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.
Jews eat foods fried in oil at Hanukkah to remember the miracle of the Temple oil, and in Israel the fried food of the holiday is the sufganiyah. Wikipedia says the name comes from the Talmudic word for a spongy dough, and that in the 12th century Maimon ben Yosef, the father of Maimonides, wrote that eating sofganim at Hanukkah was an ancient custom not to be taken lightly; those were probably syrup-soaked fritters. The jelly-filled version came another way: Polish Jews fried their ponchiks in schmaltz instead of lard, and immigrants from Poland brought them to Mandatory Palestine. Wikipedia credits the Histadrut, the labor federation founded in 1920, with pushing sufganiyot over latkes, partly because bakeries selling them for weeks before Hanukkah meant more work for its members. Today Israel's Ministry of Defense alone buys upward of 400,000 for soldiers each Hanukkah (Wikipedia, citing 2015 and 2018 reports).
📖 Origin story: What Are Sufganiyot? Why Jelly Doughnuts Mean Hanukkah →
Why it works the kitchen science
Small and hot
2-inch rounds fried at 375°F cook through in about two minutes, before the dough has time to drink up oil.
A short second rise
Just 15 minutes after cutting keeps the rounds small and even, so they puff into neat balls with room for a spoon of jam.
Step by step
- Step 1
Dissolve the yeast and 2 tbsp of the sugar in the lukewarm milk and let it stand about 5 minutes, until foamy.
- Step 2
Put the flour in a bowl and make a well. Add the yeast mixture, yolks, salt, cinnamon and the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp sugar and knead well. Add the butter and knead about 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Step 3
Cover with a damp cloth and let rise 2 hours, until doubled.
- Step 4
Roll the dough 1/4 inch thick on a floured board and cut 2-inch rounds with a floured glass. Cover and let rise 15 minutes more.
- Step 5
Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy pot to 375°F. Fry 4 or 5 at a time, about 1 minute per side, turning when brown. Drain on paper towels. Keep the oil at 375°F; Nathan warns that cooler oil makes greasy doughnuts and hotter oil browns them before the middle cooks.
- Step 6
Push a tiny spoon (or a piping tip) into the top of each doughnut, twist it to make room, and fill with about 1 tsp of preserves, pulling out through the same hole.
- Step 7
Roll in sugar and eat while hot.
Israeli Sufganiyot (Hanukkah Jelly Doughnuts)
Serves 16 (two small doughnuts each) · 30 to 35 small doughnuts · 3 hr 15 min total
Dough
- 2 tbsp active dry yeast
- 3 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 3/4 cup lukewarm milk
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 2 large egg yolks
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
Frying and finishing
- About 2 quarts peanut oil, for deep-frying
- About 1 cup berry or plum preserves
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
Method
- Dissolve the yeast and 2 tbsp of the sugar in the lukewarm milk and let it stand about 5 minutes, until foamy.
- Put the flour in a bowl and make a well. Add the yeast mixture, yolks, salt, cinnamon and the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp sugar and knead well. Add the butter and knead about 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Cover with a damp cloth and let rise 2 hours, until doubled.
- Roll the dough 1/4 inch thick on a floured board and cut 2-inch rounds with a floured glass. Cover and let rise 15 minutes more.
- Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy pot to 375°F. Fry 4 or 5 at a time, about 1 minute per side, turning when brown. Drain on paper towels. Keep the oil at 375°F; Nathan warns that cooler oil makes greasy doughnuts and hotter oil browns them before the middle cooks.
- Push a tiny spoon (or a piping tip) into the top of each doughnut, twist it to make room, and fill with about 1 tsp of preserves, pulling out through the same hole.
- Roll in sugar and eat while hot.
Adapted from Joan Nathan's "Jewish Holiday Cookbook" (Schocken Books, 1979), as published by NPR on December 20, 2006, as written (makes 30 to 35). Nathan says to roll the dough "1/2 to 1/8 inch"; we roll 1/4 inch. She gives no frying time; about 1 minute per side is ours. The amounts of preserves and rolling sugar used are our estimates. NPR. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Nathan says you can make them larger; give bigger rounds a longer second rise and a lower oil temperature, about 350°F.
- Strawberry or raspberry jelly under powdered sugar is the Israeli bakery standard (Wikipedia); her version uses berry or plum preserves and granulated sugar.
- Use margarine and a nondairy milk if you need them pareve for a meat meal.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Fried food at Hanukkah recalls the oil miracle. Documented as the religious reason (Wikipedia, citing Chabad.org).
- The name means "the end of the Garden of the Lord". Folklore: Wikipedia says no known commentator supports this popular folk etymology; the word comes from the Talmud's "spongy dough".
- A labor union made sufganiyot Israel's Hanukkah food. Documented as Wikipedia's account of the Histadrut's push; how decisive it was is not measured.
- Sufganiyot are German Berliners renamed. Disputed: Gil Marks (via Wikipedia) traces the filled jelly doughnut to the 1485 Nuremberg Krapfen, while the Hebrew custom of sofganim goes back to 12th-century syrup fritters.
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