By Linda Morel, JTA News & Features
NEW YORK (JTA) — At the age of 14, while having a great time dropping doughnuts into some boiling oil despite the occasional spatter, little did I realize I was decades ahead of the curve.
In the 1960s, who knew that one day doughnuts, fritters and beignets would become trendy during Hanukkah, giving latkes a run for their gelt?
In my Ashkenazi world, the feisty little potato pancake flecked with chopped onions was the centerpiece of Hanukkah celebrations. My Jewish friends hailed from families who had 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 of my own before I found out that Jews from the Middle East, North Africa and certain parts of Europe fry up a myriad of Hanukkah pastries, which differ from country to country. Many of these crunchy delights are drizzled with sweet syrups and served for dessert.
As a lover of fried dough, I liked this idea even before indulging in any of these sizzling pastries.
Perusing recipes, 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 Hanukkah, sufganiyot 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 sufganiyot grabbed my attention in the ‘90s, more and more American Jews are making them now. I like sufganiyot in principle because they are a marriage of Ashkenazi and Sephardi cuisines.
Sufganiyot are similar to pfannkuchen, a jelly-filled doughnut that German Jews served at Hanukkah during the ‘30s. German Zionists carried this holiday custom with them when they emigrated to Palestine.
Scholars claim that sufganiyot 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 sufganiyot in Hebrew, which comes from a Greek word meaning puffed and fried.
I also 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 — one each for the eight nights of Hanukkah — are piled atop one another with a spiced applesauce filling between them.
Apple fritters are batter-coated apple slices submerged into a deep fryer until they turn a resplendent golden brown. They are dusted with confectioner’s sugar while still warm.
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 Hanukkah party with a “just desserts” menu. Serve fried sweets along with favorite cookies and platters of fruit.
As Hanukkah is a holiday celebrating the miracle of a one-day supply of oil that stretched for eight days, you can’t find enough excuses to grab a bottle of cooking oil and fry, fry again.
Apple Fritters (Dairy)
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
1. 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 four ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
2. Add milk and eggs to flour mixture and beat until well incorporated. Batter will be thick but smooth. Reserve.
3. 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 five slices per apple. Each slice will be ring shaped with a hole in the center.
4. 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 the oil browns immediately.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
Yield: approximately 15 fritters.
Viennese Layered Crepes (Dairy)
Filling:
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 1/4 cup chilled butter, or more for frying
2 cups (commercially) whipped cottage cheese
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Nonstick spray
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
1. 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 eight small bowls.
2. In an 8-inch skillet, preferably stick resistant, melt 1 Tbs. of butter. Pour batter from one 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.
3. 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.
Yield: 8 slices
Easy Sufganiyot Minis (Parve)
2 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 packet active dry yeast (not close to expiration date) stored in refrigerator and brought to room temperature before using.
5 to 6 cups corn oil, or more if needed
3 cups of flour, sifted
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup orange juice, warmed
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, both at room temperature
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
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Meanwhile, make cinnamon sugar by mixing together 1 cup sugar and cinnamon. Place on a dinner plate. Reserve.
4. One at a time, pull off pieces of dough about 2/3 the size of a golf ball. Roll each piece of dough in the 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.
5. Pour remaining oil in a pot, so that oil is two inches deep. The smaller the pot’s diameter the less oil you will need. Heat oil on medium-high flame to 350º 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 two to three minutes until each sufganiya browns. With slotted spoon, turn over sufganiya and brown. Don’t fry more than a couple of sufganiyot at a time. Lift from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
6. When cooled to warm, roll sufganiyot in Cinnamon Sugar and serve immediately. Yield: 24-30 sufganiyot.
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 350º while dough rises.