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We're always nuts for doughnuts here at The Jerusalem Post, and now for Hanukkah, we get to try the best sufganiyot of the city. In true Hanukkah fashion, let us en-light-en you – pun intended.
By AARON REICH, COREY TUSAK DECEMBER 22, 2024 13:34
A picture of Hanukkah sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) at English Cake in Jerusalem, taken on December 15, 2024.
(photo credit: RAQUEL GUERTZENSTEIN FROHLICH)
It has been a year of surprises, both good and bad. Most of these have been on the military and diplomacy fronts, but plenty have also extended into our day-to-day life. Case in point: this year’s sufganiyot review ahead of Hanukkah.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with sufganiyot, first of all, we at In Jerusalem are sorry and hope you can be informed of what is undoubtedly one of the best perks of the Jewish faith throughout history.
In true Hanukkah fashion, let us en-light-en you – pun, naturally, intended.
Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, celebrated by lighting candles every night for eight nights to commemorate the Hasmonean victory in the Maccabean wars, as well as the miracle of finding the oil for the rededication of the Second Temple. Somehow, this also led to Hanukkah being celebrated by gambling with a spinning top, trading coins made of chocolate, and eating traditional foods of potato pancakes and jelly-filled balls of dough, sugar, and oil.
Far be it from us to question where such a delicious – I mean, time-honored – tradition came from.
These latter confections are known as sufganiyot, or in English as jelly doughnuts. And they’re delicious – or at least they usually are, outside of Israel.
Though they have been a mainstay of the Hanukkah season in Israel for decades, the Jewish state sadly lacks a culinary tradition of doughnut-making, especially when compared to the United States, the land of the free and the home of the Dunkin’.
However, it isn’t just the Americans who are nuts for doughnuts. Australia also has a proud doughnut tradition, and jelly doughnuts are often popular in certain parts Down Under.
As is the case every year, The Jerusalem Post’s Aaron Reich was tasked with the important job of surveying these sufganiyot in Jerusalem. Joining this year is the Post’s intrepid intern Corey Tusak, who proudly boasted of the discerning tastes for doughnuts honed in his childhood in Australia.
And so, in a year beset by war; with Israel’s international standing in the UN, ICC, and ICJ in question; with rising antisemitic incidents across the world; with the issue of the haredi draft into the IDF rearing its head once more; with judicial reform on the horizon once again; and with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial resuming, these two journalists embarked on a mission to investigate and cover what is clearly the most important topic in the news today: Who has the best jelly doughnuts?
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It isn’t easy. It’s a mission fraught with danger – as the sheer number of calories and quantity of sugar indicate. But it’s also enjoyable – I mean, come on, we got to spend a workday just eating doughnuts.
But what was surprising this year were the dark horse winners. Sufganiyot are typically defined by powdered sugar, oil, floury dough, and jelly injected inside. But our two top-ranked doughnuts both lacked something from that criteria and instead did something more unorthodox.
The list was fully formed by the opinions of the two writers, Aaron Reich and Corey Tusak.
So now, let’s get to the sufganiya review!
English Cake
Oh, how the mighty have fallen (in our opinion).
Back in 2022, In Jerusalem ranked English Cake as having the best sufganiyot in the city. To our shock and disappointment, their quality has been on the decline.
The 34-year-old chain has a dozen or so locations throughout the country, several in Jerusalem itself. It also puts its sufganiyot front and center with its marketing, boasting a visually delightful array of doughnuts with a variety of toppings and fillings.
As it is a chain, one can expect consistent quality throughout. That was certainly the case with their sufganiyot, but consistent quality does not inherently mean good quality.
Their sufganiyot were of standard price of NIS 6, but they were somewhat small. Despite this, we were optimistic. They were fluffy when held, and had a nice amount of powdered sugar on top, alongside a respectable dollop of jelly. But our problems became apparent when we actually bit into them.
The dough quality was fine on its own, being somewhat airy, unlike most Israeli doughnuts, which are often bread-like. But the jelly quality was very poor and tasted very artificial. Furthermore, the jelly itself wasn’t distributed very well within the doughnut.
Aaron (after taking a bite and barely getting any jelly): “What’s the quality of the jelly like for you?”
