Kumara cinnamon sufganiyot (doughnuts!)

This Sunday evening is the first night of Chanukah - the Jewish Festival of Lights. The best part about Chanukah is how we celebrate: with deep fried food! That means that its the perfect time to share my recipe for sufganiyot - or in English, doughnuts!

It seems most common that sufganiyot are filled with jam and dusted in icing sugar, but I’d recently found a recipe from Christina Tosi for a pumpkin ganache, so I decided to try that out as a filling! 

Be as creative as you like with fillings and toppings- or even leave them as ring doughnuts with cinnamon sugar - no matter what, they’ll be delicious. 

A note on deep frying: Please be careful! Use a oil with a high smoke point like canola and DO NOT deep fry without a thermometer! I use CDM candy/deep fry thermometers from Moore Wilsons. Theyre pretty inexpensive (about $15 from memory) and unlike a digital one, wont break if you drop it in the oil. 

SUFGANIYOT RECIPE

THE DOUGH:

This kumara brioche dough is my go to, its the softest, fluffiest dough you will ever make! It may seem like a little bit of a pain to boil the kumara just for it, but it’s totally worth it!

60G KUMARA, PEELED. 

75G MILK

200G FLOUR

25G SUGAR

PINCH SALT

5G INSTANT YEAST

1 EGG YOLK

40G BUTTER

OIL FOR DEEP FRYING

Bring the kumara to a boil in salted water until super soft and mushy. Drain off and blend with the cold milk to make a smooth paste. Whisk the sugar, yeast, yolk and kumara mix together. Mix in the flour and salt and knead until you have a rough dough. Add in the butter and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. You can do this all by hand or in a stand mixer. It may take a while to get it smooth if doing it by hand, but its worth the effort. 

You may need to add more flour a little at a time, as the dough can be quite sticky. It should be soft and slightly tacky when its done, if its too firm don’t be scared to add some milk or water. The softer the dough is the lighter and fluffier your doughnuts will be, but it still needs to be firm enough that you can handle it easily. 

Wrap your dough in clingfilm, or place in an oiled bowl and cover with a damp tea towel and leave to double in size. This may take up to two hours at room temperature. At this point you can punch down your dough (squish all the air out of it) and refrigerate for up to 24 hours, or you can use it immediately.

Once doubled in size roll the dough out to 2cm thick and cut into doughnuts. Any size is fine, keeping in mind they will double in size. I used a 5cm cutter and got about 10 doughnuts.

Place each doughnut on a piece of baking paper, making sure to leave a couple of centimetres gap between them. Spray with spray oil and cover with clingfilm. Leave to double in size again, if doing this from room temperature it will take about half an hour to an hour, and will take longer if your dough has come straight from the fridge.

Once your doughnuts are ready to fry, heat 5cm of oil in a shallow, wide pan,  and heat the oil to 180c (please use a thermometer!!) Carefully drop your doughnuts in, frying up to 5 at a time depending on the size of your pan and the doughnuts. I like to use a slotted spoon to lay my doughnuts into the oil. Allow them to brown on one side then flip and brown on the other. 

For filled doughnuts (or doughnuts without a hole in the centre) I like to take one out when its golden brown, and use a small pairing knife to check if its cooked. Poke the knife into the middle of the doughnut and hold it there for a few seconds. Pull it out and check if its warm. If it is, you’re good to go, if it comes out with dough on it, turn your oil down and keep frying. If your doughnuts are larger they will take longer, and you may need to fry at 170c instead of 180c to stop them from burning. 

Drain each doughnut on paper towels and coat while warm in cinnamon sugar (I just mix cinnamon into sugar until it tastes good. 

Leave to cool before filling, and serve on the day they’re made. They will last one day at room temperature, but are never as good as they are fresh. 

KUMARA GANACHE

This recipe is adapted from Christina Tosi’s pumpkin ganache, Ive reduced the sweetness and replaced and increased the pumpkin with kumara for a stronger flavour. 

150G WHITE CHOCOLATE 

25G BUTTER

20G LIQUID GLUCOSE

55G CREAM

100G KUMARA PURÉE (JUST BAKE A WHOLE KUMARA AND SCRAPE OUT THE INSIDES-YOU CAN USE THE REST FOR THE DOUGHNUTS)

1 TSP CINNAMON 

1 PINCH SALT

Bring the kumara, glucose and cream to a boil. Pour over the while chocolate, salt and cinnamon and stir to combine. Add in the softened butter and blend with a stick blender to emulsify. Chill for 4 hours or overnight until firm (or be like me and put it in the doughnuts when its still a bit runny. It’ll still taste good)

Enjoy and happy Chanukah!!