It’s time for frying again, Chanukah is nearly upon us. Normally we go away with all the kids and grandkids for Shabbat Chanukah, but nothing is normal now with the war. This is part of the reason people are preparing these foods, aside from tradition, fried foods are comfort foods and we all need some comfort. So I am pulling myself together and instead will host all the kids and grands for Shabbat at our house and will prepare all sorts of comforting foods (a special request from my daughter Rach is my mushroom, bean and barley soup, so it’s on the menu Savta Norma’s Mushroom Bean & Barley Soup) and being all together (or those of us that are not called up) will also give us comfort.

K. A warning here, doughnuts of this ilk should really truly be prepared with a cooking thermometer to determine how hot the oil is to make sure not just the outside is properly cooked but the inside. It’s amazing how much the temp varies with the frying. If you make regular doughnuts with a hole, you obviate the need quite as much since the center cooks at the same time as the outside. Now I know most people will not dash out to buy a thermometer (very cheap btw) so if you don’t/won’t, bear in mind not to fry the donuts on too high a heat – keep it medium hot to enable the inside to be sufficiently cooked. With this caveat, let’s proceed to the ingredients!

Now I absolutely forgive you if you think the bourbon is for me to nip at during the course of the preparation, but nope, nuh huh, (okay well maybe) but it’s one of the ingredients in the dough. This supposedly prevents the doughnuts from absorbing too much oil and since it seems to work for me, I’m happy to go with it and so should you. K. This is a surprisingly easy dough to put together, just remember it’s a proper yeast dough so make sure not to make your liquid too hot and don’t add salt directly to the yeast. Good. Onward. So put your flour, sugar, yeast (in a corner), salt in a different corner and lemon peel in a bowl and mix well.

Now warm up your milk and melt the butter in it and let both cool to lukewarm. (A note, if you wanna make it non-dairy, you can sub the milk with oat milk or soy milk and the butter with margarine or oil but both the texture and of course flavor will be a bit different). Not too hot, remember, you don’t wanna kill the yeast. When luke, add to the dry ingredients along with the eggs and bourbon/scotch or whatever liquor you prefer.

Knead the mixture all together like so:

When all combined, cover with cloth or plastic wrap and let rise till doubled in bulk about an hour (in a warm kitchen, longer in a cooler one).

Doubled in bulk

Good, now you should prepare for the second rising time by taking 2 baking sheets and lining them with parchment paper. You should get about 30 doughnuts out of this amount of dough, they are a nice size, not giant and not small. K, grease your hands and form the dough into 30 balls and place evenly spaced apart on the baking sheets to rise in a warm place (I turn on the light in my oven to let them rise all nice and cosy).

Excellent, we’re nearly there. So your dough balls should be risen after about 20-30 minutes. Take your oil and here there’s no room to be stingy about it, make sure you have at least 2 liters/quarts in case you need to top up the frying oil midstream, so to speak. And remember, don’t have the oil at a crazy boil or the outside will get dark and crusty before the inside cooks properly. Place the oil in a pot large enough to fry about 3-4 doughnuts at a time, remember they fluff up in the oil so you don’t want to crowd them. If you crowd them, they get too close together to fry properly and you cool down the oil too much and the inside undercooks. So patience is a virtue, 3 or so at a time. Have the oil at the boil, and turn down to medium heat and carefully place the dough balls into the oil.

See it looks a bit foamy (the oil)? That’s fine. Now they should cook approximately 3-4 minutes on each side. Your best bet is to test drive a doughnut, fry one and then carefully cut open to make sure the inside is fully cooked and use that as your test case. More or less, that’s how long to fry them. Adjust the flame as necessary, sometime the oil gets hotter and sometimes cools a bit, so keep your eye on it. In addition, if there seems to be too little oil, top it off with more and let come back to proper heat again. Once they are fried, the best way to drain is on a wire rack (it drips off a treat and doesn’t steam the doughnuts) but if you ain’t got a wire rack, it’ll do to drain on paper towels.

Note the color of the doughnuts. This is probably darker than the sort you buy but it’s the proper color. Once the doughnuts are drained and cool enough to handle, have fun choosing whatever filling floats your boat or that of your guest. I had jam, biscoff filling, chocolate spread etc. Each time the adults and kids surprised me with their choice. Ya never know who’s a jam person or a chocolate fiend. By the by, I filled the donuts the old fashioned way, used a sharp knife to make a slice on the side of the doughnut in the middle and a teaspoon to fill it, nothing fancy and it’s all good. Shake powdered sugar on top just before serving. Have a doughnut or two and bask in the joyfully wicked delight of eating something bad for you but glorious in taste. Chanukah Sameach!

Sufganiyot – Jelly Doughnuts

2.2 pounds (1 kilo) bread flour

2 tablespoons instant yeast

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (optional)

1.5 cups milk, (360 ml)

1/2 cup (113 grams) butter, melted OR 1/2 cup oil

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons brandy/vodka/bourbon/scotch whichever you choose

1-1.5 liters/quarts oil for frying

Powdered sugar for top

For filling: jam/chocolate spread/biscoff spread

Directions:

In large bowl, place flour, yeast, sugar, salt (not too close to yeast) and grated lemon peel if you choose to use it (but do, it’s so good) and mix well. Heat the milk and melt the butter in the hot milk and cool to lukewarm. (A note, you do have to heat milk since there’s an enzyme in milk which can retard rising of dough, heating it removes this issue). Add milk/butter mixture, eggs, and the liquor of your choice. Knead all together till dough is smooth. Oil the dough all over and cover with plastic wrap to rise till doubled in bulk. Form about 30 balls of dough from the mixture and place on parchment paper lined trays, giving them room to rise, not too close together. Place in a warm environment to rise. Once risen, take the oil and place in deep pot and fill 2/3 full. Bring oil to boil and lower to medium heat. Fry about 3-4 doughnuts at a time, not crowding them so they can rise properly and fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side or till insides are cooked. I recommend starting with one doughnut and frying to see how long it takes to properly cook and proceeding with all the rest of the dough balls. Keep an eye on how high the boil of the oil is, don’t cook on too high a flame. Drain on wire racks or if you don’t have any, on paper towels. Using a sharp knife, make a slit in the side of the doughnut and fill with your filling of choice with a teaspoon. Shake powdered sugar on top just before serving (or it gets absorbed).