Make This Hanukkah the Sweetest Yet with Sufganiyot from These Brooklyn Doughnut Shops
RECIPES, RESTAURANTSDECEMBER 19, 2019
Make This Hanukkah the Sweetest Yet with Sufganiyot from These Brooklyn Doughnut Shops
Whether you’re grabbing one on the go for a quiet commemoration on your own, or lighting your menorah candles with a crew, here are the places to go for jelly doughnuts worthy of a two-thousand-year-old celebration of light. Above: The Doughnut Plant’s Menorah Ripple
If you’re anything like me, the end of year holidays are as much about food—especially desserts—as they are about traditions and symbolism. When all of those things come together, it feels like the *chefs kiss* of celebrations.
Hanukkah is a perfect example of this assertion. The holiday dates back about 2,200 years, to when a small group of freedom fighters accomplished the unthinkable by overthrowing their powerful oppressors. As they moved to mark the occasion with a ceremony, another miracle occurred: The oil they thought would only provide enough energy to light the ritual candle for one night somehow lasted eight days and nights.
Today, the Jewish diaspora around the world continues to celebrate the festival of lights every year with traditions that honor the miraculous events of that week, by lighting the menorah candles each night, playing a game called dreidel and eating hearty foods fried in oil, like latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), both of which have storied myths of their own: Latkes are said to be the legacy of a righteous badass named Judith, while sufganiyot are believed to be the result of a confluence of contributions from various cultures within the diaspora.