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Nov 8, 2016

Sourdough Onion Pockets

I have wanted to make this Onion Pocket Bread for a long time, so when my friend David adapted it to include a sourdough starter, I couldn't put it off any longer. I'm so glad I made these. They are delicious, and a pleasure to make. 

Sourdough onion pocket bread.

These Onion Pockets were by far the most popular item at a New York City kosher dairy called Ratner's, which opened in 1905, and closed in 2004. They were served with a small bowl of butter, and according to Stanley Ginsberg and Norman Berg, the authors of Inside the Jewish Bakery, "..Jews from all over the New York metropolitan area would go to Ratner's just for the rolls."

Sourdough onion pocket bread.

They are made with an enriched and slightly sweet dough, and filled with reconstituted dehydrated chopped onions as well as poppy seeds. The onions add such a sweet toasty flavor, and the aroma is unbelievable.

Making these rolls requires some advance planning. You will need to feed your starter about 8 to 10 hours prior to mixing the final dough, and then allow the final dough to proof for 2 to four hours. If you want to speed up the process, you can add about a half teaspoon of instant yeast to the final dough to give it a little insurance.

Note: While these rolls are leavened by a sourdough starter, they do not taste "sour" at all. This is a sweet egg dough, with an amazing texture. This dough is such a pleasure to work with (yes, I'm a bread geek). If you don't have a starter, you can make a poolish, a 50/50 mixture of flour and water, with a pinch of yeast. If you'd like to do a "straight dough" version, be sure to get the book, Inside the Jewish Bakery. It's a wonderful source for traditional Jewish bakery recipes, and the book is filled with stories about the history behind the breads.

Sourdough onion pocket bread.

This month, the Bread Bakers group is baking Breads with root vegetables. We have onions, beets, taro root, carrots, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even recipes with ginger in the list of breads from our wonderful group. After the recipe, be sure to check out what our amazing bakers created.

Sourdough Onion Pockets

Sourdough Onion Pockets

Ingredients


Dough

  • 192 grams water
  • 77 grams eggs (about 1 1/2 eggs)
  • 50 grams vegetable oil
  • 560 grams bread flour
  • 77 grams sugar
  • 2 grams (1/2 tsp) instant yeast (optional)
  • 112 grams levain/sourdough starter
  • 11 (2 tsp) grams salt

Filling

  • 45 grams (1/2 cup) dehydrated chopped onions
  • 1 1/2 cups boiling water
  • 14 grams (1 tablespoon) vegetable oil
  • 10 grams (1 1/2 tsp) black poppy seeds
  • 4 grams (1/4 tsp) salt

Instructions

  1. Feed your levain/sourdough starter about 8 to 10 hours before mixing the final dough.
  2. In a bowl, whisk the egg and the oil lightly into the water. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together (by hand) the flour, sugar, and optional yeast.
  3. Add the liquids and the starter and mix with the dough hook for about 2 minutes on low. Add the salt, and continue to mix for about 10 minutes. Knead the dough by hand for about a minute. Form it into a ball and place it into an oiled bowl. Turn the dough to coat lightly with oil. Cover with plastic wrap.
  4. Let the dough rise for approximately 2 to 4 hours, until doubled.
  5. While the dough is rising, assemble the onion mixture.
  6. Add the boiling water to the onions, stir, and let soak for 30 minutes. Drain the onions with a strainer and spread them out on a paper towel to remove any additional moisture.
  7. Mix the onions, oil, poppy seeds, and salt, and divide into three equal parts. Set aside.
  8. When the dough is ready, degas it and gently knead it. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Roll each into two equal logs, about 12 inches long. Cover and let rest for about 20 minutes.
  9. Place the first log onto your work surface, wide side facing you. Using your rolling pin, roll the dough lengthwise, until it reaches about 18 inches. Next, roll the dough away and toward you to widen it. You should eventually have a 10 inch by 18 inch rectangle, and the long side should face you.
  10. Brush the top (to you) 2/3 of the dough with vegetable oil, and spread 1 portion of the filling (1/3) over the oil. Fold the bottom third of the dough over the filling, and fold the top 1/3 of the dough over the folded dough. You should end up with three layers. Seal the edges of the top layer onto the the dough over which it is folded. Set this strip of dough aside and repeat with the second log of dough.
  11. Spread the final third of filling over a piece of parchment and press each dough strip onto the filling to coat with filling. Place each strip onto a parchment lined baking sheet, filling side up. Press any extra filling onto the strips.
  12. Using a bench scraper, cut each strip into 6 pieces, and evenly space on the baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 1 to 2 hours, until it passes the "finger poke" test.
  13. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with a baking stone, if you have one. When the rolls are ready, you can either bake them on the baking sheet, or slide the parchment onto the stone.
  14. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the rolls are mottled brown. Serve warm.
  15. Wrap leftovers individually in plastic wrap and freeze. After thawing, reheat in a toaster oven by toasting (ideally), or reheat in a 350 degree oven.
Recipe from my friend David, adapted with permission from Inside the Jewish Bakery. P.S. Stanley Ginsberg has a new book out, The Rye Baker. It is amazing. 

