"Jewish" Onion Rolls

 Jewish Onion Rolls

These were a lot of fun to make. Seriously messy though. I'll tell you now, this dough is way sticky. I just used plenty of flour while rolling out and it was all good. The recipe I used called for poppy seeds, which I didn't have and I'm fine with because these were delicious anyway. I also ran out of onions for my last half dozen and just sprinkled some garlic powder instead. What I learned is that this dough is pretty versatile and you could make just about any kind of rolls you wanted. 

DOUGH

- 2 packages Active Dry Yeast (or 2 1/2 T)

- 1t Sugar

- 1/2C Warm-Hot Water

- 1/2C solid Vegetable Shortening

- 2t Salt

- 3/4C Sugar

- 1/2 C Margarine or Butter

- 1C Boiling Water

- 3 Large Eggs (Beaten)

- 7 1/2C All-Purpose Flour

- 1C Cold Water

AFTER RISING

- 1 Medium Onion (Diced)

- Kosher Salt (for sprinkling)

- Poppyseeds (for sprinkling)

- 2-3T Margarine or Butter (Melted)

1. Combine yeast, sugar and warm water in a small bowl and let rest for about 5 minutes until it foams. (Trust me, you'll know when)

2. In a large mixing bowl or you can use a stand mixer, blend shortening, margarine, salt, and sugar. Pour in the boiling water and mix until combined and cooled significantly. If you're like me and didn't use boiling water because you thought hot water out of the tap would be good enough, let me welcome you to the "You Were Wrong" Club. I just threw my mixing bowl onto a double broiler until the ingredients came together.

3. In a separate bowl beat the eggs well and combine cold water and fold in the yeast mixture. Alternately add this egg mixture and your flour (I suggest in 1 cup increments) to the now cooled shortening mixture. This will turn into a very sticky dough. Leave the dough in that mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap (I suggest lightly greased) and leave in your fridge for at least 5 hours. 

4. Once your dough has risen and is out of your fridge. Chop your onions and zap them in the microwave for a couple minutes until they are limp. Drain and cool while you prepare your dough. 

5. Punch down the dough and divide into 6 equal parts. You will want to oil your hands for this. Keep your dough pieces on a floured surface and covered with plastic wrap and a towel. 

6. On another floured surface roll out your dough to a 15" x 7" rectangular like shape. Exact dimensions are not important, but your dough should be pretty thin. 

7. Brush your dough with melted margarine, sprinkle with 1/6th of your onions, about 1/2t of salt and maybe 1/4 t of poppyseeds. Whatever you feel comfortable with. I used lots of salt. :)

8. Lengthwise, roll your dough up until you have a snake-like shape. Cut that snake into roughly 1 1/2" - 2" segments. Place those pieces seam side down on either a baking tray lined with parchment paper, or into greased muffin tins. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let them rise until doubled. I kept mine in the oven with the oven light on. Repeat with the remaining dough. 

9. Once your dough has risen, heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush rolls with 1 egg beaten with 1T of water and then sprinkle with a little salt and poppyseed. Bake for about 15 minutes or until nice and golden on top. 

Be sure to cool completely before freezing. 

My yeast and warm water. It got very foamy.

Margarine+Shortening+Salt+Sugar+Boiling Water

Eggs and cold water with yeast mixture folded in.

7 1/2 cups of flour. I ran out of All Purpose so I used Bread Flour for my last 2 1/2 cups.

Mix the flour and egg-yeast liquids alternately into the shortening mixture. 

Store dough in fridge covered with plastic wrap for 5 hours or overnight. (I stored mine overnight)

Look how pretty is puffed up!

Zap Onions in microwave for a minute or two until they're soft and slightly translucent .

Drain and pat dry. I just spread mine out onto a few layers of paper towel and then returned them to the bowl until they were needed. 

Punch down your dough and divide into 6 equal pieces and store them under a sheet of plastic wrap (on top of a floured surface). I put a towel on top of mine as well.

Take of of your lumps and put it on top of another (heavily) floured surface and sprinkle more flour on top.  

Roll out your dough, sprinkling with flour as needed, until it's roughly 12" by 7" ish. 

Brush the surface area with melted margarine, sprinkle with 1/6th of your onions, kosher salt, and poppy seeds if you have them.

Roll up your dough lengthwise and then cut the roll into sections about 1 1/2" to 2" long. 

Do that to each of your lumps and then place the sections either on a wax papered  baking tray 2" apart, or into greased muffin tins. I did both... For science. (really only because I only had two muffin tins) Truth be told I liked the ones on the trays better.  Cover them with greased plastic wrap and let rest until doubled in size. 

Some of mine puffed really well and some of them didn't. Remove plastic wrap and  brush with your egg-water mixture and sprinkle with more salt (and poppyseeds) and place in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Out of the oven, out of their trays and resting on racks! These were the ones from the muffin tins, I didn't like how the cooked unevenly on the outside and looks like vanilla cupcakes. 

I had to break one open right away. It was so so delicious. Flaky, warm, salty. Everything a roll should be. 

These were some that I baked on the tray. More nature shape, and they had this delightful golden color all over. 

I would (will) definitely make these again. They freeze great as well so don't panic that this recipe makes about 40! I just placed them in freezer ziplock baggies, sucked the air out and threw 'em in the freezer. We ate so many right away that I had to pull a bag out already and they thawed wonderfully!