DIY Israeli jelly doughnuts (Sufganiyot)

By Chef Dalia

They’re making sufganiyot on the streets of Israel, so Hanukkah must be near.

It’s my favorite time of year. It’s sufganiyot time. What would Hanukkah be without jelly doughnuts (which are called sufganiyot in Hebrew)?

Actually, it started feeling like Hanukkah in Israel about two days after Sukkot, when the first vendors started frying the delicious and high-caloric sufganiyot in vats of oil in front of bakeries and on the streets in towns throughout the country. Sufganiyot are delicious, jelly-filled (or these days filled with almost any sweet flavor under the sun) globs of fried dough lovingly sprinkled with a dusting of powdered sugar.

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.

To a Jewish child in the United States, Hanukkah means parties, latkes (crispy potato pancakes) and, of course, presents. To me, as a youngster growing up in Israel, the best thing about Hanukkah wasn’t the eight nights of gifts. It was the time to enjoy traditional sufganiyot — fried jelly doughnuts — a special holiday treat that my family looked forward to all year.

In Israel, the food most associated with the festival of Hanukkah is sufganiyot. Israelis go mad for them during Hanukkah. But they are not the end-all of Hanukkah foods. Not even close! In fact, any food fried in oil is traditional for this holiday. Why fried foods? We eat oily foods, or foods fried in oil, to celebrate the miracle of oil. It’s as simple as that and delicious too!

Not long ago, sufganiyot were almost unknown in the United States. At Hanukkah, Jews eat potato latkes and little coins made of chocolate, but that was when Hanukkah was a comparatively insignificant event. Because it comes around the same time as Christmas, it was treated as if it were a major holiday, and major holidays need more than just latkes and chocolate coins. So sufganiyot made their way to U.S. stores from Israel.

Sufganiyot are golden, airy and seeping with jam. These fried dough balls rolled in sugar and stuffed with any combination of jelly, pudding or caramel start to appear in bakeries, supermarkets and specialty shops about a month before Hanukkah. Their early entrance serves as a culinary warning. Prepare your belly! Protect your stomach! Their colorful icing and garish sprinkles serve as a gastronomic alarm call. Buy me! The Festival of Lights might last only eight nights, but the festival of donuts goes on for a month or more. There are few greater joys than taking a bite and letting the jam squirt out the other end, while powdered sugar sticks to your lips.

Every year since I can remember, my extended family has journeyed to my cousin’s house in Jaffa Israel for a Hanukkah celebration. My late grandmother would enter their home, immediately tie on an apron, grab a bowl and start frying sufganiyot by the hundreds. It would take her hours, but she loved every minute of it.

It was a special time for me, and I always ate too much of the iconic fried foods prepared for the celebration. When desserts were served, there were always fried sufganiyot — usually jelly-filled — that I ate, regardless of how full I was. Over the years, it came as no surprise that I took charge of dessert, making jellyfilled doughnuts of all kinds. One of my favorite variations to make is when the doughnuts are filled with jelly.

Check out how to make the perfect sufganiyot right here with my modern recipe. I wish you a Happy Hanukkah and plenty of sufganiyot overflowing with delectable fillings.

Sufganiyot

Ingredients:

6 cups of bread flour

1½ cups water

2 eggs

6 tablespoons sugar

2 flat tablespoons of dry yeast

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup vegetable oil

Vegetable oil (for frying)

Powdered/Confectioners’ sugar, as needed

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

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

• Mix with a kneading hook at speed 1 for five minutes. Stop the mixer and add salt. Continue kneading at speed 2 for another five 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 two 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 ten minutes, covered.

• Grease baking paper with a thin layer of oil.

• Divide the dough into 24 pieces. Roll dough out into 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 rise for about an hour or until the volume doubles.

• In a frying pan, heat the vegetable oil in a deep layer for deep frying on medium-high 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 five to six balls in each round of frying. After two minutes in the oil, turn the sufganiyot using a spoon to fry evenly for another two minutes.

• Remove the sufganiyot to a colander and let them cool.

• Use a paring knife to puncture the side of each to form a pocket in the center.

• With a squeeze tube or piping bag, add your favorite jelly or jam to the doughnuts. Just make sure the jelly/jam isn’t too chunky to squeeze through whatever you’re using.

• Using a fine sieve, dust the donuts generously with powdered/ confectioners’ sugar.