It’s time to make sufganiyot

There are so many flavors of sufganiyot to be found in Jerusalem around this time of year. (photo by Barry A. Kaplan)

From Israel have come two popular foods for Chanukah: sufganiyot (doughnuts, often filled with jelly) and ponchikot, which are ball-shaped, resembling a doughnut hole.

Gil Marks, in The World of Jewish Desserts, writes that doughnuts fried in oil, ponchikot, were adopted by Polish Jews for Chanukah. The name is taken from the Polish paczki (pronounced poon-chkey), which led to the nickname ponchiks, the Polish name for jelly doughnuts. Paczki are similar to jelly doughnuts, only larger, more dense and more rich, and are traditionally served on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. Paczki were made to quickly use up stores of shortening and eggs, which were prohibited during Lent.

Sufganiyot also have interesting history. Some say sufganiyah, which in Hebrew means sponge-like, is reminiscent of the sweet, spongy cookie popular along the Mediterranean since the time of the Maccabees. Hebrew dictionaries say the word comes from the Greek sufgan, meaning puffed and fried.

In The Jewish Holiday Kitchen, Joan Nathan, an acquaintance of mine from our Jerusalem days and noted cookbook author and maven of American Jewish cooking, said she learned a fanciful fable about the origins of sufganiyot from Dov Noy, an Israeli folklorist. Noy relates a Bukhharan fable in which the first sufganiyah was given to Adam and Eve as compensation for their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The word sufganiyah, he writes, comes from the word sof meaning end, while gan means garden and Y-ah is G-d. Thus, sufganiyah means the end of G-d’s garden. Noy clarifies that clearly this fable was created at the beginning of the 20th century, since sufganiyah is a spoken Hebrew word coined by pioneers.

CLASSIC SUFGANIYOT
makes 32-36

3 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
4 3/8 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt
2 cups vanilla yogurt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
oil
confectioner’s sugar or cinnamon sugar

1. Mix flour, eggs, baking powder, salt, yogurt, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until well blended.
2. Heat oil in a soup pot. Drop tablespoon of batter around the pot, fry until brown on both sides, drain on paper towels.
3. Roll in cinnamon sugar or confectioner’s sugar.

OVEN-BAKED SUFGANIYOT
makes 24

1 cup skim milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp instant yeast

Syrup:
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water

Sugar coating and filling:
1/4 cup sugar
jam 

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease mini muffin cups.
2. Heat milk and butter in a saucepan. Stir in sugar and salt. Let cool.
3. In one mixing bowl, combine egg and milk mixture. In a second bowl, combine three cups of flour with yeast, then add to egg-milk mixture and beat for two minutes with mixer or hand mixer.
4. Stir in half-cup flour to make soft batter. Cover and let rise until double in volume.
5. Turn dough onto a floured work space. Roll dough into a log. Cut off pieces and form into balls. Place each ball in a muffin cup. Cover pans and let rise for 30 minutes.
6. Place in oven and bake 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.
7. In the meantime, combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat, then boil until thick. Reduce heat and keep warm.
8. Remove doughnuts to a cooling rack then toss in sugar syrup and remove with a slotted spoon. Roll in sugar. To inject, poke a hole in the side of each doughnut, inject jelly. If not serving immediately, wait to dip in sugar syrup and rolling in sugar.

These can be made three months ahead and frozen after cooled. To use, defrost, cover with foil, reheat in 350°F oven 15 minutes, dip in sugar syrup and either roll in sugar or inject with jelly.

PAREVE CHANUKAH PONCHIKOT
makes 36

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup non-dairy creamer
1 egg
oil
confectioner’s sugar or cinnamon sugar 

1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Mix.
2. Add oil, non-dairy creamer and egg and mix.
3. Heat oil in a soup pot. Drop by teaspoon into oil and fry on all sides until brown. Drain on paper towels.
4. Roll in confectioner’s sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly shuk walks in English in Jerusalem’s Jewish food market.