Cebularz: Polish yeast flatbread with onion and poppy seeds, Lublin-style
A flat, round bread of soft yeast dough covered with a thick layer of onion and poppy seeds that bakes sweet and golden. The cebularz comes from the tradition of Lublin's Jewish bakers, has an EU-protected name and one rule: lots of onion, diced, mixed with poppy seeds, oil and salt and left to soften before it goes on the dough. Eight pieces, best warm, with a glass of buttermilk.
Your own work in that: 45 min.
- Kneading 20 min
- Rising 60 min
- Onion and poppy seeds 10 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Rising 30 min
- Baking 36 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneKnead the dough
Cream the yeast with the sugar and 3 spoons of lukewarm milk, leave 10 minutes until it froths. Add the yeast mixture, the rest of the milk, the egg and the melted butter to the flour and salt. Knead 10 minutes by hand or 6 with dough hooks, until smooth, soft and coming away from the bowl. It should be soft and elastic: that is what makes the flatbread fluffy.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 250 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pcs egg · 50 g butter · 1 tsp salt
TipThe dough should be soft and slightly tacky. If you are tempted to add flour so it stops sticking to your hands, oil your hands instead: extra flour stiffens the bread.
Smooth, soft, coming away from the bowlFirst rise
Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warm 60 minutes, until doubled.
Doubled, under a clothMake the onion topping
Cut the onion into small dice, not slivers: dice stays on the bread, slivers fall off. Mix with the poppy seeds, oil and salt and set aside 30 minutes. The salt draws water out of the onion and softens it; the oil protects it from burning in the oven.
Ingredients: 500 g onions · 3 tbsp poppy seeds · 3 tbsp rapeseed oil · 1 tsp salt
TipMake the topping while the dough rises. After half an hour it releases juice; don't pour it off, stir it back in before topping. Raw onion put on straight away comes out of the oven hard and dry.
Dice, poppy seeds, oil, salt, half an hourShape the rounds
Knock back the risen dough and divide into 8 pieces of about 110 g. Roll each into a ball, then flatten with your palm on a lined tray into a 15 cm round, leaving a rim about 1 cm thicker: the rim holds the onion in and rises into a golden edge. Four fit on a tray.
15 cm rounds, a thicker rimTop and let rise
Spread the onion topping thickly over the rounds, leaving the rim bare. Be generous: about 70 g each, a cebularz without a proper onion layer is just a bun. Leave 30 minutes; meanwhile heat the oven to 200 °C.
Thick, to the rim, then half an hourBake
Bake 16–18 minutes at 200 °C on the middle shelf, until the rims are golden and the onion is browned at the edges. Bake the second tray straight after the first.
TipThe onion on top should brown, not burn. If it is already dark after 12 minutes, cover the breads loosely with foil.
Golden rims, browned onionServe warm
Cool 5 minutes on a rack. Best warm, with or without butter, with buttermilk or soured milk. The next day refresh 5 minutes at 180 °C; thaw frozen ones in the oven.
Warm, with buttermilk
Before you start
Fried onion
A sweeter, non-traditional version: soften the onion in the oil for 8 minutes, cool, mix with the poppy seeds. It comes out more caramelised and soft at once.
One big flatbread
Press all the dough onto a 25 × 35 cm tray, onion on top, bake 25 minutes. Cut into squares for a party.
The onion fell off
Too little oil, or onion in slivers. Diced onion with oil and salt clings to the dough; dry slivers slide off when you cut.
