I dice my onions - I use two medium or one giant onion - pretty finely, and saute it slowly over low-medium heat, with one teaspoon salt, as Debbie Jo's bubbie instructs, until translucent but not browned. I spoon out three generous serving spoons of onion. Reserve two. Spread the third spoon of onions on a foil sheet and sprinkle lightly with poppy seeds and breadcrumbs, and let them toast to dark brown while continuing to prepare the rolls. Mix about 1/4 tsp. poppy seeds and 1/2 tsp, bread crumbs to the reserved two spoonfuls of onions, and spread on wax paper or parchment. I mix the larger portion of the onion with two generous teaspoons of poppy seeds and one generous teaspoon of caraway seeds (substituting fennel or dill seeds if you prefer that flavor profile optional), and 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs and saute another minute or so. That larger portion, split in half, is what you will spread on the divided-in-two-halves rolled-out and squared-off challah dough (18 by 10 inches), then folding bottom third up and top third down so you have two 18x3 rolls, Spread and press the reserved two spoons of onion and seeds onto the tops of the rolls, and then sprinkle the toasted portion for color. Then cut each roll into six pieces and let rise on parchment-lined baking sheets, and let rise 45-60 minutes in warm part of the kitchen, brush risen rolls with egg wash, and bake in 350 degree preheated oven 10-12 minutes until mottled brown. Remove to cooling rack for 10-15 minutes and serve. The onions will not burn, inside or out, but the toasty dark browned onions are the ultimate finishing touch. If you grew up eating fat cigar-shaped onion rolls rather then the folded, squarish onion pocket rolls that my recipe makes, I'd simply spread the onion/seed mix on the bottom two-thirds of the rolled-our challah dough and roll up and pinch shut instead of folding. I'm a Skokie/Lincolnwood boy; we got the fat cigar onion rolls from Kaufmann's Bagel Bakery on Dempster. For reasons never clear to me, many of not most Chicago-area Jewish delis and bakeries marketed these as "California onion rolls," while usually calling the flatter, squarer version "onion pockets", What the part that was allegedly Californian, or why that should appeal to Jews, I never knew. I lived in LA for a dozen years, where I found a number of places I could get great onion rolls, challah, bagels, and bialys, among many other things, but those places never referred to "California onion rolls." But now that I am in the Bay Area, I have to make my own onion rolls.

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