Yield: 12 Rolls

Here are the rest of the Bread Bakers' root vegetable breads: 




 #BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Would you like to comment?

  1. delicious. I would eat a couple of them

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  2. Wow, this bread is just beautiful and look delicious! I'm going to be trying this one.

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  3. Karen: these are too captivating to pass on : I am scrolling up and down the page ! ...

    but i am still an amateur baker so sourdough is way beyond my reach right now... and definitely bookmarked to try sometime

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    1. Thanks Kalyani! You could always make a poolish instead =) and add some yeast to the dough...

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  4. I like making sourdough bread, have a starter in the fridge, bookmarking this recipe, will try it soon.

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  5. Onion Pockets looks great......... It must be a flavorful bread.....

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  6. Lots of memories in those rolls! Ratner's was a frequent late night stop post CBGBs and Max's and I remember them well. You done 'em proud, my friend.

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  7. Hello Karen, Your onion pockets are a beauty. They must be really delicious and flavourful. Sweet dough filled with slightly onions sound yum. I would love to try these :)

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    1. Thanks Namita! They are really soft and flavorful.

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  8. The onion pockets look so cute. Was wondering if I could use normal fresh onion instead of the dehydrated one.

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    1. While I haven't tried using fresh onion, if you choose to try it, I would caramelize the onions first to a pale brown, and then squeeze out any excess moisture. I bet that would be delicious!

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  9. Absolutely gorgeous Karen. Perfect enough to be sold in a Jewish deli.

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    1. If you read the recipe in Inside The Jewish Bakery, there are two ways to make the filling with a fresh onion: you're grating and frying it. Of course, as you know, it doesn't use a sourdough starter. That's why I'm going to make your version. Looking forward to that.

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  10. Lovely! I'm a sourdough gal, and this is right down my alley. Can you tell me what the hydration is on the starter? 100%?

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  11. These look amazing!! Adding to the holiday baking list :)

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  12. These remind me of onion rolls my grandmother used to make. They look so good! I'm excited to try them.

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    1. I just discovered them Lisa, but all of my pals who grew up in NYC say they are the real deal.

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  13. OMG those onion pockets look soooooo good -- which I could get them off of my screen :-) Bookmarking the recipe to try some time soon. Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Such gorgeous rolls! I wish I could get a hold of some dried onions. I need to make these.

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  15. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I gave it a go, using fresh onions that I had cooked until soft and allowed to cool. A bit more work, but the result was delicious!

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  16. How much poolish should I use to add instead of the starter

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  17. Made these today. Fantastic. Great taste and a light crumb. They remind me of the onion rolls served at Peter Luger’s Steak House in Brooklyn, NY; the aroma of the rolls is the first thing that hits your nose when you walk into their restaurant. Thank you for a recipe I’ll be baking again and again.

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  18. I made these beautiful rolls and let them do the 1st rise in the fridge overnight. Then left them in a warm spot to rise the next morning. They turned out photo worthy but I felt there were too many onions on the inside. I would have loved them more with just the onion poppy seed mixture on the top (personal preference). Overall a great recipe that turned out beautifully. Thanks. Christie, Idaho

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    1. I'm an onion lover for sure. Now that you've tried it, you can definitely make it your own!

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  19. Well this dough is not a pleasure to work with so far. 10 hours after mixing (dough was very sticky but with the exact measurements I did not feel I should try adding flour, being somewhat new on the sourdough scene I'm just trying to trust the process)... not getting any rise, I started to wonder if I forgot to add the starter? No idea. Decided I might have really forgotten it so just added the amount of starter and mixed it in another 10 minutes in my stand mixer. Dough still sticky and not coming off the sides of the bowl well at all so added a couple tablespoons of flour. Helped a bit but still pretty sticky and not smooth. Afraid to do too much more as this dough is probably way over kneaded by now.... trying 1st rise a 2nd time.... wonder what I'll wake up to in the morning!? It's all part of the learning process I know. But a bit frustrating. Should I have continued adding flour? (The starter I ended up adding 10 hours later was starving starter from my fridge so this really will be interesting... used up all my active stuff on other things today!) - Jessica

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    1. Hmmmm. I'm sorry it's not been a good experience!

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