discovery #20

how long it takes to make sufganiyot (and the reason bakers wake up at 2am!?!)

david and i were going to dallas to celebrate hanukkah and he asked if i would make a recipe he found to take with us. i love trying new things--and had the day off on friday--so i agreed. we had gone to the grocery store together the night before and collected all the kosher ingredients. i had a few things to get done and didn't get started until about 3:00pm (thinking i'd whip them up before happy hour!).

it started out innocent enough...yeast, water, sugar. although they wanted the water "warm (105-115 degrees)"...hmmmm, a thermometer would have been helpful at that point.

but the dough worked out well, and after sitting for an hour and a half "in a warm place (80-85 degrees)"...this took some creativity...turn on the oven for a little bit, then off, and pray it was somewhere close to this range. okay, back to sitting...then it was ready to be cut with a "3-inch round biscuit cutter." cue the blue moon pint glass--perfect. have you noticed that i did NOT read the recipe prior to starting this project. so....

they sit for ANOTHER hour to rise before cooking. (and i cannot lie...they sat for 3 hours and 45 minutes while i enjoyed real blue moon at the pub!) at which point i gained a pastry chef to assist with the final 8 steps of the recipe....

oh, the oil needed to heat to 375 degrees...which i happened to read prior to happy hour, so we stopped for a thermometer on the way home. (note: it takes approx. 30 minutes to do this!)

to fill we were supposed to use a pastry bag and tip...we instead used: a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off, and a chopstick.

and you may have noticed i look really happy (and overdressed) in the final photo above...but this is what my kitchen looked like:

but they were delicious...i must have eaten 3 that night (we finished a little before midnight!)...and couldn't bring myself to have any during the actual party. but dallas was wonderful: amazing food, friends, and music!

happy hanukkah!