Baked Sufganiyot (a.k.a. Bite Sized Jelly Donut Holes)

Sufganiyot are a type of jelly filled donut that are traditionally served around Hannukah, a holiday that bases many of its most popular foods on frying. The sufganiyot are not much different than any other jelly donut. They are made with a fluffy yeast dough, deep fried and then injected with a generous amount of jam or other fruity fillings. Although deep fried donuts are delicious, and it is definitely not a bad thing to indulge in them from time to time, it’s nice to have an alternative to deep fried balls of dough. In light of this, I turned the Jelly Donut Muffins from The Baking Bites Cookbook – which are similar to my Sugar Donut Muffins – into Bite Sized Jelly Donut Holes, or Baked Sufganiyot.

These little donuts are the size of a mini muffin or cupcake and they’re baked in a mini muffin tin. The batter is not made with yeast, but is a buttermilk batter that makes a cake-like donut. The baked donuts are rolled in sugar then filled with a little bit of jam before serving. Sugar forms a slightly crisp, sweet coating on the outside of these bite-sized treats and really gives them the feel of a donut.

You can use any kind of jam or jelly that you like in these. Most of the sufganiyot I’ve had – and most jelly donuts, come to think of it – have a generic, cherry pie-like “red” filling inside. I opted for a dark raspberry jam to keep the coloring consistent, but a flavor like apricot, blackberry, strawberry or anything else would do just as well. These are best when they’re fresh, but they’ll keep well in an airtight container for a day or so if you want to bake them up in advance, too.

Baked Sufganiyot
(a.k.a. Bite Sized Jelly Donut Holes)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling
2/3 cup red jam (raspberry, strawberry, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a mini muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color. Beat in vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Gradually add in flour mixture in two or three additions, alternating with additions of buttermilk.
Divide batter evenly into prepared mini muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full (approx 1 tbsp batter).
Bake for 9-11 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place melted butter in a small bowl. Place sugar for rolling in a small bowl or deep-sided plate.
Remove donuts from pan, dip the tops in melted butter and roll in sugar. Place on a cooling rack to allow sugar to set.
When donuts are cooled, fit a pastry bag or ziploc bag with small round pastry tip. Place jam into pastry bag. Poke a small hole in the side of each donut with the pastry tip and pipe a small amount of jam into the center of each donut (approx 1 tsp).
Serve immediately.

Makes about 3 dozen donut holes.