Dear PJ, You requested a recipe for bialys in the chocolate chip cookie blog, and I think I can help. Originally from Long Island, but now living in California (where they don't know from bialys), my bialy starved family would stock up on bialys whenever we returned to New York. When our local bialy bakery changed ownership, the bialys were no longer authentic or worth carrying them back to CA. Ordering online from H&H bagels in NYC resulted in authentic looking bialys but they weren't so fresh. I found three recipes for bialys, the best of which was from George Greenstein's book, "Secrets of a Jewish Baker" which is no longer in print but available used on Amazon.com. After trial and error, and tweaking the recipes, the resulting recipe is very close, but would benefit from a professional evaluation from you. My greatest problem is that sometimes the large holes within are perfect, and sometimes the crumb is too fine. I find that the wetter the dough, the better the holes. So here's the recipe, which makes 16 bialys: Bialys 2 cups warm water 2 packages active dry yeast 3 teaspoons sugar 5 1/2 cups of bread flour (King Arthur of course) 2 3/4 teaspoons of kosher salt bread flour for dusting cornmeal for baking sheets oil or cooking spray for greasing bowl Topping 1/4 - 1/2 cup of dried, minced onion flakes 1 teaspoon vegetable oil pinch of salt Place warm water in bowl of mixer, add yeast and let sit for one minute Add 1 cup of flour, stir, and wait 10 minutes Add remaining flour, then salt, and mix with bread hook for 10 - 12 minutes While the dough is kneading, add warm water to the dry minced onion and set aside Knead by hand until smooth, then place into large oiled bowl and turn to coat Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray, and allow to rise for 30 minutes Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Press out air with your fingers and allow to rise until doubled in size, 20 - 30 minutes. Drain the minced onion Punch down the dough, divide into fourths, roll into ropes and cut into four pieces each rope. I weigh them to be sure they are even in size. Roll into balls. Cover and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Roll each ball into a 3 - 4 inch circle. If the dough resists rolling, allow it to rest and go on to the next piece. When all are rolled, take each one and gently stretch it to have a slightly irregular shape, and place onto lightly cornmeal dusted baking pans (I use parchment for easier clean-up, but still use the cornmeal). Cover with either flour rubbed cloths or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray, and allow to rise until puffy. When you can see some good sized bubbles within, add the teaspoon of oil and the pinch of salt to the drained minced onion. Place an indentation into the center of the bialy (press hard but not through the dough) so that there is a one inch rim of dough surrounding a flattened center (I use a shot glass to press). Place the minced onion mixture into the center of each bialy. Lightly dust tops of dough with additional bread flour to make them look more authentic. Bake without steam for 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top. I hope you'll make these and let me know of any changes to improve the recipe. Love reading your blog and recipes. Pat Punim Pat, I'm dying to try these - thanks for doing most of the work already! Coincidentally, we just started carrying Secrets of a Jewish Baker again - carried it long ago. We have it online as of Monday, new copies, not used. I know it's cheaper on Amazon, but sometimes, if you're one of those who doesn't deal with Amazon - we have it, too. I'll let you know how these come out- thanks again. PJH

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