🕎 Seasonal collection
Hanukkah Recipes: Latkes, Sufganiyot and Something Cheesy
Hanukkah food is fried food, for the oil in the Hanukkah story: latkes from the Ashkenazi kitchen and sufganiyot, the jelly doughnuts Israel made a Hanukkah classic. There is a dairy tradition too, so a cheesecake is never out of place.
🥔 Latkes
The classic, the American sweet potato version and a sheet-pan batch for a crowd.
Classic Potato Latkes
Shredded russets and onion, wrung dry, bound with egg and the potato's own starch, and shallow-fried at 350°F into lacy, golden Hanukkah latkes with applesauce and sour cream.
Sweet Potato Latkes with Horseradish Cream
Half sweet potato and half Yukon Gold, with onion, a pinch of cayenne and egg, fried into orange-flecked latkes and topped with sour cream and horseradish, the American swap.
Sheet-Pan Latkes with Store-Bought Shreds
Refrigerated shredded hash browns squeezed dry, mixed with grated onion, egg and flour, and baked on a well-oiled sheet pan at 425°F, flipped once: twelve latkes, no grater and no skillet.
🌍 Their cousins
The grated-potato pancakes of the countries Jewish families came from, and a few beyond.
Belarusian Draniki Stuffed with Chicken
Thick Belarusian-style potato pancakes with a hidden layer of garlicky ground chicken, fried in sunflower oil, finished in the oven and served with sour cream, applesauce and chives.
Polish Placki Ziemniaczane (Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Sugar)
Thin, crisp Polish potato pancakes from finely grated potatoes drained in a tilted bowl, fried by the spoonful and served the two classic ways, with sour cream or a sprinkle of sugar.
Rhineland Reibekuchen with Applesauce
Finely grated potatoes and onion with egg and a little flour, fried in clarified butter into thin, crisp German potato pancakes, sprinkled with sugar and served with warm homemade applesauce.
Swiss Rösti
Potatoes boiled in their skins the day before, coarsely grated and fried slowly in clarified butter into one thick golden cake, flipped with a plate the Swiss way.
🍩 Fried and sweet
Sufganiyot and the jelly doughnuts of Central Europe they came from.
Israeli Sufganiyot (Hanukkah Jelly Doughnuts)
Small yeast doughnuts scented with cinnamon, fried hot and fast for Hanukkah, filled with a spoonful of berry or plum preserves and rolled in sugar, from Joan Nathan's 1979 holiday cookbook.
German Berliner (Jam-Filled Krapfen)
Soft balls of butter-and-egg yeast dough fried with their pale "collar", rolled in sugar and piped full of jam: the German jelly doughnut, called Berliner, Pfannkuchen, Krapfen or Kreppel depending on where you buy it.
Polish Pączki (Fat Thursday Doughnuts)
Extra-rich jelly doughnuts made with egg yolks, butter and vanilla, fried deep mahogany, tossed in powdered sugar and filled with plum, rose petal or raspberry jam for Fat Thursday.
🧀 Something cheesy
For the Hanukkah dairy tradition.
New York Cheesecake (Lindy's-Style, Graham Crust)
Two and a half pounds of cream cheese beaten with sugar, sour cream, lemon, vanilla and eight eggs over a graham cracker crust, blasted at 500°F for 10 minutes, then baked low at 200°F until the center reads 150°F for a tall, dense, creamy cake.
Käsekuchen (German Quark Cheesecake)
A buttery shortcrust base and rim filled with low-fat quark, lemon juice and cornstarch, lightened with whipped egg whites and whipped cream, baked low and long at 320°F and cooled in the turned-off oven so it stays tall, pale and tangy.
New York Black and White Cookies
Big, soft, cakey 4-inch cookies with a hint of lemon, iced half in vanilla and half in chocolate, the New York deli classic.