Sufganiyot with Dulce De Leche filling

“and on the 8th day G-d said: Let them eat sufganiyot” – Tractate Chanuka 25b

We’re nearing the end of chanuka, and lucky for you, I have exactly the way to let it go out in style. This post is a “two-fer”…a two for one deal. Call it my chanuka gift to you.

First we’ll start with the filling, the Dulce de Leche.

I always thought dulce de leche, was just caramel, and people wanted to make it sound fancy, so they called it something spanish. But in reality, it’s more than just caramel (which is just sugar and water boiled down to a certain temperature). There’s the added milk (ie the “leche” part). I’m not sure exactly what the authentic recipe for dulce de leche is, but I’m gonna let you get away with this one, and this is really easy.

Start by taking a can of sweetened condensed milk

make two holes on top, and sit that in a pot, and fill it with water, until it’s an inch from the top of the can

and let that simmer for 2 hours. Stuff will ooze out the top, and that’s fine (nothing spilled over). It will turn a dark caramel-y color (which apparently is brown! Who would have know?

Funny story while we’re on the topic – so for all those who don’t know, I’m color blind, and I was watching tv with Ayelet, and this lady on the show, had some sort of face-mask lotion type of thing on her face, and to me it looked green, and she was in the kitchen, so I asked, is that peanut butter? So Ayelet’s like – it’s brown, at which point I said, yeah, so? Anyway, long story short, peanut butter and caramel are both brown, and not green…hilarious)

Moving right along…So once the caramel is finished, pour it in to a container, and let it sit and cool (for about as long as it takes you to try and resolve a stupid bill with Comcast, say 3 hours or so)

To the donut mobile!

For the sufganiyot, I got the recipe from my “sistah!” Batsheva who had made it the day before, and said it came out good, and for some reason, I trusted her. The recipe is from Martha Stewart, and the only modification was I subbed margarine for the butter.

To make the dough, I took yeast, warm water, and sugar, and mixed it up, and let it sit until it was frothy (10 minutes). Then I took the flour, eggs, yeast mixture, sugar, room temperature margarine, nutmeg, and salt, and threw it into my mixer, and mixed to combine. Then put on the dough hook, and kneaded for around 5 minutes. I then kneaded it by hand, for a few more minutes until it was a good consistency (bounces back when poked with a finger…you might need to add flour as you’re kneading if it’s too sticky). Took the dough, and let it sit in an oiled bowl to rise, for 1.5 hours.

When the rise was finished, I rolled the dough out, and cut out little rounds of the dough with a cup (and at that point, I remembered to take pictures)

The rounds were pretty small, so it came out as mini sufganiyot (it made it easier to pop in my mouth as I was crying over the Jets debacle), but they were just as delicious, if not better.

And can you guess what happened next? That’s right, my diet went straight out of the window.

So as you remember no doubt from the last post, we got a deep fryer from the Entin’s, however, there was a catch. The condition that we get a deep fryer, was – we had to make caramel sufganiyot, and Ayelet had to eat one. Well, I’m not just a man of my word, I’m a tzaddik, and I went “lifnim m’shuras hadin.” I didn’t just make caramel, I made dulce de leche! (and I made Ayelet eat more than one). This is the type of person I am.

I poured many glugs of oil into the deep fryer, plugged it in, and waited for it to heat up,

then dropped in the dough

waited a little, and turned them over, to let the other side cook

and then took them out, and let them drain on some paper towels.

These donuts were asking to be filled

For the filling, I don’t have a pastry bag, so I decided to try and fill a ziploc bag with the dulce de leche, and cut off the corner of the bag, and try and squeeze it into the donut (I also made a few with strawberry jam). I got a few done, but it was a pain in the butt, so after about 5 I decided to just drizzle it on top. So I took some confectionery sugar, and sprinkled it on top, and then drizzled the dulce de leche on top of that.

Here's a pretty crappy shot of one I actually did fill, it looks like the picture is from 1980, right?

Oh and yes, the reviews are out, these sufganiyot, were a smashing hit.

“the best sufganiyot I ate the whole chanuka” – Shshr15

And here’s what our own beloved Yehuda Pensak had to say “The Kosher Gastronome has done it again, how? how does he do it? I don’t know, but if I found out, and then somehow in some weird science experiment became him, and then somehow were to amass his amazing cooking skills, and by which I mean his skill and intellect in and around the kitchen, I will run, nay, I shall fly! home, and hastily cook me up a batch of these here sufganiyot!!”

(yeah, he’s a lawyer, how’d you know?)

Ingredients

• Can of Sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (100 degrees to 110 degrees)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons unsalted margarine, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Vegetable oil, plus a little more for bowl
• Confectionery sugar

Directions:

For the Dulce De Leche:

1. Poke two holes on top of can of sweetened condensed milk
2. Place in a pot and fill with water until an inch from the top of the can, and bring water to a simmer
3. Let simmer for 2 hours

For the Sufganiyot:

1. In a bowl, combine the yeast, warm water, and 1 teaspoon of sugar, mix, and set aside until frothy (about 10 minutes)
2. Place flour, yeast mixture, 1/4 cup of sugar, margarine, eggs, nutmeg, and salt in a stand mixer, and mix to combine, and then put on dough hook, and knead on medium for 5 minutes.
3. On a floured surface, dump the dough out, and knead by hand a little more, adding flour as necessary, until a smooth dough forms
4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, and let it rise for 1-1.5 hours
5. After it has risen, dump dough out on floured surface, and roll to about 1/4″ thick (no, I didn’t measure, I just guesstimated), and cut out rounds with a round pastry cutter, or anything round, and let it rise for another 15 minutes.
6. If you have a deep fryer, pour oil in, and plug it in (did you really need instructions for that??), if you don’t, pour 3 cups vegetable oil into a pot, and heat up, until a candy thermometer says 370 (and if you don’t have a candy thermometer, you’re just gonna have to guess when that is).
7. Drop donuts in, and let cook for about 40 seconds per side.
8. Remove to a paper towel lined baking sheet, and let cool.
9. When ready to handle, fill your pastry bag (because you learned from my mistakes, and got a pastry bag) with the dulche de leche, and pipe into each donut.
10. Sprinkle confectionery sugar
11. Lock yourself in your room, turn the lights down, and pound these donuts, because you’re worth it.