The Hanukkah miracle of my unusual sufganiya

By Chef Dalia

They’re making sufganiyot on the streets of Israel; Hanukkah must be near. It’s my favorite time of year. It’s sufganiyot time.

Actually, it started feeling like Hanukkah in Israel about two days after Sukkot, when the first vendors started frying the delicious and caloric sufganiyot in vats of oil in front of bakeries and on the street in towns throughout the country.

Nothing in Israel says Hanukkah like “sufganiyot!” These very yummy, jellyfilled (these days, filled with almost any sweet flavor under the sun) globs of fried dough lovingly sprinkled with a dusting of white sugar are everywhere in Israel. Seriously, my family waits all year for this. The opportunity to eat the world’s best sufganiyot for dinner (yes, we don’t feed the kids beforehand, this is not dessert, this is dinner) is amazing and worthy of excitement.

A sufganiya (doughnut), if you have to delve deeply into its definition, is a “food made from dough fried in deep oil.”

In recent years, some choose to bake the sufganiya to reduce calories. Others feel the most important ingredient in Hanukkah food is the oil.

Every year, people who watch their weight ask me, “If I allow myself only one sufganiya this year, what should it be?” Without a doubt, the answer this year is salty sufganiyot, or a sufganiya sandwich, is the only sufganiyot you need. Thought you’d seen it all in the over-the-top sufganiyot? Well, think again.

A tradition is a tradition, and I am not going to break it. Almost. Although fried, they are salty and full of twists, including an offer to fill a layer of fried eggplant (it’s still Hanukkah food, it’s fried) and top it with matbocha salad and tahini.

My version of the sufganiya is actually an incarnation of three different recipes that came together into one upgraded version of a salty (and not dairy) sufganiya.

First, is the recipe for my “challah bread.” The second inspiration comes from “traditional sufganiyot with a twist!” — a recipe in which the addition of mashed potatoes enriches the dough and gives it an especially airy and soft texture. Finally, the third recipe came from the sfenj (Moroccan donuts).

The dough combines well and brings a change to the traditional sufganiyot with surprising flavors, especially good for those who are not fond of sweet flavors. The sufganiya can also be used to make buns in the spirit of the Hanukkah celebration to serve when entertaining the family.

Salty Sufganiyot

Ingredients

• 6 cups bread flour

• 6 Tbsp. sugar

• 2 flat Tbsp. dry yeast

• 1½ cups water

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 2 medium potatoes cooked and mashed into cold mashed potatoes

• 1 Tbsp. salt

• Vegetable oil (for frying)

• 1 Tbsp. tahini sauce

• 1 Tbsp. matbucha (tomato salad-optional)

• 2 slices fried eggplant

• Hardboiled egg

• A handful of parsley

• ½ chopped onion

• ½ cup diced tomato

Preparation

• Mix the flour, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Pour the water, eggs, oil and mashed potatoes into the mixer bowl.

• Add mixture of the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on top of the liquids.

Put with a kneading hook at speed 1 for 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and add the salt. Continue kneading at speed 2 for another 5 minutes.

• Take the dough out onto the work surface. Transfer the dough to a bowl. Cover with a large plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours

• Gently remove the dough from the bowl, stretch it into a square and fold each of the corners to the center, turn the dough over and roll it out. Allow the dough to rest on the surface for about 10 minutes, covered.

• Grease baking paper with a thin layer of oil.

• Divide the dough into 24 pieces, roll out to ping pong size balls and place neatly at intervals on the greased baking paper. Oil each ball again with a thin layer of oil and cover all the balls with plastic wrap. Let the balls raise for about an hour or until the volume doubles.

• In a frying pan, heat vegetable oil in a deep layer for “deep” frying, to mediumhigh heat (for those who have a suitable thermometer, heat the oil to 160 degrees). Lift each ball gently, without damaging its round shape and carefully slide it into the oil with the side that was up in the swelling going into the oil first. Fry 5 to 6 balls in each round of frying. After 2 minutes in the oil, turn the sufganiya using a spoon to fry evenly for 2 minutes.

• Remove the sufganiyot to a colander and let it cool. After the sufganiyot have cooled, cut the sufganiyot in half, spread tahini and matbucha (spicy tomato salad) on both sides, place slices of fried eggplant and slices hardboiled egg.

• Sprinkle with parsley, chopped onion and diced tomato.

• Close the sufgniya and sprinkle tahini on top.