Last Day of Hanukkah

Tonight, we celebrated the last night of Hanukkah.

It has been a really fun week.  8 nights of lights, 8 nights of retelling the story of Hanukkah, or miracles, of the importance of the temple, that God will fight or battles for us, that with God all things are possible. We took the kids to Temple Square to see the temple and the lights. During the week.

Craig and I were able to go to the Temple.  And tonight we made the long awaited for doughnuts!

This little lady kept saying, "take a picture of me mom, take a picture of me!" so I did.  oh boy is she cute!

We make our doughnuts shaped like the star of David, and dipped in blue glaze. Why blue? Because the colors of Hanukkah are Blue and White, most likely because the Flag of Israel is also Blue and White. To make Star of David doughnuts are made with Cookie Cutters you can buy  similar ones here.

We cut them out, and put them on a cookie sheet to rise. (I place them in the oven on the lowest temp it will go with a pan of water in there to help them rise better.

(we also make the doughnut holes) 

We fry them a few at a time in oil,

Pull them out, and put them on a cooling rack to have the oil drip off,  as soon as they are cool enough to touch, but while they are still warm we dip them in blue glaze

and then put them back on the cooling rack

oh so scrumptious.

Now for the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup warmed milk

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

6 Tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 heaping cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

1 - 2 quarts oil

glaze ingredients

2 cups powder sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 drops blue food coloring

Directions

1. Warm milk in microwave for 30 seconds.  Sprinkle yeast and 1 tablespoon of the sugar on top of the milk. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, or until it becomes foamy. If it doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.
2. If you do not have a mixer, you can mix by hand in this step.  Poor yeast and milk mixture into mixer bowl. With the stand mixer running on low speed, add the remaining sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, salt, and cardamon, add flour one cup at a time,  unitl dough pulls away from edges. Make sure you do not add too much extra flour; you want a soft, slightly sticky dough.  Continue to need for 5 minutes.
3. Form dough into a ball  then place into a greased bowl. Turn the dough over to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm environment to rise until doubled, about 1 and 1/2 hours.
4. Once doubled in size, punch down the dough to release any air bubbles. Remove dough from the bowl and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll the dough out until it is only 1/2 inch thick. Using a your cookie cutters cut out the doughnuts using a small one to cut the doughnut holes, re-roll the scraps and cut more.
5. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Place in the oven on the lowest setting and with a pan of water in the oven to help rise Place a cooling rack over a third baking sheet.
6. While doughnuts rise make glaze, wisk glaze ingredients until there are no lumps.
7. Pour oil into the pot set over medium heat. Heat to 300°F. Add 2-3 doughnuts at a time and cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove with a fork and place on cooling rack.
8. Dip each warm doughnut  into the glaze. Place back onto prepared rack to allow excess glaze drip down. 
9. Eat right away because they are best warm!!!!!