Help, I need tips for making sufganiyot!

In every episode of our podcast Things Bakers Know, we answer baking questions from our listeners. In our recent episode all about holiday baking, one caller asked for advice on how to make sufganiyot for Hanukkah. Below is an edited excerpt from hosts David Tamarkin and Jessica Battilana and our Test Kitchen Director Sarah Jampel. You can find the full episode here.

Caller: Hello, King Arthur. I have a holiday baking question. I would love your advice for sufganiyot for Hanukkah. Every year I try to make fluffy, delicious doughnuts filled with jam for my little ones, and the oil is such a headache. Do you have any guidance on how to keep the temperature consistent? How deep does the oil really need to be in order to fry the doughnuts effectively? And in your experience, do you think there's an ideal size of sufganiyot?  

David Tamarkin: This is a good question because the size of the doughnut really will dictate how long it takes to cook in the oil. And I will admit I've had trouble with this because I get beautiful sufganiyot that are golden brown on the exterior and then I bite into one and it’s raw in the middle.

Sarah Jampel: Okay, I'm going to tackle this part first. I think there's some acceptance that frying is annoying at home. I would recommend that you have enough time and you get yourself set up. So you need a heavy, deep pot. You need designated oil. I feel like my frying downfall is that I'm like, oh, I'll just use whatever oil I have in the pantry and then I don't have enough. You're going to need at least a quart of oil.

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Jessica Battilana: And you use vegetable oil?

Sarah: Any neutral oil is fine. And then you need a landing pad for your doughnuts. So you need a large, clear area. 

And then to the question of whether you actually need a lot of oil to fry the doughnuts effectively. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. It's a little something called thermal mass, which is, you need a large amount of oil to keep the temperature of the oil consistent.

The less oil you have, the more fluctuations in temperature you will have, because that oil is going to move up and down in temperature much more easily. So every time you add a piece of food to oil, it's going to lower the temperature. And low oil temperature is what makes food greasy because the food is going to absorb too much oil. And then you're going to get these like heavy, laden sufganiyot. So yes, you do need a couple of inches of oil in your pot to fry effectively. It's not the kind of thing that you can pan fry. 

Jessica: So, low oil temperature can lead to leaden and greasy sufganiyot. But David mentioned the opposite problem, which is if your oil is too hot, and the outside of your doughnuts brown too quickly on the exterior, taking on too much color before the dough inside has had time to set right. 

Sarah: Yes, you need to have the oil in the sweet spot. I think that's typically around 350 degrees. I recommend keeping a deep fry thermometer or an instant read thermometer near you, and monitoring the oil and making sure that the oil comes back to temperature between batches. 

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Jessica: Do you have any guidelines for how many doughnuts to fry at once? 

Sarah: Yes. Obviously they need to be in a single layer, but then also, I don't think they should be too crowded. I would think they need an inch or two on every side to really be able to float and flip with room. 

Jessica: When you take your doughnuts out of the oil, do you put them on a wire rack or do you put them on paper towels? What's the move to keep them from getting soggy after you fry them?

Sarah: I like a wire rack set on a sheet pan so that the air can keep circulating under them, but then you do need to eat them quickly. Especially after you filled them with jam. It's really a party food, something you would serve to a lot of people and not something that you would keep around for a long time. Because like any fried food, they do not get better with age.

Jessica: Do you think that you can only use your sufganiyot oil once or would you strain and reuse your oil for a second batch?

Sarah: I would reuse it. Give it a smell. See how funky it is. My rule is, when you're using and reusing oil, you want to go from least flavorful fried thing to most flavorful. So it's fine to do doughnuts and then, say, fried fish. Not the other way around. You can't go fish first! 

We’re answering more essential holiday questions over on the podcast, including how to send cookies in the mail and prevent cream puffs from collapsing. Listen to the full episode for the answers!

Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova.