Sufganiyot (Israeli Jelly Doughnuts) Recipe on Food52 (2025)

FAQs

What is the difference between jelly donuts and sufganiyot? ›

In Poland, jelly doughnuts are called paczki which means flower buds. Traditionally, they were fried in lard which sets them apart from sufganiyot, which are fried in oil.

A much more common understanding of the word is that it has Greek and Hebrew roots. In Greek, sufgan means “fried” and “spongy.” In Hebrew, the word sofeg (סופג) translates to “absorb.” Eating sufganiyot and other oily foods is symbolic of Chanukkah's miracle.

Sufganiyah (Hebrew: סופגנייה or סופגניה, Hebrew: [ˌsufɡaniˈja]; pl. : sufganiyot, Hebrew: סופגניות, Hebrew: [ˌsufɡaniˈjot], or in Yiddish pontshke פּאָנטשקע) is a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Fill with your favorite jam or jelly. Jelly-filled doughnuts called sufganiyot are as traditional on Hanukkah as latkes, and just as delicious. In this recipe, a quick dough using self-rising flour and yogurt makes the fried doughnuts crisp and golden outside and wonderfully tender inside.

Most jelly donuts seem to have a berry ( raspberry or blackberry) type of filling. If it's got a chocolate filling, it's not a jelly donut, it's a custard donut.

jelly donuts. We absolutely LOVE using Bonne Maman's preservers for these classic jelly donuts (strawberry or raspberry are my favorite), but you can really use whatever kind you like! I do recommend using something that isn't too chunky to avoid any blockages in your piping when you are filling your donuts!

While Ashkenazim have come to center their celebrations around freshly fried pancakes, or latkes, Sephardim celebrate by eating sufganiyot, little freshly fried doughnuts originally filled with red fruit jelly.

These potato pancakes (called latkes) are meant to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah, when the oil of the menorah in the ransacked Second Temple of Jerusalem was able to stay aflame for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day. The symbolism comes in the form of the oil in which latkes are fried.

Bear Sign – A cowboy term for donuts made while they were on the range. A cook who could and would make them was highly regarded.

History. The first record of a jelly doughnut appeared in the Polish translation (Kuchmistrzostwo) of a German cookbook published in 1532.

What's the difference between a donut and a sufganiyot? ›

There's no technical difference between a sufganiyah and any other jelly donut, except in name. And while I tend to prefer a brioche-based donut, this version from Uri is lovely. It's lighter than brioche, with less butter and eggs, and the dough is flavored with orange juice and zest and brandy.

Called sufganiyot in Hebrew, this confection is a Chanukah treat throughout the Jewish world. Deep-fried jelly doughnuts recall the oil that burned miraculously for eight days in the second-century BCE Temple in Jerusalem.

Sufganiyot will always be best the same day they are fried. If you're frying them to be eaten later in the day, leave them on the cooling rack and fill and garnish just before serving. If holding filled sufganiyot for more than 4 hours, you'll want to store them in the fridge in a covered container.

Although they look like German berliners (bismarcks in North America) or jelly doughnuts, pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast, and sometimes milk.

Yeast doughnuts, as the name clearly spells out, are made from dough leavened with yeast (think brioche), whereas cake doughnuts are traditionally made from a kind of cake batter that uses a chemical leavener (i.e. baking powder or baking soda).

A Krapfen or Berliner is a German jam doughnut with no central hole, made from sweet yeast dough fried in lard or cooking oil, with a jam filling, and usually covered in powdered sugar.