In America, an onion pletzel is like an onion-topped focaccia, but to me – and more generally in the UK – it is a soft, chewy roll, a little larger and flatter than a bagel, with a dimple filled with fried onions and poppy seeds. Pletzels have to be eaten the day they are made – try a fresh one, warm from the oven, and you will wonder how you have survived so long without one. Pletzel is also the name of the Marais, the Jewish quarter of Paris, where the delightful Florence Kahn and her family bake some of the best breads I have ever tasted – including pletzels. This recipe is based on hers.

Makes: 10–12

Ingredients:

● 4 onions, finely chopped
● 30ml sunflower oil, plus extra for frying and greasing
● 3 tbsp poppy seeds
● 500g strong white bread flour
● 7g instant yeast
● 3 tsp salt
● 2 tsp sugar
● 200ml warm water
● 100ml warm milk

Method

● Fry the onions gently in a little sunflower oil until meltingly soft but not coloured, around 20 minutes.

● Stir in the poppy seeds and cool to room temperature. Set aside until needed.

● Mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water, milk and oil together in a large bowl. Knead for about 10 minutes using a free-standing mixer with a dough hook, or tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 15 minutes by hand, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

● Divide the dough into 10–12 portions. Mould into the shape of pletzels by forming balls, then flattening them slightly with the palm of your hand.

● Place on a lightly greased baking sheet around 2cm apart. Form a deep dimple in the middle of each pletzel with your fingers and fill it with a tablespoon of the onion and poppy seed mixture.

● Cover the pletzels with oiled cling film and leave somewhere warm to prove for 45 minutes, until they are puffy and just touching each other.

● Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250°C.

● Bake for 25 minutes, or until brown and cooked through. Cool on a wire rack, then pull apart to eat.

Recipe from Sesame and Spice: Baking from the Middle East to the East End, Headline