Now that the Jewish festival of Hanukkah is upon us, you will see jelly-filled donuts popping up in bakeries across Israel.

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Called sufganiyah (plural: sufganiyot) in Hebrew, they typically only appear around the holiday season, usually showing up at the beginning of the Hebrew month Kislev.

Kislev typically falls around December, but lately, donuts are appearing as early as September.

It's a custom for most Jews to eat foods fried in oil during Hanukkah, such as the traditional levivot, the fried potato pancakes some might know as latkes. The earliest mention of this custom comes from the father of Maimonides, Rabbi Maimon ben Joseph born 1110. The custom is a remembrance of the miracle of a small bit of oil lasting for eight days.

It is believed that sufganiyot came to Israel via Polish Jewish immigrants, who also brought the tradition of eating them during Hanukkah. While the donuts were typically fried in lard at the time, Polish Jews fried theirs in oil or chicken fat (known as schmaltz), due to kashrut (Jewish dietary restrictions) reasons.

In the late 1920s, Israel's Histadrut labor federation pushed to replace the latke with the sufganiyah as the quintessential Hanukkah food, in order to provide more work (preparing, transporting, and selling the donuts) for its members, according to food historian Gil Marks.

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This proved successful, as nowadays, more Israeli Jews eat sufganiyot on Hanukkah than fast on Yom Kippur, according to Jewish Action, a quarterly magazine of the Orthodox Union.

The largest bakery in Israel, Angel Bakeries, fries more than 25,000 donuts every day during the eight-day festival. While these donuts are traditionally filled with jelly, you'll see a variety of flavors in bakeries such as Angel and Roladin. In 2013, one bakery even filled their donuts with vodka.

The Defense Ministry also gets in on the craze, buying upward of 400,000 donuts for IDF soldiers every Hanukkah.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

The post Rise to the occasion: How the humble donut became Hanukkah's hallmark appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

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At the Japanese restaurant Okinawa in Tel Aviv, guests can get a donut made from banh mi, the steamed bread popular in Vietnamese cuisine. It is aptly called sufbanhya – a play on the Hebrew word for donut and banh.

This special donut comes either with cherry and mascarpone cheese or, for vegans, they can choose from a chocolate-filled version.

The hamburger chain Moses is introducing the Leviburger, a fusion of the word "leviva" (latke in Hebrew) and burger. The chain says that you can get one for 75 shekels, with the usual toppings. The potato latkes serve as another patty.

Meanwhile, an Italian restaurant La Repubblica in Tel Aviv is offering ricotta-filled donuts, which come with Amaretto chocolate sauce on the side.

Israel Hayom was given the chance to taste some of the donuts mentioned in this review. While they may not appeal to all, they definitely offer up a new culinary twist to the Festival of Lights.

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