Happy Hanukkah!

As some of you know, I am in the process of converting to Judaism! One of my favorite parts of the process has been exploring Jewish culinary traditions, learning about the history of Jewish food and, of course, testing out some new recipes. For Hanukkah this year, I decided to make a different Jewish food each night - using some of my most trusted online sources as well as new cookbooks. More details below on what I made and what recipes I used!

♥, Amanda

Night 1: Babka

Recipe: Smitten Kitchen's Better Chocolate Babka

My thoughts: My babka didn't rise, and I even used instant yeast like Deb recommends! I think it got its Jewish holidays confused. But oh well, it still tasted great.

Night 2: Rugelach

Recipe: NYT Cooking Regulach

My thoughts: Yum! Still one of my favorite cookies - and they go just as well with coffee for breakfast as they do for dessert. I used a friend of Dana's homemade blueberry jam for the filling.

Night 3: Knishes

Recipe: Smitten Kitchen's Potato Knish, Two Ways (I used the second filling!)

My thoughts: My first time making these but won't be my last - so good as a midday snack with good quality dijon mustard.

Night 4: Challah

Recipe: NYT My Favorite Challah (the best recipe I've tried so far)

My thoughts: I cheated a bit and made this ahead of time so we could have it as part of breakfast on Christmas day. Paired perfectly with my dad's sausage gravy and biscuits, and leftovers were great toasted and topped with salted butter.

Night 5: Latkes

Recipe: Food 52 Potato Latkes

My thoughts: I discovered this recipe two years ago and it's the only recipe I'll use! The secret ingredient (baking powder!) creates super fluffy latkes with crispy outsides. We used leftovers for breakfast the next morning - latke benedict anyone?

Night 6: Sufganiyot

Recipe: The Jewish Cookbook by Leah Koenig

My thoughts: I halved the recipe and made these into mini donuts - I think next time I'll keep them full size for maximum fluff and filling.