Corey (after taking a bite): “I haven’t even gotten to it.”
Overall, we give it a 4/10.
Duvshanit
Located in the Mahaneh Yehuda market, Duvshanit is a bakery with history, having been opened in the 1950s.
With so many years to its name also comes a reputation for its sufganiyot. Last year, In Jerusalem ranked it 8/10, noting its quality dough but taking off points for poor jelly-to-dough ratio and some oiliness.
Unfortunately, this year the NIS 8 sufganiyot saw a drop in quality.
The jelly was metallic and not very good, and the dough went from being airy and cloudlike in 2023 to being very bread-like in 2024.
But of special note was the powdered sugar, of which there was way too much.
Corey: “They added so much powdered sugar, I choked. I felt as if the doughnut was attacking me.”
Aaron: “There’s way too much powdered sugar and not nearly enough jelly – and the jelly itself isn’t even that good.”
We gave it a 5/10.
Ne’eman
Ne’eman is one of the country’s most popular bakeries. There are at least four locations on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road alone.
Like Duvshanit, this place comes with history, having been founded in 1944. And it is a chain, which means we can expect consistent quality.
Last year, In Jerusalem ranked its sufganiyot relatively low on the list, taking off points for freshness, jelly, texture, etc.
This year, we are happy to see they have improved greatly. The presentation of the NIS 7 sufganiyot was lovely, and the jelly quality was adequate. The dough was also airier than Duvshanit’s but was still somewhat more bread-like than we would have liked.
However, the jelly-to-dough ratio was a bigger problem.
Aaron: “On the first bite, you don’t get any jelly. On the second bite, you get too much.”
Corey: “I had to pull a piece apart just to get to the jam.”
Corey further noted that the jelly inside, while tasting fine, had an odd, more solid-like texture to it.
Overall, Ne’eman wasn’t the best, but its sufganiya was a perfect middle-of-the-pack doughnut. We give it a 7/10.
Marzipan
Ask any Anglo in Jerusalem, or anyone who has spent a year in the city for a gap year, and they’ll all agree: Marzipan is legendary.
The bakery has a well-deserved reputation for incredible quality, especially for its rogelach, which taste incredible regardless of whether they’re fresh out of the oven or two days old out of the fridge.
But how are the sufganiyot?
Previously, In Jerusalem ranked them very poorly, but other sufganiyot connoisseurs in the city strongly disagreed. So now, let’s see how they stack up.
At just NIS 5, they are the cheapest doughnuts on the list, and are also the smallest.
Biting into one, we could see a notable improvement in jelly quality, as well as jelly-to-dough ratio. Both reviewers also noted other aspects of the sufganiya.
Aaron: “Their powdered sugar has improved. In the past when I came here, the powdered sugar would practically leap off the doughnut and get all over my clothes when I took a bite.”
Corey: “It’s very doughy. It’s a good dough, though. But for me, a good doughnut is supposed to be very airy and fluffy inside.”
The two reviewers actually disagreed on their ranking here, with Corey giving it a 7.5/10 and Aaron giving it an 8/10.
Berman’s Bakery
If you want to talk history, and if you want to talk sheer presence, look no further than Berman’s.
Founded in 1875, it is by far the oldest bakery in all of Israel – as well as one of the oldest companies in Israel – and is one of the absolute largest as well, rivaled only by Angel’s Bakery, which moved its bakery operations out of Jerusalem earlier this year.
However, our reviewers had never had any of its doughnuts before. But that was about to change. There was no question about it: We had to check out Berman’s this year.
So how was it?
Right away, the sheer size of its NIS 6.90 sufganiyot was something to behold, being the largest thus far.
Taking a bite, we found that the dough quality was also good – not perfect, but still very good for Israeli doughnuts. But that was helped by the fact that dough was all we tasted.
It had the worst jelly-to-dough ratio out of any doughnut we’d tried.
Corey: “Where is the jam? There is no jam!”
Aaron (after ripping it in half): “You have to really get in there to find it.”
Once we did get to the jelly, though, we both thought its quality was good.
Overall, 8/10.
Roladin
When it comes to sufganiyot in Israel, Roladin is the first place that comes to mind.
