Jam Donut Pancakes -- Ruth’s Sufganiyot Spirit, Simplified for a Busy December Kitchen

December. The countdown to Hanukkah has begun, and I am simultaneously preparing for the holiday and grading final exams, which means my kitchen table is covered in equal parts flour and student essays, and the flour is winning. Hanukkah begins December twenty-fourth this year — Christmas Eve, which delights Marvin, who enjoys the cultural collision of Jews frying latkes while the rest of America is trimming trees. "We are a people of impeccable timing," he says. He is not wrong.

I started the latke preparations early. Latkes require potatoes, onion, egg, matzo meal, and a vat of oil so deep it could qualify as a swimming pool for small rodents. The oil is the point. Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil — the lamp that burned for eight nights on one night's worth of oil — and we commemorate this miracle by frying everything in oil, which is either deeply spiritual or deeply unhealthy, and Ashkenazi Jews have decided it is both, and we are comfortable with the contradiction.

The grading is relentless. My juniors wrote essays on The Scarlet Letter, and most of them are adequate, which is a teacher's word for "not terrible but not interesting." Two are genuinely good. One is brilliant — a girl named Priya (not my future granddaughter-in-law; there are many Priyas in the world, and this one is sixteen and fierce) wrote about Hester Prynne as a woman who refused to let her shame define her, and the essay had the kind of urgency that tells me this student is not just analyzing a character, she is finding herself in the character. This is what literature does. This is what I teach for.

I made sufganiyot this week — the jelly donuts of Hanukkah, another fried food, because if one fried food commemorates a miracle, why not two? Sufganiyot are more Israeli than Ashkenazi American — Miriam makes them every year in Tel Aviv, and she sent me her recipe, which I have been perfecting for a decade. The dough is rich with egg yolk. The filling is strawberry jam. The sugar coating is generous, as all coatings should be. I brought a batch to the faculty lounge and watched the English department consume them with the speed and commitment of people who are also grading final exams and need sugar the way plants need sunlight.

The kitchen smells like oil and cinnamon and December. Marvin is humming in his recliner. The menorah is on the dining room table, cleaned and polished and waiting. Hanukkah is coming. The oil is ready. The light is coming.

Miriam’s sufganiyot recipe is a once-a-year project — the kind that requires time and oil and patience I don’t always have — but the spirit of them, that joyful collision of fried dough and jam and sugar, felt too right to let go of just because Hanukkah morning arrives on a Tuesday. So I translated the whole thing into something I could make before school, for Marvin, for the two of us standing in that kitchen that smells like December. These jam donut pancakes carry the same filling, the same generous dusting, the same sense that a small miracle deserves a proper celebration.

Jam (Jelly) Donut Pancakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4 (about 12 pancakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup strawberry jam or jelly (thick-cut preferred)
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar, for dusting
• Pinch of cinnamon (optional, for dusting sugar)

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar until evenly combined.
2. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the egg, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
3. Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — a few lumps are fine. Do not overmix or the pancakes will be tough.
4. Heat the pan. Place a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Add a small pat of butter and let it melt and foam. When the foam subsides, the pan is ready.
5. Cook the base layer. For each pancake, pour about 2 tablespoons of batter onto the skillet to form a small round (roughly 3 inches across). Cook until bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set, about 1 to 2 minutes.
6. Add the jam. Drop a scant teaspoon of strawberry jam into the center of each pancake while the top is still wet and glossy.
7. Cover and seal. Spoon another tablespoon of batter directly over the jam to cover it. Cook 30 seconds more, then flip carefully. Cook the second side 1 to 2 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter and jam.
8. Dust and serve. Mix the powdered sugar with a pinch of cinnamon if desired. Arrange the pancakes on a plate or platter and dust generously with the powdered sugar. Serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 290mg