new york | At the age of 14, having a great time dropping doughnuts into boiling oil despite the occasional spatter, I didn’t realize I was decades ahead of the curve.
In the 1960s who knew that one day doughnuts, fritters and beignets would become trendy during Chanukah, giving latkes a run for their gelt?
In my Ashkenazi world, the feisty little potato pancake flecked with chopped onions was the centerpiece of Chanukah celebrations. My Jewish friends hailed from families who’d emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe. Our holiday desserts consisted of brownies and rugelach, almond horns and miniature Danish. By the time the coffee was percolating, someone in the kitchen had already washed and put away the frying pans.
I was in my 40s with a 14-year-old daughter before I learned that Jews from the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe fry up myriad Chanukah pastries, which differ from country to country. Many of these crunchy delights are drizzled with syrups and served for dessert.
As a lover of fried dough, I liked this idea. Perusing recipes, however, I soon realized you had to distinguish between cooking techniques: pastries that swell from yeast vs. the more crepe-like pancake, and batter that is deep fried vs. sautéed.
At Chanukah, sufganiot are wildly popular in Israel and sold at virtually every market and bakery. Best consumed warm, the yeast-based balls of dough are deep fried and often contain jelly or custard that oozes from their portly centers.
While sufganiot grabbed my attention in the ’90s, more and more American Jews are making them now. I like sufganiot in principle because they are a marriage of Ashkenazi and Sephardi cuisines.
Scholars claim that sufganiot are reminiscent of a springy cookie known as sufganne, a fried dough eaten around the Mediterranean since the time of Judah Maccabee. Perhaps that’s why these heavenly doughnuts were given the name sufganiot in Hebrew, which comes from a Greek word meaning puffed and fried.
Throughout the Sephardi world, variations on the doughnut-fritter theme are riffed and repeated.
In her book “Classic Italian Jewish Cooking,” author Edda Servi Machlin reminisced about the Frittelle (fritters) di Chanuka that she ate in Tuscany during her childhood. Flavored with anise seeds and raisins, the yeasty dough is cut into diamonds, fried in a saucepan until golden and drizzled with warm honey.
Several years ago, Mathew Goodman in his Food Maven column in the Forward described Moroccan sfenj, airy light yeast doughnuts in the classic ring shape. After being dunked in seething oil, they are glazed with sugar syrup infused with cinnamon and orange. Chopped nuts are added occasionally to the batter, giving them a pleasing crunch.
In the “Jewish Holiday Cookbook,” Gloria Kaufer Greene explained that Jews from throughout the Middle East and North Africa swirl strings of dough into simmering oil, creating rosette shapes. This pastry is often called zlabia but goes by zelebi among Yemenite Israelis, and
zangoola or zingzoola among Iraqis.
On the Ashkenazi side, I discovered some traditional but often overlooked fried pastries. Viennese layered crepes are an elegant spin on latkes that call for flour and vanilla rather than potatoes and onions. Similar to a layer cake, eight of these crepes — for the eight nights of Chanukah — are piled atop one another with a spiced applesauce filling between them.
Apple fritters are batter-coated apple slices that are submerged into a deep fryer until they turn a resplendent golden brown. While still warm they are dusted with confectioner’s sugar.
I suggest dedicating one of the holiday’s eight nights to some of these stunning desserts, perhaps forgoing latkes and other savory fried foods in favor of pastries crisped in oil.
Better still, throw a Sunday afternoon Chanukah party with a “just desserts” menu. Serve fried sweets along with favorite cookies and platters of fruit.
As Chanukah celebrates the miracle of a one-day supply of oil that stretched for eight days, why not grab a bottle of cooking oil and fry, fry again.
The recipes below are by Linda Morel:
Apple Fritters (dairy)
Makes 15 fritters
3 to 5 cups of flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
2 eggs at room temperature
3 Granny Smith (green) apples
3 cups corn oil
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Sift flour until it yields 1 cup. Reserve remaining flour. Add salt, sugar, and baking powder to the cup of sifted flour and sift these 4 ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add milk and eggs to flour mixture and beat until well incorporated. Batter will be thick but smooth. Reserve.
