About This Recipe

Bialy: The most versatile, underrated bread

I first discovered bialy in the sourdough cookbook “Wild Bread” by MaryJane Butters. Her book was my first introduction to sourdough, though I have long since diverted from her techniques. Still, I go back to her book for recipe inspiration and ‘bialy’ had been one on my list.

After intense research on the bread, I was so excited when I recreated it in my own kitchen. It had to be in my top ten list of favorite breads… but why was it so unheard of?

Bialy has a limited shelf life, due to the nature of the bread in combination with the traditional onion filling. It really is best the first day. The bread was brought to the United States by Jews fleeing from Poland, yet ended up being forgotten in Poland (replaced with a similar bread called “cebularz”) and never made it outside of New York in the USA, leaving the bread unknown by many.

This bread has so much potential and can be incredibly versatile. I hope to give it a second life through my blog. Find my original, traditional bialy recipe here. Stick around for some fun takes of my own imagination, beginning with this jalapeño popper version of the recipe.

What makes a Jalapeño popper?

Jalapeño poppers are very popular where I am from. I did not even realize there were so many interpretations of jalapeño poppers until I set to the internet for a bit of research. What I consider a “jalapeño popper” is simply a jalapeño with which the insides have been removed and replaced with cream cheese. Everything is wrapped in bacon and grilled outdoors until the bacon is cooked dark and the jalapeño is soft. This recipe takes inspiration from this version of a jalapeño popper, utilizing jalapeño, cream cheese, and bacon to create a delectable bialy filling.

How to make bialy

Original Bialy Recipe and Video

This jalapeño popper bialy recipe is the first of a series on adventurous and fun bialy fillings. This post focuses on the change in filling, so I will not be going over the full recipe step-by-step as I usually do. You can find my complete, original bialy recipe post here. My original post includes all the “why’s” behind the recipe, as well as suggested baking timelines and, of course, the full recipe video. I have also linked the video below, so that you can see how to make the dough.

Jalapeño Popper Filling

In place of the traditional onion filling, I use jalapeños, bacon, and cream cheese to mimic the flavors of a jalapeño popper. To make the filling, I fry diced bacon in a skillet until it starts to grease, then add diced jalapeños and cook until the bacon is crispy and the jalapeños are soft. I drain the grease from the mixture as much as possible, then mix with softened cream cheese until everything is smooth and well incorporated.

Feel free to play around with the cooking method to suit your taste and texture preferences. You do not have to cook the jalapeño if you do not want to. Or, you could roast the jalapeños in the oven with the bacon until everything is cooked to your liking before dicing and adding to the cream cheese.

If you are into appearances, this filling does still release some grease in the oven, which may affect the top of your bialy, depending on how much grease you were able to drain and how well you formed the center of the bialy (so it does not pop up in the oven and spill filling out of the center hole). I originally tried adding cheddar cheese to the tops of the bialy, but the cheese also released grease and the appearance was much worse, while the flavor profile was not much improved.

This jalapeño popper bialy is all about flavor. I hope you’ll enjoy this exciting Southern take on bialy.

Jalapeño Popper Bialy

Recipe by Caitlin VincentCourse: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, SideDifficulty: Intermediate

Prep time

minutes

Resting Time

6-12

hours

Baking Time

minutes

Yield

bialy

Ingredients

For the dough
250 g water
75 g active starter
360 g bread flour (I use King ArthurBread Flour)
7 g salt
For the filling
4 slices bacon, chopped
2 jalapenos, diced
4 oz cream cheese, softened
Other ingredients
Cornmeal, for dusting

Directions

Mix and knead all ingredients for the dough (water, starter, flour, and salt) for 5 minutes. The flour should be completely incorporated and gluten development should be initiated. Cover the dough and rest for 30 minutes.
Strengthen the dough.
- Knead the dough for 3-5 minutes. Set a timer and stop kneading when the timer is up. It is not essential to develop the dough completely, as this recipe uses a hybrid method (kneading/folds) to develop the gluten, meaning we will finish developing the gluten through folds. You can use any method of kneading here that you feel comfortable with - bowl folds, bench kneading, slap-and-folds, or Rubaud mixing. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes before beginning stretch-and-folds. The dough should have formed a windowpane after this rest period, before stretch-and-folds begin.
- Stretch-and-fold the dough (3-4 sets). Using two hands, stretch the dough up as far as it will go without tearing, then fold it all the way over to the other side. Repeat at least once in each cardinal direction, or until the dough will not stretch anymore (4-8 folds). Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes before doing another set of stretch and folds. Perform three to four sets of folds in total, until the dough does not stretch anymore.
Bulk ferment the dough. Let the dough rest until it has doubled in size, 10-11 hours at 70 F.
Heavily dust a half-size sheet pan with cornmeal.
Shape the dough. Divide the dough into eight pieces, 80-85g each. Shape each piece into a round. To do this, pull the dough toward you, using your pinkies to tuck the dough under itself and tighten the surface. Repeat until a nice, tight round is formed.
Transfer each round onto the cornmeal-laiden sheet pan, coating the entire outside (top, bottom, and sides) of the dough with cornmeal.
Final proof. Let the dough proof again until noticeably puffy and almost doubled once more, 2-4 hours at 70 F.
Preheat an oven to 500 F for at least one hour before baking the bialy.
Make the jalapeño popper filling. Dice 4 slices of uncooked bacon and two jalapeños. Add the bacon to a skillet. Sauté over medium-high heat until the bacon begins to dispense grease. Add the jalapeños to the skillet, sautéing everything together until the jalapenos are soft (but not brown) and the bacon is crispy. Remove from heat.
Drain the grease from the bacon and jalapeños, blotting dry with a towel.
Combine the bacon, jalapeños, and softened cream cheese in a bowl, mixing with a fork until everything is evenly dispensed. Set aside.
Final shape. When the oven is finished preheating, the bialy are finished proofing, and the jalapeño popper filling has been made: prepare the bialy for the oven. Take each round and, working from the middle, rotate and stretch the dough to expand the round, allowing gravity to pull the dough downward. We want the outer edges to be like a bagel, but we want to keep a thin sheet of dough in the center (no hole). Transfer to parchment paper (to be transferred to a baking stone, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper if you do not have a baking stone). Use your fingers to make an indentation defining the center of the bialy, then firmly press down in the center to remove any extra air. If the center is not thin enough, it will pop up in the hot oven (like pita bread) and will spill the filling everywhere.
Fill the center of each bialy with 1 tbsp of the jalapeño popper filling.
Optionally, spray the tops of the bialy with water (this helps them expand properly in my gas oven).
Bake at 500 F for 15-18 minutes, with steam for the first 10 minutes (as the dough is expanding). You can use any preferred method of steam that works for your home oven (boiling water, ice, lava rocks, etc.). Be sure to remove the steam after 10 minutes so the bialy can brown properly.
Cool for 15-20 minutes, then enjoy fresh.
How to store: These are best eaten fresh. If you must store, store at room temperature up to three days.
To reheat: Toast in an air fryer or reheat in your home oven until warmed through and crisped to your liking.

Notes

If you want to use the refrigerator to expand the baking timeline, you can do so at the end of bulk fermentation (before the final proof). You will need to make the final proof longer if you choose to do this (6-8 hours at 70 F) to accommodate the cold dough.
You could use the oven to cook the bacon and jalapeño, instead of the stovetop. Place everything on a sheet pan, then roast at 400 F until the bacon is cooked crispy and the jalapeño is soft. Drain, dice, then combine with softened cream cheese.