Pletzel

It snowed here yesterday and we stayed in. Charlie and I both felt like baking and he suggested we try another pletzel recipe. A pletzel is like an onion roll made from the same dough as challah. When Charlie was a child his Grammie used to make pletzel, or pletzlach, and bring it over to his house. He was known to be able to eat an entire tray at one sitting. For years now he has been on a quest to find a similar pletzel. We’ve been to many bakeries and tried many recipes.

This one came out quite well. It is from the book A Blessing of Bread: Recipes and Rituals, Memories and Mitzvahs

available here. You start by making a Lithuanian Challah dough and then divide it into 12 rounds. After two rises the rounds are sprinkled with chopped onions, poppy seeds, salt and pepper and baked at a high temperature. Here they are all finished.

The house smelled so good! It was a perfect way to spend a snowy Sunday.