Sufganiyot

Hannukah starts tomorrow night, and in anticipation of the holiday I wanted to bring a dish to potluck inspired by it. Usually we go with latkes, but a quick look in the pantry told me that I didn't have enough potatoes to make enough for the entire group. 

Instead I decided on sufganiyot - doughnuts traditionally eaten on Hannukah. Of course, I  then realized that if I made fried doughnuts at my house, that by the time it came to eat them they might be mushy or soggy from having been left sitting around. In my mind (and house) the best donut is a fresh doughnut

I scoured the web for a baked sufganiyot recipe, and came across one that seemed like it would turn out well. Having all the ingredients on hand helped solidify my decision and soon I had some yeasty dough proofing in the kitchen!

After letting the dough rise, I found myself with a helper in the kitchen. Apparently hearing the word "doughnut" is an easy way to get an extra set of hands, and I wasn't going to pass it up.

It didn't hurt that one of the first steps after letting the dough rise was to flour a cloth (which was super helpful. This was a very sticky dough!).

After making sure that every inch of the dough was covered in flour, we painstakingly rolled it out.

I didn't have a "doughnut cutter" that the recipe called for, and instead, we made do with a ball jar size glass. It seemed to do the trick, and I just kept making sure it was dusted with enough flour to prevent any sticking.

After letting the doughnuts rise again, we popped them into the oven. I found that they needed about 5 more minutes of cooking time than the recipe called for, but it was still a quick bake.

We coated half in cinnamon and sugar.

And half in sifted powdered sugar.

The end result was mixed. Truthfully - they were tasty. They really were. I mean, how bad can sweet dough topped with more sweet stuff be bad? Everyone at potluck had at least seconds or even thirds. However, these are nowhere near real sufganiyot. They ended up being more like delicious, sweet rolls. 

I thought I was being slick with baking them, but the whole point of sufganiyot is to fry them in oil. When we relayed the events of our day of doughnut making to my father later on that evening he said "those aren't doughnuts" - and you know, he was right. While a yummy dessert these baked "doughnuts" just didn't pass the Hannukah treat test. Hmm...I guess that means we'll just have to make them again, and this time we'll fry them!