If you’re not Jewish, get ready to wish that you were: Jelly donuts are a traditional Hanukkah food. As in, you must eat them to celebrate the holiday or you get kicked out of the tribe. Okay, you don’t really have to eat them, but you can and should, and these delicious jelly donut recipes from some of my favorite food bloggers and editors are proof.
By the way: no judgments if you make one of these jelly donut treats and don’t celebrate Hanukkah. If anything brings us together as one, it’s donuts.
These Blackberry Jam and Custard Donuts (above & top) from The Sugar Hit are a classic jelly donut with a delicious twist: the addition of pastry cream. If you want to stay traditional for Hanukkah, skip the cream and use this recipe to make plain jelly donuts. Otherwise, take on this recipe as written. It’s work, but the pay off is big.
I can’t explain it, but sometimes you just want a the satisfaction of a donut hole instead of a whole donut. If you’re with me, you’ll love this recipe for Doughnut Holes with Raspberry Jam at Food and Wine. The recipe calls for you to make the jam from scratch, but a good quality store-bought jam will work fine. The real star here is the light, crisped dough, so spend your limited cooking time on that.
Related: 8 easy, delectable, baked donut recipes you’ll want to make every week.
Making raised donuts isn’t as hard as it seems, but it takes time since the dough needs to rise. If you’ve never made yeast raised donuts before or baking isn’t generally your thing, this recipe for Easy Raised Donuts from Butterfly Foodie is a good place to start. Everything comes together in one bowl, you cut the dough right away, and the donuts only need to rise for 30 minutes. If you want to make jelly donuts, easy change: Be sure to cut them without a hole in the middle and use a pastry bag to fill them with jelly.
Need your donut recipe to be even easier than the ones above? Skip the yeast altogether and make this 15 Minute Donut recipe from Cooking Classy. These will have a cakier texture than raised donuts, and in my world there’s nothing wrong with that. Also, there’s not really a bad donut if it’s fresh. See the correlation?
Even easier, you say? I have just the thing. Try this Raspberry-Filled Jelly Doughnut recipe from Pillsbury using their pop-n-fresh buttermilk biscuit dough. That’s right, no dough-making required. I know this is a total store-bought shortcut and it’s not everyone’s taste. But If you’re an all natural cook, look for the Pillsbury simply line which contains only natural ingredients like flour, buttermilk, sugar, and baking powder. It’s not like it’s healthy, but it is nice to skip all those preservatives with a store-bought option.
I’m all for variations of jelly donuts that aren’t actually jelly donuts. So. Perhaps you like the idea of a jelly donut, but not so much the work of making one. If that’s the case, a batch of Jelly Donut Pancakes from Food Republic may be in order. I can think of no better Hanukkah—or any day—breakfast. And it’s a bit more healthy than chocolate chip, don’t you think? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
Jelly donut muffins is another easy way to get your jelly donut fix in a slightly different form. This recipe for Mini Donut Muffins at Averie Cooks looks delicious and can easily be adapted to add jelly to the middle. Or just serve jelly on the side, the way you might with any baked goods. Muffins with a dip? What kid—what person—can resist that?!
Last, but hardly least: I’ve found this Jelly Donut Bundt Cake from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. If you’re not up to frying a big batch of donuts, this is a perfect Hanukkah dessert for a crowd. You can save the frying for your latkes , another Hanukkah treat that I recommend you make even if you don’t celebrate—yum.