With a vegetable peeler, remove apple skins. With a sharp knife, core the apples. Cut off the bottom of apples to achieve a flat surface. Cut apples horizontally into 1/2 inch slices, about 5 slices per apple. Each slice will be ring shaped with a hole in the center. Pour oil into a saucepan several inches deep and heat it on medium-high flame. Oil should be 1-inch deep. Oil is sufficiently hot when a speck of batter dropped in oil browns immediately.
Meanwhile, place a cup of flour on a dinner plate. In batches of 2 or 3 apple rings, roll each ring in flour to cover every surface. Add more flour as needed. Coat each ring in batter, letting excess batter drip back into bowl. With fingers, hold ring vertically over oil near its surface. Carefully ease bottom of ring into oil and let go. Cook no more than 2 to 3 rings at a time. Fry fritters for 2 to 3 minutes on a side, or until they turn a deep golden brown. Turn fritters with a slotted spatula. They will look like doughnuts. Remove fritters with slotted spatula, letting excess oil drip into pan. Place on paper towels to drain. Move to a platter and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. Serve immediately.
Viennese Layered Crepes (dairy)
Serves 8
4 cups applesauce
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
In a medium-sized saucepan, mix together all filling ingredients. Over a medium-high flame, simmer ingredients for 3 minutes,
stirring constantly. Carefully drain out excess liquid by straining applesauce in a fine sieve. Reserve.
Crepe Batter
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted sweet butter, plus
1/2 cup chilled butter or more
for frying
2 cups (commercially) whipped
cottage cheese
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsps granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
No-stick spray
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Place eggs in a large bowl and beat until light and foamy. Add 1/4 cup melted butter, cottage cheese, flour, salt, sugar and vanilla, incorporating well. Ladle the batter in equal parts into 8 small bowls.
In an 8-inch skillet, preferably stick-resistant, melt 1 Tbs. of butter. Pour batter from 1 bowl into skillet, tipping it so batter spreads evenly. Fry until crepe is lightly browned. Flip over and brown bottom side. Move to a rimmed cake plate and spread a portion of applesauce over it.
Repeat with remaining batter. Pile crepes one atop the other with applesauce between each layer. End with a crepe, spreading no applesauce on top. Sprinkle sifted Confectioner’s sugar over top crepe. Serve immediately and cut with a sharp knife into slices like a cake.
Easy Sufganiot Minis (Pareve)
Makes 24-30
2 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 packet active dry yeast (not
close to expiration date)
stored in refrigerator &
brought to room temperature
before using
5 to 6 cups corn oil, or more if
needed
3 cups flour, sifted
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup orange juice, warmed
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, both at
room temp.
3 Tbs. non-hydrogenated
margarine
(such as Earth
Balance), melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 cup
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Put sugar in a small bowl. Pour warm water over sugar. Sprinkle yeast over water. With a spoon warmed in hot water, gently stir mixture. Leave (proof) for 10 minutes. Mixture should bubble and increase in volume.
With 1 Tbs. of oil, grease the bowl of an electric mixer. Place flour in bowl and make a well. Inside of well, place salt, orange juice, egg and egg yolk, margarine, vanilla, 1/3 cup sugar, and yeast mixture, when ready. Using the dough-hook attachment, mix until ingredients are well incorporated and a ball of elastic dough forms. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave in a warm room for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until dough doubles in size.
Meanwhile, make cinnamon sugar by mixing together 1 cup sugar and cinnamon. Place on a dinner plate. Reserve.
One at a time, pull off pieces of dough about 2/3 the size of a golf ball. Roll each piece of dough in palms of your hands until you form a smooth ball. Place balls on parchment paper or foil and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 30 minutes.
Pour remaining oil in a pot, so that oil is 2 inches deep. The smaller the pot’s diameter the less oil you will need. Heat oil on medium-high flame to 350 degrees or until a speck of dough dropped in oil browns quickly. Place one ball at a time on a long- handled slotted spoon and submerge in oil. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes until each sufganiya browns. With slotted spoon turn over sufganiya and brown. Don’t fry more than a couple of sufganiot at a time. Lift from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
When cooled to warm, roll sufganiot in cinnamon sugar and serve immediately.
Hints for making yeast dough: Rising (proofing) yeast and dough require a warm room free of drafts. Dough rises best when it rests in peace, so avoid loud buzzing noises. To heat up a cool kitchen, keep oven at 350 degrees while dough rises.