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Sour cherry sufganiyot, or doughnuts
A healthy-ish take on a traditional Jewish holiday sweet. This version is nearly sugar free, except the sugar used in the preservation of the cherries. If you like your treats sweeter, feel free to add ½ cup of sugar to the dough batter. Best eaten by the light of Hanukkah candles, or just with a milky cup of earl grey tea, as my grandmother would.
Ingredients
- For 25 medium-sized sufganiyot or 30-35 small ones:
- 6 cups flour I used 3 whole wheat, 3 white flour
- 6 Tbs yeast
- 2 Tbs sugar
- 2 Tbs vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 6 Tbs vegetable oil
- 2 Tbs brandy
- 1.5 cups warm water or warm soy milk, warm lactose-free milk, or warm regular milk
- 1 jar sour cherries in syrup drained (I had home-preserved sour cherries, but feel free to use whatever brand the nearest store carries. Keep the syrup for cocktails!)
Instructions
- If using instant yeast: Mix all dry ingredients (flour, yeast and salt) together, make a well in the middle and add all wet ingredients.
- If using dry yeast: Mix yeast, sugar and water together in a medium-sized bowl. Let yeast activate until foamy, about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the centre, and add all wet ingredients.
- Mix well to combine with a wooden spoon until wet dough forms.
- Cover your work surface with flour, and take out your dough. Work your dough well, adding flour as necessary, four about 6 minutes.
- Place in an oiled bowl, cover with towel and let rest in a warm place for one to one and a half hours, until doubled in size.
- Divide dough into equal pieces (25 if you’re looking for medium-sized doughnuts, 35 if you’re looking for smaller ones). Cover two or three cookie sheets with parchment paper, and oil your paper slightly. Roll your dough pieces into equal-sized balls, and place them with about one or two inches apart on the sheets. Cover with towels and let rest in a warm place for an hour, until balls have doubled in sized.
- Heat up one inch of oil in a pan to medium heat. Carefully and gently lay your dough balls into the hot oil, letting your sufganiyot turn golden on one side before carefully turning them over, about two to three minutes. Cover a large plate with a paper towel. Repeat, and remove fried sufganiyot onto paper towel. dabbing the top with another paper towel.
- Let sufganiyot rest for 30 minutes before filing them.
- To fill sufganyiot, make a deep hole in each sufganiya, and stuff with drained cherries, taking care not to overfill.
- OPTIONAL: dust the sufganiyot with confectioners' sugar.