Sufganiyot

Sufganiyot or Sufganiyah (plural) are a delicious dessert that will have everyone's mouth watering. I can assure you, these will fill every little kid's "dessert stomach". Because we all know how much children pride themselves on always having space for sweets.
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These jelly doughnuts are typical in Israel, however similar ones can be found across cultures. The german Berliner or the Spanish and Latin American Buñuelos. The Israeli version is actually derived from the german Berliner which used to be filled with meat rather than jams and jellies. It is only later that these yeast dough doughnuts were filled with jelly and covered with icing sugar. They taste absolutely amazing I can assure you. But, don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself!

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 50g Sugar
  • 350g Flour
  • 2 Eggs
  • 25g Butter
  • 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
  • 2 tsp Salt
  • 1 package Fresh Yeast (notes)
  • 180ml Water
  • Oil for frying
  • A glass of strawberry or raspberry jam
  • 60g Icing Sugar

Instructions

  1. Heat the water until it is lukewarm.
  2. Mix one teaspoon of the sugar into the water before crumbling the yeast into the water.
  3. Set the yeast aside for 5 to 10 minutes to proof it. (notes)
  4. Sift the sugar, flour, nutmeg and salt into a bowl.
  5. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients.
  6. Crack the eggs into the dry ingredients and pour in the yeast mixture.
  7. Use a fork to mix everything together until the consistency is sticky enough to knead by hand.
  8. When the dough is smooth, continue kneading it on a floured surface.
  9. Leave the dough to rise for half and hour or until it is double its size.
  10. Roll the dough out and use a round cookie cutter to cut out the doughnuts.
  11. Don’t mix and roll the dough out too many times or it will get tough.
  12. Leave the doughnuts to rise for another 15 minutes.
  13. Heat the oil.
  14. Fry the doughnuts from both sides until they are golden-brown.
  15. Fill the jam into a piping bag with, preferably, a long nozzle.
  16. Use the piping bag to fill the sufganiyah with whatever jam you like best.
  17. Sift the icing sugar over the sufagniyah and they are ready to serve and enjoy.

Notes

Fresh Yeast: When using fresh yeast, the package usually specifies the yeast to flour ratio. It can be different for different brands of yeast. The yeast I usually use comes in packages of 25g and is used for 500g of flour. If you prefer to use active dry yeast, check the back of the package. I usually use two packages of active dry yeast instead of one package of fresh yeast.

Deep Frying: You do not need any special equipment for deep drying. It is possible to just use a large pot filled with enough oil so the pastry is floating. You will be needing a ladle to pick the pastry out of the pot. The oil can be filtered after letting it cooled down. I usually use a coffee filter and store my oil in a closed bottle to later reuse when frying.

Yeast: First of all make sure the water is not too hot. It should not be burning. It should be merely warm not hot. If your yeast mixture is not puffy after you let it proof for five minutes, try leaving it for another five. If it still isn’t puffy, do not continue with that mixture!!! It will take less time to redo the yeast mixture and get it right than it will to remake the entire dough because it didn’t rise. Yeast is a tricky ingredient to work with and much can go wrong. This is a way of catching any mistakes early on and sparing yourself a lot of work.

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