Jersey Onion Rolls at the Bakehouse (May 23-24)
Special Bake this weekend!
For decades now, we have focused our culinary efforts on making full-flavored, traditional foods. (I wrote about our approach extensively in the pamphlet “A Taste of Zingerman’s Food Philosophy.”) With nearly every product offering we sell and/or make/bake, I can offer you a fairly detailed historical perspective. There are, though, a few dozen products that have a long history here in the ZCoB but about which I really haven’t been able to find out a whole lot.
These Jersey Onion Rolls are one of the latter. We started making them years ago, and nearly everyone (who loves onions, at least) loves ’em. But why they’re Jersey rolls … no one seems to be able to explain to me. The best I can tell, they’ve long been popular in New Jersey delis. Cary Gitter, who writes and edits extensively here in the ZCoB, and who authored the recently released novel Cammy Sitting Shiva, has Jersey roots that keep these old-school rolls close to his heart. He offers:
I grew up going to Jersey bakeries and delis where onion rolls were a perennial staple in the display case. They had the signature fluffy texture and slight sweetness of challah bread, but with a caramelized onion twist. If you ever happen to visit my old stomping grounds of Bergen County, you can still find a classic Jewish-style onion roll at Zadies Bakeshop, a fourth-generation, family-run kosher bakery in the small town of Fair Lawn.
Everybody agrees that they’re terrific: tender, egg-enriched dough topped with caramelized onions and a passel of poppy seeds. Sold in packs of six, they’re great for burgers, BLTs, and chicken salad or grilled salmon sandwiches. They’d go well with that Pimentuna salad I wrote about a few weeks ago, too. Or simply toast one up and spread on some Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter—pretty close to culinary perfection!
