Pletzlach

I mentioned earlier that I planned to make some pletzlach to have with my soup. Pletzlach are chewy onion-poppyseed rolls. They are sort of a Jewish foccacia, and you can actually make them either as individual rolls, or two long planks, which you slice to serve. They are a traditional Channukah dish, or so said an article which appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette several years ago. That was the first I'd heard of them, personally. My recipe is an adapted from one in that article.

This recipe uses a lot of yeast, and has a very short rising time. I keep telling myself that they would probably taste more interesting with less yeast, and more rising time, and plan on trying that tactic in the future. It just never seems to be convenient, because I generally wind up making them after work, to go with some pre-made soup. Under those circumstances, a longer prep time is a deal breaker. especially since they really are best more or less right out of the oven.

I think of pletzlach as a close to ideal companion for mushroom barley soup , ukrainain borscht, or any other hearty whole meal type soup. One way in which they differ from a foccacia is that the onion topping is not precooked, but added raw, and cooked along with the rolls. I make them with a Kitchenaid, but it is the sort of bread that can be handkneaded with success. You just have to knead it a little longer than with the mixer.

You need:

about 4 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 tsps sugar
2 tsps salt
1 large onion diced
2 tsps poppy seeds
1 cup warm water
1 tsp kosher salt
1 scant tbsp instant yeast
1 egg, beaten with a little water

Place vegetable oil, yeast, salt and pepper in the bowl of your mixer, and pour warm water over all. Stir. Using dough hook, mix at medium speed, adding flour slowly until dough holds together. Continue beating, adding more flour as dough gets sticky, until it is smooth, and cleaning the sides of the bowl. Continue beating (kneading) with the hook for about 5 minutes. You do not want the dough to be sticky at all, but it should remain a bit soft. Turn into a clean greased bowl, and let rise until doubled, anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F. Divide dough either in half, or in 12 pieces. To make rolls, cover the dough you are not working with. Form each small dough portion into a ball, then roll out, with a floured rolling pin, into an irregular oval, about 1/8" thick. These look nicer if they are not too perfect, I think. Brush with beaten egg, and pierce all over with a fork. Top with a bit of the onion, poppyseed, and kosher salt. In the alternative, two planks can be rolled out and topped in similar fashion. Run rolling pin over topping to press in. Cover and let rest 30 minutes. Cook 25-40 minutes on a pizza stone, or ungreased cookie sheets, until golden brown.

Of course, if you prefer, you can stew the onion in a bit of olive oil first, but I like a slight crunch. These are also nice to pack for lunch, if you are not in the mood to make a sandwich; you can nibble some cheese and fruit with them. Also, they go very well with scrambled eggs for breakfast. Poppyseeds can make a person happy, I find.

Comments

[Susan]

Your writing makes me smile--"Poppyseeds can make a person happy, I find." The perfect zinger!

These look scrumptious, almost a cross between a soft pretzels and a bialy. About timing: It looks like they take at least two hours to make. If you make them when you get home from work you must be pretty hungry by dinner time (unless you get home at 3:30 or so). Have you ever tried freezing the unbaked pletzlachs and taking one out to thaw when you get home? Maybe even baking in the toaster oven?

[lindy]

Susan-Actually, I do get home from work at 3:15pm- I leave the house at 6 am, in case you were feeling envious! But I think the freezing thing might work.
I don't have a toaster over, but I do take baked ones to work and reheat them in a toaster. (Sometimes the onions get a bit burnt, but they haven't set off a smoke alarm yet.)

[Luisa]

I have a recipe for Pletzlach from the NY Times that I keep meaning to try and haven't yet. Yours look totally delicious - yeasty and chewy and oniony, yum. Can't wait to try them.

[Fran1026]

My grandmother, who came from a village near Kiev used to make cookies she called pletzlach. They were hard,only a little sweet, NOT melt in your mouth, or thin and crisp, or crumbly cookies.They had a firm bite, a hazelnut kind of flavor and to my taste they were the most wonderful cookies ever invented. I remember she made a rolled dough and cut the cookins out with a glass.They were topped with a little sugar and chopped hazelnuts.

Tasting them again would be like a sweet visit to a treasured time. If anyone has a recipe for these cookies, I wouldbe very grateful!