

Colleen, I just tried making your bialys. I must be doing something wrong.

Mixed the ingredients as per directions, and got a very loose dough. Batter would be more like it. So started adding more flour. Would up adding a full extra cup, and it's still on the loose side. Soft doesn't begin to describe it. There is no way it could be turned in the bowl to coat with oil.

Didn't want to add too much flour, so merely sprayed it with oil. And it's rising now.

But, obviously, I'm doing something wrong. Any guesses?

Hi Gardenlad -- I'm wondering if she posted the wrong amount of water by accident, as most bread doughs are around 1 cup of liquid to 4 cups of flour?

Emily

Hmmmmmmm, Joe, it's been a while since I made them so I can't say. The dough shouldn't be that sloppy. I double checked the recipe and those are the quantities. Now I HAVE to make a batch to find out! Luckily the temperature has dropped here from the 110F+ it was up until yesterday, so it's cool enough to bake.

Em, that's what I was thinking. But a whole extra cup of flour (bringing the total almost to 6 cups)didn't make a whole lot of difference. Nor would it, given your 1:4 rule of thumb.

I wound up tossing the whole thing, as it was totally unworkable.

Meanwhile, I made the recipe I'd posted the other day. It makes an interesting roll, and tastes fine. But it's most assuredly not a New York style bialy--which is soft & chewy, and which has the onions in the middle, as with Colleen's recipe.

I don't know what went wrong for you, Joe. I just made up a batch; the only difference was that having no gluten flour I used 4 3/4 cups of all purpose flour. I mixed the first 1/2 cup of water with the flour and yeast, let it foam, then poured in another 1 1/2 cups of water and then the flour/salt mix. If anything the dough was a little stiff. Now it's out on the back step doubled and well on its way to tripling. The other thing is that I use a 250ml cup measure, but since the difference is very small and the proportions are the same I don't think that's the issue.

I'm sorry you had to toss this.

I just had one of the bialys with cream cheese and am glad I made a big enough batch to freeze some as it took a lot of the day, mostly just waiting around time. Still don't know what went wrong for you, though. You didn't start off with the water, yeast and sugar and then add another 2 cups of water, did you (she said, grasping at straws)?

No, I added an additional 1 3/4 cups of water. But even if I'd gone an extra quarter cup, the full extra cup of flour should have taken care of that.

Is a definate puzzlement.

BTW, who is Joe?

Sorry, this tired brain is confusing you with someone else :-) Oops.

The bread I make most oftem is a ratio of 1 1/2 cups of water to 4 cups of flour...so another 1/2 cup of water and another 3/4 cups of flour would make a very wet dough...but no way a batter...
The recipe should be OK... gardenlad....check your measuring cups.
I once picked up a 2 cup measure...glass like the 2 cuppers I usually use....and wondered what was wrong.
Linda C

Linda these are the same cups I use for every other bread I make; a combination of stainless steel individual cups and glass multi-measurers.

Only thing I can think of is that I counted wrong when pulling the flour. But even if I counted 3 1/2 but pulled 2 1/2, the extra I added later should have made up for it.

So I think it's something else that I did wrong. But the question is, what?