Easy recipe for doughnuts this Hanukkah

Many people are familiar with latkes, a potato pancake-like food that is eaten during Hanukkah. 

But that's not the only Hanukkah food. There's another treat eaten during Hanukkah that is becoming more popular and elaborate, cookbook author Jamie Geller told Fox News Digital.

"So basically, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the oil. There was enough oil to last one day, but it lasted eight days," Geller, who lives in Jerusalem, said. 

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As a result of this, many foods eaten during Hanukkah are fried in oil, she said – "both sweet and savory." 

Sufganiyot, "which are essentially doughnuts," have become "very popular in Israel" during Hanukkah and are growing in popularity around the world, she said. 

"The classic being filled with jelly and smothered in powdered sugar," she said, noting "you can get them anywhere and everywhere during the Hanukkah season." 

In recent years, sufganiyot's popularity has "exploded," not just in Israel, but around the world, she said.

Now, a person can find "every version of a doughnut, every type of filling, every type of topping, every unique combination that you can imagine," said Geller.

She continued, "every year we try to outdo ourselves doing something more crazy and something more gourmet." 

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But, sufganiyot does not have to be complex or elaborate to taste delicious. Geller shared a "sufganiyot in a bag" recipe with Fox News Digital that is easily put together. This recipe is "foolproof," she said.

"Everything – the entire dough – is actually made in the bag," she said. "This is something fun you could do with your kids, because sometimes cooking with kids can be very, very messy and overwhelming."

The entire recipe comes together in about an hour, including time for the dough to rise, she said.

And if a person is afraid of frying things, Geller shared a tip that works not just for this recipe, but for any involving cooking in oil.

"I actually recommend putting a carrot – peeled and cut like 3 or 4 inches – into the pan," she said. "It will help regulate the temperature of your oil as well as attract all those little particles that sort of come off your food as you're frying in batches." 

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1 packet active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup warm water

1½ tablespoons oil (plus more for frying)

½ teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon brandy or cognac

zest of 1 lemon

2 cups of strawberry jelly

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1. In a gallon-sized plastic bag, add the yeast, warm water, sugar, brandy, lemon zest, oil, egg and flour.

2. Zip bag and mix ingredients well.

3. Place bag in a bowl of very warm water for 1 hour.

4. Remove dough from bag onto a floured surface. The dough should be sticky, which makes great sufganiyot! Roll out the dough to ½ inch (1 cm) thickness. Make sure both sides of the dough are floured, so it doesn’t stick to the surface. With a cookie cutter or drinking glass, cut two-inch circles in the dough. When you are left with scraps of dough, roll it out again and cut more circles.

5. Cover with a towel for 30 minutes. 

6. Fill a pan with 2 inches of oil. Heat oil to 350℉. If you don’t have a thermometer, the correct stove-top temperature will be around medium. You will know if it’s correct when you add the sufganiyot. The oil should bubble around the sufganiyot, but not a ton of bubbles. Fry the doughnuts for about 1 minute on each side. You can always test and check if they're any good.

7. Remove and place on cooling rack or plate with paper towels.

8. With a squeeze tube or piping bag, add your favorite jelly or jam to the doughnuts. Just make sure the jelly/jam isn’t too chunky to squeeze through whatever you’re using.

This recipe is owned by Jamie Geller and was shared with Fox News Digital.