Preparing Sufganiyot

On Tuesday and Wednesday this past week, all of our 5th and 6th graders at JQuest took part in the fourth of our scheduled eight cooking sessions this year. Led by Karen (on Tuesday) and Stephanie (on Wednesday), we prepared a favorite Hanuka holiday treat in Israel (which has since become very popular in other Jewish communities around the world, including our own American Jewish community). "Sufganiyot" is the Hebrew name for fried jelly doughnuts, traditionally round in shape. Since we celebrate the miracle of the oil during the eight days of Hanuka, foods prepared in oil are traditionally prepared for this holiday.

The recipe we used actually calls for the doughnuts to be baked instead of fried (though we did use Pam cooking oil spray to coat the doughnut hole pans we used!) - a much healthier version. Since we have a limited amount of time for the cooking session, Karen and Stephanie opted to simply dust the baked doughnuts with powdered sugar, but if you prepare these at home, feel free to fill them with jelly and decorate them with the glaze included in the recipe below, and any other topping you wish.

Fluffy Cake Doughnuts

(Yields 12 doughnuts)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour                                                                       2 eggs, beaten

¾ cups white sugar                                                                              1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder                                                               1 tablespoon Crisco shortening

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg                                                               ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt                                                                                      ¾ cup milk

 ½ teaspoon flavored extract

Pam spray for greasing doughnut pan

Note: For gluten-free version, simply replace the flour with the same amount of gluten-free flour and add 2 tablespoons of Xanthan gum into the mix.

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons hot water

½ teaspoon flavored extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit 

Lightly grease a doughnut pan

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt

Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening

Beat together with whisk until well-blended

Fill each doughnut cup approximately ¾ full

Bake 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, until doughnuts spring back when touched

Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan

To make glaze, blend confectioners’ sugar, hot water and flavored extract in a small bowl

Dip doughnuts in the glaze and allow to cool before eating.

Jeremy and Gabe have washed their hands with soap and water, and are ready to begin.

With the flour already in the bowl, Allie is adding in the sugar while Abby and Alexia look on.

Since there weren't enough separate containers of certain ingredients to put on each table, students from each group were asked to come up to the main table with their bowl, to add in those ingredients. Here's Alexia (holding the purple bowl) waiting for her turn.

One of the hardest parts of preparing the dough mixture was cracking the two eggs. Here, Michael has obviously found the trick to cracking the very hard shells.

Jeremy's about to find out if his method will work.

And it does!

Here's a very happy Callen and a very focused Joey waiting to get their final ingredients into their group's bowl as our Y'tzira teacher, Maimone, looks on.

Once they're back at their table, the two are focused on the task at hand.

And here are Emma and two Shira students checking the recipe sheet to find out what gets added in next into the gluten-free version of the recipe.

And once all the ingredients have been blended carefully together in the bowl, it's time to spoon the dough mixture into the doughnut pan, as Zach is doing, while Callen wonders if there's enough mixture to fill both pans (there was!).

Abby and Alexia do the same. Once the pans were filled, they were brought into the Social Hall kitchen where the ovens were already pre-heated and ready for the doughnuts to bake about 10 minutes.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL COOKING SESSION, WITH UNANIMOUS APPROVAL OF THE RESULTS!