Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: Doughnuts

Hanukkah begins this weekend, which means plenty of sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts!) and other fried dough like sfenj, a wonderfully light yeast-raised doughnut from North Africa.

We talked about both (and more!) on this week's Calgary Eyeopener.

Here are the recipes!

Sufganiyot

Sufganiyot (soof-gahn-eeyot) are jelly doughnuts traditionally made for Hanukkah, symbolic as they're fried in oil.

Use any kind of jelly, jam or compote to fill them — if it's too chunky, you can always smooth it out enough to pipe in (use a zip-lock bag-easy!) by blending it with a hand-held immersion blender.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk, warmed.
• 2 tsp active dry yeast.
• 3–3 ½ cups all-purpose flour.
• 3 Tbsp sugar, plus extra for rolling.
• 2 large eggs.
• ¼ cup butter, softened.
• 1 tsp salt.
• canola or other neutral oil, for cooking.
• ½ cup (ish) jam or jelly.

Preparation:

Put the milk in a large bowl — use your stand mixer if you have a dough hook — and sprinkle with the yeast.

Let it sit for a few minutes, until it gets foamy.

Add about 3 cups of the flour along with the sugar, eggs, butter and salt and stir until you have a sticky dough.

Add a bit more flour and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, but still very tacky—the flour will absorb some of the liquid and smooth out as it rests. Cover and let rise for about an hour and a half, or until it doubles in size.

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Roll or pat the dough out about ½-inch thick and cut into about 2 inch rounds with a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass.

(Re-roll the scraps if you like — I like to cook them as is for wonky sugary doughnut bits that always wind up looking kind of like animals.)

Cover the rounds with a tea towel and let rest for about half an hour.

When you're ready to cook, set a heavy, shallow pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add about two inches of oil; heat it until it's hot, but not smoking — a scrap of bread or dough dipped in should sizzle, and if you have a thermometer it should read about 350˚F.

Cook the doughnuts in batches, without crowding the pot — turn them with a slotted spoon or tongs for 2-3 minutes, or until they turn deep golden.

Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate, and when they're cool enough to handle (but still quite warm), roll them around in a shallow dish of sugar to coat.

Put the jam into a piping bag or zip-lock bag and snip off one corner.

Poke a knife into the side of each doughnut, stick the end of the bag into the hole and squeeze in some jam.

(Alternatively, slice each doughnut halfway open and spoon some in.) Serve warm, if at all possible.

Makes: about 1 ½ dozen doughnuts, plus scraps.

Sfenj

Moroccan sfenj are made with a very loose, wet dough — one you can't roll and cut, but shape into loose rings with dampened hands.

The result is light, airy, chewy doughnuts that are almost like crullers.

They are commonly served doused in sugar, but are delicious drizzled in honey syrup — and of course you could also experiment with other doughnut glazes if you like.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 Tbsp active dry or instant yeast.
• 4 cups all-purpose flour.
• ¼ cup sugar.
• 1 tsp salt.
• 2 cups warm water.
• canola or other mild vegetable oil, for cooking sugar, for coating (or syrup below).

Syrup (optional):

• ½ cup sugar.
• ½ cup water.
• aromatics (whole cardamom pods, strips of orange zest, cinnamon stick).
• a big spoonful of honey.

Preparation:

If you're using active dry (not instant) yeast, dissolve it in about 1/4 cup of the water in a small bowl first — and let it sit for 10 minutes to make sure it gets foamy if you're unsure of its age.

(If it's instant, you can add it right to the dry ingredients.)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, yeast (if it's instant) and salt.

Stir in the water (and any dissolved yeast) until you have a wet, shaggy dough.

Cover and leave on the countertop for an hour or so, until it has doubled in size and is wet and bubbly on the surface.

Heat a couple inches of oil in a shallow heavy pot (a Dutch oven is ideal) over medium-high heat until it's hot, but not smoking — aim for about 350˚F if you have a thermometer, or a bit of dough or scrap of bread should sizzle when you dip it in.

With dampened hands, pull off a piece of dough about the size of two eggs, poke a hole through the middle with your fingers, and stretch into a large-ish ring.

(Make the hole bigger than you want it to be — the dough will puff up as it cooks.)

Gently lower a couple at a time into the oil without crowding the pot, and cook for a few minutes per side, turning with tongs or a slotted spoon.

Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate when they're pale golden. If you want them doused in sugar, put some in a shallow dish and gently dip the still-warm doughnuts in to coat.

To make the syrup, bring the sugar and water, along with any aromatics you like — a few cardamom pods and/or strips of orange peel, for example — to a simmer in a small saucepan and cook until it reduces by about half and turns
syrupy.

Remove the aromatics with a slotted spoon and stir in the honey, stirring until it melts in. Drizzle over the warm doughnuts just before you serve them.

Makes: About a dozen doughnuts.