Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

By Liza Schoenfein December 19, 2014

Photograph courtesy of Breads Bakery

I cannot tell a lie: I’ve never made sufganiyot. I feel a little sheepish about this, because when you’re a food editor and a recipe developer, as I am, people seem to expect that you’ve done it all.

I was so impressed when I read Gayle Squires’ story last week about tackling jelly doughnuts for the first time, and her step-by-step recipe sounds fabulous, but aside from a short period when I made my own beer-batter-fried fish, and one or two attempts at fried chicken, I’ve just never been the deep-frying kind.

Which is why I was so delighted when a box of Breads Bakery sufganiyot appeared at my door. These were not your basic jelly doughnuts. Yes, there was the classic, filled with strawberry jam and dusted with powdered sugar, but Breads’ Israel-born chef and co-owner Uri Scheft also makes chocolate ones and vanilla ones and my favorite: a pecan-flavored version filled with sweet, nutty cream. They were intensely fragrant and rather beautiful, an elevated version of the traditional Hanukkah confection. They were, I thought to myself, just like what I would whip up… if I was the deep-frying kind.

Breads Bakery, which also offers a terrific chocolate babka pie, a lovely linzer tart and other holiday treats, delivers throughout the city and will also ship through FoodyDirect.

Liza Schoenfein is the food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected]

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