The Polish Obwarzanki bread, a bagel-shaped bread decorated with poppy or sesame seeds… certainly a name a bit difficult to pronounce, but the bread is really worth tasting.
Obwarzanki are especially common in the city of Kraków, where many street vendors sell them on every street corner and they are very successful.
They are generally consumed plain, not accompanied by anything else, but I served it at the table instead of classic bread.
It’s a simple bread to make and I, for time reasons, made the dough in the bread machine, a valuable kitchen helper, convenient, kneads by itself and once finished, I left everything in the basket to rise, since inside there was already the right temperature for a good leavening.
Obviously, as I also explain in the preparation, you can make the dough as you like, the bread machine was just my convenience.
If you make this or any of my other recipes on my blog, feel free to send me your photos and I will put them on my fb page in your name.
About 202 Kcal per bagel
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 10 pieces
- Cooking methods: Electric oven
- Cuisine: Polish
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to make Polish Bread Obwarzanki
- 4 cups flour 0
- 1 cup water
- 0.4 oz fresh yeast
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- to taste poppy seeds
- to taste sesame seeds
Preparation of Polish Bread Obwarzanki
I made the preparation with the bread machine, but you can easily do it by hand or with the planetary mixer, just have sufficiently long working times… in short, don’t knead for just 5 minutes but at least 10-15 minutes before putting it to rise.
In the bread machine, or in a bowl, place the water, yeast, softened butter, flour, salt, sugar and start the machine with the dough program, mine lasts around 45 minutes, but 30 will be fine too.
Adjust based on your machine, and if you’re doing it by hand, work the dough well for a few minutes.
Let rise in a bowl until doubled and if you make the dough in the bread machine leave it in its basket until doubled.
Once risen, pour the dough onto a work surface, recreate a ball
then cut pieces of dough weighing about 1.4 oz, form 20 cords about a finger thick, then pair them two by two and twist them together, closing them into a bagel.
Place the bagels on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, let them rise for another 20-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare a pot with water and bring to a boil, after the time has passed, boil one bagel at a time for 15-20 seconds, drain well and reposition on the baking tray.
Dust the surface of the bagels with poppy or sesame seeds, I did some with one and some with the other.
At this point, bake in a hot oven at 375-390 °F for 30 minutes, checking the cooking.
