SOURDOUGH BIALYS

Steps:

• The instructions below are for baking bialys fresh in the morning with no refrigeration of the dough. Other schedules are fine too, of course. For example the dough can be mixed in the morning instead of at night, then pre-shaped into balls and refrigerated overnight to shape and bake the next morning. (Retarding the dough like that will make a more sour bialy.) The timing here works for a cool kitchen, 65-70F. If you're making this bread in much hotter ambient temperatures, you can use very cold water in the starter and dough mix; or you can use less starter. For example, halve the starter build components to total 130g ripe starter, and add that missing 65g flour and 65g water to the dough ingredients.
• The Morning Before Baking
• Feed 20g of sourdough starter with 120g flour and 120g water. Leave covered at room temperature to expand throughout the day. By evening it should be somewhere between doubled and tripled. If it's looking sluggish, put it somewhere warmer. My starter took 11 hours at around 70F.
• Making the Filling
• This can be done the night before or during the two-hour final proof the morning you bake.
• Onion Poppyseed Chop the onion and saute in olive oil. When translucent, remove from the heat, add the poppyseeds and a pinch of salt. Mix well and transfer to another container to cool. You may want to mince the cooked onions into smaller pieces after they're cooked.
• Date Goat Cheese Mince the dates (seedless) and mix with chopped rosemary and crumbled goat cheese. Cover and store until ready to use.
• The Night Before Baking
• Mix the ingredients for dough. Let the dough rest for about five minutes and then fold it a bit until it's smooth. Place it in a lightly oiled in a bowl, cover, and let it ferment overnight at temps of 65-70F.
• The Next Morning
• Lightly flour your countertop, scrape the dough out onto the counter, press out the air, and divide the dough 14 pieces (weighing approx 95-100g).
• Roll each piece into a ball and place them next to each other with about 1 inch between.
• Cover the dough balls with a damp tea towel or baking pan, and let rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. (Replenish the moisture on the towel if it dries out.)
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly dust with rice flour or cornmeal.
• Using a bench knife, scoop up a proofed dough ball and gently stretch it outward into a disc with your fingers thinning out the center of the disc but leaving the edges thick and untouched. Place the shaped dough on the baking sheet, and repeat until all the dough balls are shaped.
• Spoon about a tablespoon of filling into the hollow of each bialy, then brush the exposed dough with water.
• Let the dough rest while you preheat your oven to 475F for about 20 minutes.
• Load the first baking sheet into the oven on the middle shelf.
• Bake the bialys for 10 minutes, followed by 2-3 minutes of broiling still at 475F to caramelize the filling. If 500F is your oven's only broil option, keep a close eye on the bialys.
• Place the baked bialys on a cooling rack and return the oven setting to bake.
• Brush the second baking sheet of bialys with water again, and load them into the oven, following the same instructions above.
• Storage
• Bialys can be kept wrapped at room temperature for 12-24 hours, and then they should be refrigerated. The staling effects of refrigeration are remedied by toasting, which is the ideal way to eat bialys anyway.