Every year, this popular bakery chain puts out a huge selection of artsy and colorful doughnuts, and it has an enormous presence throughout the country, around twice as many locations as Ne’eman, for example. This sheer market dominance and the fact that it takes its doughnuts so seriously have helped it become a brand synonymous with doughnuts.
Another thing to note is that unlike most of the sufganiyot on our list, Roladin’s were dairy.
So how do its NIS 8 doughnuts compare?
Honestly, they were great. The quality of dough was nice – not the best, but certainly good enough. The powdered sugar was of decent quality and distribution, and the jelly was also of nice quality, though not the best.
There isn’t any area where Roladin does anything wrong, which is why its product is the ideal benchmark for sufganiyot. However, the fact that the sufganiyot are only dairy presents a separate limitation.
Corey: “Unfortunately, I am dairy-free, and Roladin didn’t have any other options.”
Overall, it gets an 8/10.
Yotam’s Donuts
Now we’re up to our last two, and these are the true dark horses.
Yotam’s Donuts has been around for a few years at the top of Ben-Yehuda Street and just may be Jerusalem’s only specialty doughnut shop – in fact, doughnuts are all it sells.
However, what it lacks are traditional sufganiyot, instead only having ring doughnuts (that is to say, the ones that look like bagels). But we couldn’t just ignore the only specialty doughnut shop in the city, so instead we went for the next best thing.
Yotam’s Donuts did, in fact, have a jelly-filled doughnut. But how did it accomplish this when it only had ring doughnuts?
The bakers here did something ingenious, or outright blasphemous, depending on whom you ask. The doughnuts were sliced in half, like a bagel, and the jelly was smeared evenly on the inside.
Instinctively, this may cause shock at something that seems to go against everything that makes doughnuts what they are.
But the surprising part is that it works brilliantly, as through this, Yotam’s Donuts was able to overcome the most common problem all Israeli sufganiyot face: the jelly-to-dough ratio. By smearing it evenly, it ensured the ratio was absolutely perfect. Not only that, but the jelly itself was amazing, and the dough was also just the right kind of airy and fluffy that it needed to be.
And in retrospect, being cut like a bagel is actually perfect for Hanukkah.
Aaron (temporarily forgetting the existence of challah, cholent, lactose intolerance, and religion): “What is more Jewish than a bagel?”
Corey: “I personally don’t like the icing; I think it’s too sweet for me.”
Aaron: “This is not a traditional sufganiya. But it is a very good sufganiya, nonetheless.”
The lack of any powdered sugar did take away some points, and our reviewers were split here, too.
Aaron gave it a 9.5/10, taking away points only for the lack of powdered sugar instead of icing. Corey gave it a 9/10.
Kazze
If you thought Yotam’s Donuts was an unorthodox, dark horse pick, then this next one will really blow your mind.
Located on Bezalel Street, Kazze is Jerusalem’s premier gluten-free bakery. Like every year, it has its own gluten-free sufganiyot for Hanukkah, but how good can they be?
Gluten-free food is often thought of as being inherently inferior to food with gluten, especially gluten-free baked goods, which are often thought of tasting like Passover food. But Kazze has proven this year that this isn’t necessarily true – gluten-free food can be just as good as anything else, and in this case it was the best of the best.
Corey: “My expectations are high. Just because it’s gluten-free doesn’t mean it can’t be fluffy.”
After biting into it, the result was surprisingly airy and fluffy, with the harder, crispier exterior giving way to a fluffy, cloudlike texture. The jelly quality was also incredible, even better than that of Yotam’s Donuts.
One place Aaron took off points was for the powdered sugar – while the sufganiya did have some, it was extremely sparse – and for the jelly-to-dough ratio, which, while excellent, was still inferior to that of Yotam’s Donuts.
Ultimately, our reviewers were split here, too, with Corey giving it a 9.5/10 and Aaron a 9/10.
Don’t be jelly: Go nuts for doughnuts!
This concludes our review of Jerusalem’s sufganiyot, but there are plenty of other places in the city that you should try, too. Our list is our opinion and isn’t definitive, and there were plenty of places we weren’t able to get to. And some places only start selling sufganiyot during Hanukkah itself.
Don’t limit yourself to just our list. Go and explore the city and sample the sufganiyot for yourself – we would love to hear what you thought.
Hanukkah sameach!
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