Sufganiyot, also known as jelly doughnuts, are arguably the biggest Hanukkah tradition in Israel. I had never even heard of them before going there for the first time five years ago, and it surprised me that they only make doughnuts in Israel once a year for this occasion. Crazy!
Apparently they made their way over to Israel via Austro-Hungarian Jews, and due to the fact that they are fried, became extremely popular for Hanukkah. The traditional variety are filled with jam, usually strawberry or raspberry, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. These days pastry chefs have been getting more creative, filling and topping them with chocolate and caramel.
Even in Israel it is hard to find a REALLY GOOD sufganiyah (pronounced: soof-gah-nee-yah), so I thought I would try to master it myself. I am sorry to say that after three valiant efforts, I did not entirely succeed. The best recipe I found was hands-down the Martha Stewart version, which produced the beautiful specimens you see above. If I had not taken a bite, I would never have known that they were not as perfect inside as they first appeared.
Now, these were certainly not BAD. They had a good flavor, clearly a nice puff, pretty as anything, and they were not overly dense. Still, there were problems: 1) A large air pocket formed at the top of them! (see picture below) Causing me much disappointment when I finally did bite into one. 2) While they are not very dense, they still are not as light as I like my doughnuts to be, and thus, simply unacceptable.
