Bublik
Encyclopedia
Bublik (Russian
and ) is a traditional Ukrainian
, Russia
n, Polish
(obwarzanek) and Lithuanian
(riestainis) bread roll
, very similar to bagel
s; however it is somewhat bigger, has a wider hole and a much denser and 'chewier' texture.
Bubliks are members of a class of bread products made from dough
that has been boiled
before baking
, which also includes bagels, baranki, sushki
, and other similar breads.
Boiled dough products have a long history in Eastern Europe, with some claims that they came from Byzantine
times. Bagels, being a type of bublik, are first mentioned in 1610 in Jewish sources in Krakow
as a common gift to women after childbirth
, while the first mention of the obwarzanek dates to the year 1394 along with a note that obwarzanek "should be between 12 and 17 centimeters in diameter, weigh 80 to 120 grams and its color should range from golden to light brown".
The beigl (or bagel) then spread across all areas with significant Jewish population, soon reaching Ukraine
(Southern Russia
at the time), where it was influenced by similar Russian (mainly Moscow baranki) and Greek
(koulouri, κουλούρι) products and where it got its current form: a dough ring about twice as big as a common bagel with a much denser and drier texture, because similar Russian dishes are generally very dry and crisp. Its name was also heavily Russified to the current form — "бублик" . The city of Odessa
(now Ukrainian, but back then a heavily Jewish settlement in the Russian Empire
) is most commonly considered the birthplace of the bublik.
In Ukraine, bubliks are featured by professional bakers in their shops and at country fairs and regional markets. They are usually strung on a string by the dozen.
, but like a type of pastry, eaten as a complement to tea
or coffee
. Therefore, bublik dough is generally sweeter and denser than that of bagel dough, and they are usually glazed with egg yolk. By far the most popular variety of bublik has a liberal amount of poppy seed
s added to it.
Bubliks are usually eaten as is, but it is not uncommon to dip them into a beverage, a practice that came from eating sushki and baranki, which were very similar in taste, but rather dry and hard and not easily palatable unless moisturized. Another common way of eating bubliks is to break them into several fragments and to eat them with jam, sour cream
, or other similar dip
s. While they often accompany tea, bubliks, again unlike modern bagels, are not considered a breakfast
food.
-leavened wheat
dough that commonly contains milk, butter, and egg whites and is rather sweet. The following steps are required to make traditional bubliks:
Poppy seeds are a popular addition to the dough, as well as several other fillings. For savory bubliks, sugar is omitted and instead grated cheese and a few drops of onion juice can be added.
, and the main one of this type is baranka — a dough ring somewhat smaller than a bublik, but much thinner and drier. While bubliks originate from Pale of Settlement
(Ukraine and Belarus), barankis are an original Russian dish, their very name, baranka or baranok, being a contraction of a word obvaranok, "scalded". They are also far harder than bubliks, thus requiring dipping them into tea or coffee before eating. Sushki are an even smaller and drier type of baranki, generally about 50 mm in size, and have the consistency of a hard cracker
.
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and ) is a traditional Ukrainian
Ukrainian cuisine
Ukrainian cuisine has significant diversity, historical traditions. "Cuisine - Flavors and Colors of Ukrainian Culture."] . Accessed July 2011. Common foods used include meats, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, berries and herbs...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n, Polish
Polish cuisine
Polish cuisine is a style of cooking and food preparation originating from Poland. It has evolved over the centuries due to historical circumstances. Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central European and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian...
(obwarzanek) and Lithuanian
Lithuanian cuisine
Lithuanian cuisine features the products suited to the cool and moist northern climate of Lithuania: barley, potatoes, rye, beets, greens, berries, and mushrooms are locally grown, and dairy products are one of its specialities...
(riestainis) bread roll
Bread roll
A bread roll is a piece of bread, usually small and round and is commonly considered a side dish. Bread rolls are often used in the same way as sandwiches are—cut transversely, with fillings placed between the two halves.-Various forms:...
, very similar to bagel
Bagel
A bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior...
s; however it is somewhat bigger, has a wider hole and a much denser and 'chewier' texture.
Bubliks are members of a class of bread products made from dough
Dough
Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , flatbreads, noodles, pastry, and similar items)...
that has been boiled
Boiling
Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding environmental pressure. While below the boiling point a liquid...
before baking
Baking
Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, cookies and crackers. Such items...
