Sufganiyot are jelly filled doughnuts served during Chanukah. They are my family’s favorite treat during the Festival of Lights. These are not something I grew up having during Chanukah, but was a new tradition introduced to me in Minnesota by a friend who brought a box of store-bought doughnuts to our annual gathering. That was a dozen years ago, and I have been making sufganiyot ever since. I will never celebrate the holiday without them. Chanukah may not be the highest of Jewish holidays, but it is up there amongst the tastiest. Fried foods are served during the holiday to symbolize the miracle of one night’s worth of oil to light the menorah lasting eight days. I love everything about a festival dedicated to foods fried in oil and it’s even better that it lasts eight days. Latkes (potato pancakes) and soufganiyot are the two musts at the Chanukah table we share with friends and family. What’s not to love and they are easy to create. The key is a lightly sweet, enriched, yeasted dough that has just enough body to hold the jelly within. I made the dough with butter, because it is delicious, but if you want to keep this pareve (non-dairy or meat) you can use oil.
You can watch me make doughnuts in my Instagram Highlights video.
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by Myrtle Allen, published in 1977. That cookbook was by my salvation and influenced nearly every dessert I created in the kitchen that year. Last week I went to Ballymaloe and met Myrtle Allen’s children, Fern and Darina, who took over the restaurant and created a cookery school with Darina’s brother, Rory. I am not typically one to fan-girl over celebrities, but being in the presence of these folks was a dream come true. You can see pictures from my visit to the Ballymaloe cookery school, where Darina gave us a spirited and brisk (meaning I couldn’t keep up with her) tour of the exquisite gardens, farm and school. Darina is like the Alice Waters of Ireland and has created the Irish food scene, by educating just about every chef in the country and beyond. If you are at all interested in taking cooking classes as an enthusiast of home cooking or potential professional, I couldn’t recommend this experience more highly. 
. This is a recipe that is four ingredients, flour, salt, water and lots of butter, so use a butter you’re in love with. I walked in the emerald fields, over looking the sea with the cows who produce the milk that goes into Kerrygold. The grass and the dairy cows are revered above all else in Ireland. I heard this from the farmers, but also the taxi driver who took me to the airport. I commented about how lucky we were it didn’t rain the entire time we were there and he said, “but we need the rain for our grasses. Without it we wouldn’t have the beautiful green lands and the milk wouldn’t taste so good.” Seriously, it couldn’t have been better scripted. The cows grazing on those green fields produces a golden butter that tastes good enough to eat alone. The butter in Ireland (and all of Europe) has a higher fat content than the butter made here in the states, so the texture is creamy and luscious. It truly makes for a superior puff pastry, so I highly recommend you find some. This is one of those recipes where it will make a big impact. 
, which is the perfect way to celebrate just about any day, no special occasion necessary. I added crushed fresh raspberries to the cream cheese icing to add a bit of pink and sweeten the deal even more. 
, the Date and Tamarind Loaf struck me with an air of comfortable familiarity. I’d never had this particular dessert before, but the exotic ingredients are some that I adore. I was introduced to tamarind from my husband, whose family is from Trinidad, where this fruit appears in many foods. Tamarind is sticky and sour and used in all kinds of dishes from sweet desserts to savory Indian chutneys and stews. If you have never seen or used tamarind before, I have created an
