Happy Hanukkah my Jewish friends! Hanukkah this year starts tomorrow night at sundown and what better way to get in the Hanukkah spirit than with homemade jelly doughnuts filled with ice cream and covered with powdered sugar!!
(Jump to Recipe!)
I was one of the lucky kids who celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas growing up.
We we’re raised primarily Jewish but there was always a flare of Christmas around the holidays! Instead of your traditional stockings on the fireplace, we had dreidel bags! (Basically a stocking shaped like a dreidel, beautifully embroidered and even had our names on it!) They were filled with little toys or candy and always a new ornament (picked out just for us) that we got to hang on the tree – yes, we had a tree!
Under the tree that was decorated with meaningful ornaments from years past, (literally so many we never had room for those classic filler ornaments you see at the store), we had our Hanukkah presents! We’d get one small gift each night from our parents that we would open after lighting the Menorah and saying the Hanukkah prayer. I remember the thrill of searching in the pile of presents for the one that had my name and the specific night number on it! With 3 older brothers, 2 parents and 8 nights of Hanukkah, that’s a lot of presents to hunt through!
My mom would make a brisket dinner with latkas and applesauce, blintzes the next morning for breakfast and always jelly doughnuts.
Christmas we did a bit differently. Instead of our parents being the gift givers, it was our turn to scrape up our money as siblings and get each other and our parents something. (Most of these gifts came from those ridiculous holiday shopping fairs our elementary school had. Poor Mom and Dad got “#1 Dad” pens and “World’s Best Mom” keychains probably until we were in our teens!). Even though the pens and keychains seem totally lame now, I remember loving the excitement of watching my family open the presents I got them and those first feelings of genuine happiness you get from gift giving.
*Sigh*. – Gotta love the holidays, amiright?
OKAY. BACK TO DOUGHNUTS.
Most of the traditional food eaten on Hanukkah has a strong tie to oil (relating back to the story of Hanukkah and the tiny bit of oil miraculously lasting 8 days and nights!). For this reason – no swapping these fried doughnuts for baked doughnuts! Yes, I know, they’re healthier but you can’t argue with history *shrug*.
I love the twist of adding ice cream into this classic holiday dessert. It makes it feel extra special. The creaminess of the ice cream soaks into the fluffy, crunchy fried doughnut and mixes so perfectly with the tart jelly sauce. I used a basic vanilla ice cream in mine but feel free to mix it up!
The doughnut recipe I used can be found here! – https://www.letscookdelicious.com/2020/03/easy-homemade-glazed-doughnut-holes.html
Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating these 8 crazy nights!
Jelly Doughnuts Filled With Ice Cream!
Ingredients
Fried Doughnuts
- 12 small fried doughnuts see link for recipe
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar for the top of the doughnuts
Strawberry Sauce
- 1 1/2 cup strawberries fresh or frozen
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp gelatin or 1 tbsp cornstarch
Ice Cream
- 1 cup vanilla ice cream soft
Instructions
- Add strawberries, sugar and lemon juice to a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat.
- In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and set aside for 1-3 minutes to bloom.
- Once the strawberries start to break down and has cooked for a few minutes, take off heat and add in the gelatin/water. Stir to combine.
- Place in a blender and blend until smooth. *Be careful! It's hot!*
- Strain through a mesh strainer and cool to thicken.
Assembly
- Cool doughnuts completely – see external recipe.
- Fill small piping bags with jelly and ice cream of choice.
- Using a knife, carefully poke a small hole in each doughnut.
- Fill the doughnut with a small amount of ice cream first and then a small amount of jelly.
- Heavily dust the tops of the doughnuts with powdered sugar and serve immediately.