, which also includes bagels, baranki, sushki
Sushki
Sushki is a traditional Russian tea bread. It is a small, crunchy, mildly sweet bread ring which can be eaten for dessert. Similar breads are: bagels, bubliks and barankis. Pre-packaged sushki can be found in markets that sell Russian foods. They are sometimes topped with poppy seeds.- A recipe...
, and other similar breads.
History
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
times. Bagels, being a type of bublik, are first mentioned in 1610 in Jewish sources in Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
as a common gift to women after childbirth
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
, while the first mention of the obwarzanek dates to the year 1394 along with a note that obwarzanek "should be between 12 and 17 centimeters in diameter, weigh 80 to 120 grams and its color should range from golden to light brown".
The beigl (or bagel) then spread across all areas with significant Jewish population, soon reaching Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(Southern Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
at the time), where it was influenced by similar Russian (mainly Moscow baranki) and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
(koulouri, κουλούρι) products and where it got its current form: a dough ring about twice as big as a common bagel with a much denser and drier texture, because similar Russian dishes are generally very dry and crisp. Its name was also heavily Russified to the current form — "бублик" . The city of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
(now Ukrainian, but back then a heavily Jewish settlement in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
) is most commonly considered the birthplace of the bublik.
In Ukraine, bubliks are featured by professional bakers in their shops and at country fairs and regional markets. They are usually strung on a string by the dozen.
Bubliks as food
In Russia and Ukraine bubliks are usually treated not like breadBread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
, but like a type of pastry, eaten as a complement to tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
or coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. Therefore, bublik dough is generally sweeter and denser than that of bagel dough, and they are usually glazed with egg yolk. By far the most popular variety of bublik has a liberal amount of poppy seed
Poppy seed
Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy . The tiny kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years...
s added to it.
Bubliks are usually eaten as is, but it is not uncommon to dip them into a beverage, a practice that came from eating sushki and baranki, which were very similar in taste, but rather dry and hard and not easily palatable unless moisturized. Another common way of eating bubliks is to break them into several fragments and to eat them with jam, sour cream
Sour cream
Sour cream is a dairy product rich in fats obtained by fermenting a regular cream by certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturally, sours and thickens the cream. Its name stems from the production of lactic acid by bacterial...
, or other similar dip
Dip (food)
A dip or dipping sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Dips are used to add flavor and/or texture to a food, such as pita bread, dumplings, crackers, cut-up raw vegetables, seafood, cubed pieces of meat and cheese, potato chips, tortilla chips, and falafel...
s. While they often accompany tea, bubliks, again unlike modern bagels, are not considered a breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...
food.
Preparation
Bubliks are made from yeastYeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
-leavened wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
dough that commonly contains milk, butter, and egg whites and is rather sweet. The following steps are required to make traditional bubliks:
- Prepare dough by adding active yeasts into warm mixture of milk, sugar, and butter, and mixing in flour, salt, and egg whites.
- ProofProofing (baking technique)Proofing , as the term is used by professional bakers, is the final dough-rise step before baking, and refers to a specific rest period within the more generalized process known as fermentation...
the dough in warm place until twice in size. - Shape dough into rings and proof again for 10 minutes.
- Boil bubliks for 15–20 seconds each until they begin to swell.
- GlazeGlaze (cooking technique)A glaze in cooking is a coating of a glossy, often sweet, sometimes savoury, substance applied to food typically by dipping, dripping, or with a brush. Egg whites and basic icings are both used as glazes...
them with egg yolks and sugar mixture and bake until golden brown
Poppy seeds are a popular addition to the dough, as well as several other fillings. For savory bubliks, sugar is omitted and instead grated cheese and a few drops of onion juice can be added.
Similar dishes
There are number of similar bread products in Russian cuisineRussian cuisine
Russian cuisine is diverse, as Russia is the largest country in the world. Russian cuisine derives its varied character from the vast and multi-cultural expanse of Russia. Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of...
, and the main one of this type is baranka — a dough ring somewhat smaller than a bublik, but much thinner and drier. While bubliks originate from Pale of Settlement
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
(Ukraine and Belarus), barankis are an original Russian dish, their very name, baranka or baranok, being a contraction of a word obvaranok, "scalded". They are also far harder than bubliks, thus requiring dipping them into tea or coffee before eating. Sushki are an even smaller and drier type of baranki, generally about 50 mm in size, and have the consistency of a hard cracker
Cracker (food)
A cracker is a baked good commonly made from grain flour dough and typically made in quantity in various hand-sized or smaller shapes. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, and/or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking...
.