Recipe: Three-Step Hanukkah Donuts

With all the things going on in these three towns, I rarely find the time to actually cook a meal myself. But with Tuesday being the first night of Hanukkah, I truly wanted to make an effort with my meal.

First, I invited friends and family over. Then, I created a menu-crockpot chili and sweet potato latkes. Finally, I figured out a tight schedule that would allow me to eat the meal, exchange gifts and play one quick game of dreidel before having to scoot over to my meeting.

I have to say, things went perfectly according to plan-except one thing. I forgot dessert!

Several years ago, I looked up a recipe for homemade donuts. As many Jewish families can attest, Hanukkah donuts, also known as sufganiot in Hebrew, are generally powdered and with a fruit jelly filling. Since the donuts are deep-fried, they stick with the oil theme for the Hanukkah story of the oil that was expected to burn for one night and instead, lasted eight.

When I was done making those homemade donuts, which took hours and were fairly complicated to make, I definitely tasted a whole lot of oil and felt much unhealthier for eating them. But last year, my mom showed me a donut recipe so simple, it had me hitting myself for not thinking of it myself.

In the Hanukkah "giving" spirit, I'd like to share my mom's recipe with you. These donuts should only take you a few minutes each to make and you can be as creative as you want with toppings, substituting powdered sugar and jelly with icing and sprinkles.

Ingredients

1 roll of bisquit dough (does not need to be any particular brand)

2 cups vegetable oil

Powdered sugar

Strawberry or raspberry jelly

Directions

1. Pour vegetable oil into a deep pan and heat on high.
2. Shape small balls of bisquit dough into donut shapes or flat, round shapes. Drop each donut into the oil and flip over once side in oil begins to brown.
3. After both sides are golden, take donut out of oil and blot on paper towel. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar and spread jelly on top. Enjoy!