Confession: I watched a lot of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee growing up. I know, lots to unpack there. Suffice it to say, Sandra had a very deep and profound effect on my life.
And that, my friends, is how we find ourselves here in Semi-Homemade Sufganiyot land. As you might suspect from the Munchkins-like shape of these particular sufganiyot, they are, in fact…Munchkins! Just jazzed up a little with the addition of melted chocolate, edible gold leaf ($8.99 on Amazon gets you a LOT), and pretty Supernatural Sprinkles.
(P.S. I originally developed these for my Hanukkah brunch tablescape with Pottery Barn! You can check that out over here.)
You don’t have to use Munchkins, mind you. You can use any store-bought doughnuts or fancy-as-heck, pre-made sufganiyot. For me, these just made the most sense given the circumstances and admittedly, I love myself a good Dunkin’ Donut. (Goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the singular version of that before.)
Plus, not only was I running a liiiittle short on time when throwing this particular shoot together last weekend, but I also can’t say I’d bother making doughnuts from scratch if I *did* have the time. Sorry, doughnuts. For a dinner? Sure, why not! But for a brunch? When I’ve just woken up?
Now, I know some of you sufganiyot-lovers out there will find this post borderline sacrilegious. And I am fully prepared to duke it out with you in the comments. But remember, you don’t have to go the donuts route; you can totally go full-on doughnuts! Any store-bought sufganiyot or sufganiyot-look-alike will do. Personally, I do find “miniature” the way to go when it comes to sufganiyot. No giant globs of jelly here.
These were also super inexpensive, made enough for a small but mightily hungry crowd, and took less than 10 minutes to beautify.
Below, I’ve included a short and sweet tutorial to help you dress up your own doughnuts/donuts this month. I hope you have fun dreaming up ideas and topping combinations—and as always, if you make something inspired by this, drop me a line on Insta!
Semi-Homemade Sufganiyot
Description
These adorable sufganiyot are approximately 70% store-bought, 30% homemade. (If my calculations are correct.) They’re such an easy way to feed your Hanukkah party crowd quickly without spending hours in the kitchen—and they’re just so darn pretty. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- Store-bought sufganiyot (I went with mini doughnuts, but anything goes)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (you may need to double this if you’re working with larger doughnuts)
- Edible gold leaf, to garnish
- A few handfuls of sprinkles (I opted for these Supernatural ones!)
- Any other toppings of your choosing!
Instructions
- Arrange the doughnuts on a large baking sheet; set aside. (This will function as your “work area,” where you’ll apply the toppings later on.)
- Prepare the chocolate: Place the chocolate chips into a small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 20-second increments for about 1 minute, removing the bowl and stirring after each trip to the microwave. If you need to continue microwaving, switch to 10-second increments. (Yes, chocolate can “burn,” and when it does, it gets sort of chalky and is rendered unusable. So keep an eye on your microwave!). Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag or plastic bag. if using a plastic bag, use scissors to snip a very small hole off of one of the corners. Remember: You can always make this hole bigger if you need to, but you can’t make it smaller.
- Carefully pipe the chocolate onto a small portion of the doughnut in a zig-zag pattern. Two tips here, but it comes down to personal preference: I prefer the look of an asymmetrical design, and I also like to keep a little of the original doughnut intact and visible so that they still look like sufganiyot and not chocolate doughnuts!
- Garnish with tiny specks of gold leaf and sprinkles. You can wait 30 minutes or so for the chocolate to firm up a bit or serve them immediately. (Remember, sufganiyot are best served day-of!)