So you might be thinking to yourself, “Dude, Whit, it’s Chanukah time! Why aren’t you frying those donuts!?!” Well friends, because I’d rather fry my latkes and bake my donuts then do both so my first recipe of the season is a baked recipe. Also, it’s been seeming like every. single. person I work with is on a specialty diet and since every time I bake for a post, I take the extras into work, I figured baked donuts would have a better chance of actually being eaten than fried donuts. Even my beloved co-worker, Julee, who is like my appetite-twin, is on a specialty diet. She told me about how she made fried onions out of buckwheat flour and coconut oil and a little part of me died inside. No. No, no no. Sigh. So, therefore, I give you baked donuts.

So, with that out of the way . . . how are you? How was your Thanksgiving? I tend to think of Thanksgiving as my holiday ‘off’. After the intensity (and expense) of the high holidays I want nothing to do on Thanksgiving but drink coffee, watch the Macy’s Day Parade, maybe make a pie or two and then head to someone else’s house for dinner, which is exactly what we did. Thank you, friends.

Donuts have become one of my new LA delights (along with ramen, tacos and specialty ice cream parlors). They aren’t a foodie treat I really enjoyed until moving here. What’s ridiculous is that apparently about a year ago, a Dunkin’ Donuts opened in Downtown L.A. and folks were lined up around the block for it. There were articles written about it and people missed work just to get their hands on it. I personally do not get the obsession with the Dunkin’. Maybe it’s because I grew up with Dunkin’ Donuts but also cause it’s a donut and as much as I love yummy treats, I don’t love waiting in line for well, anything. That said, now that I’ve dabbled in baked donuts and realize how easy they are to make, I don’t foresee heading to a lot of donut places anymore. Once you’ve got the foundation of the mixture for your donut down, you can mix in other spices or toppings as you see fit. Since I’m a MAJOR tahini fan, I, of course, needed to make something that paired nicely with tahini and so a nice moist chocolate donut spiced with chai flavors won out. I originally had no plans to top these bad boys with sprinkles but then my sous chef, Siona, had to help me with this recipe, which meant that there would be sprinkles involved. And, to be honest, it totally elevated the donut. That Siona . . . I tell ya.

• 1/3 c. + 1 tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Hershey’s Special Dark)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 tbsp. cold brew coffee or cold espresso
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1 large egg
  
  Tahini Glaze
• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp. tahini
• 3 tbsp. milk
• dash of kosher salt
• sprinkles (optional)

Just a note — I use piping bags for getting the dough into the donut pan. I used to use a small spoon until reading about this little piping bag tip from an old issue Bon Appetit and haven’t looked back. Also, when storing leftovers store uncovered, otherwise, donuts will get goopy.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix together milk and vinegar (Mazal! You’ve just made buttermilk!). Allow to sit for about 5 minutes to curdle. Melt butter in a small bowl and set aside to cool.
3. Meanwhile, sift together flours, cocoa, baking soda, sea salt, and chai spices in a large bowl. Set aside.
4. Into the cooled butter, whisk in sugar, honey, coffee, and egg until evenly combined. Add in buttermilk.
5. Whisk together wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Over-mixing will create a dense donut.
6. Spray donut pan. Add batter to a piping bag and pipe evenly into the pan (about 2/3 full). You will have a little extra batter. Make a couple donut holes or mini donuts.
7. Bake for 7 minutes. Allow to cool 1 minute before turning pan over to remove donuts onto a cooling rack.
8. Meanwhile, make glaze. In a flat-bottomed bowl, whisk together half and half and powdered sugar until smooth.
9. Once donuts have cooled completely, about 15-20 minutes, dunk in glaze, flipping to cover the entire donut as expertly demonstrated by Siona in the pictures above. Place on cooling rack and allow to dry for a few minutes. If going for sprinkles, dumb a bunch of them in another small bowl and dunk the glazed donut in just as you did into the tahini glaze.

Friends! It’s us, the 4 Bloggers who dish, otherwise known as Amy from What Jew Wanna Eat, Liz from Kosher Like Me, Whitney from Jewhungry and Sarah from The Patchke Princess. If you follow any of our blogs, you know that about one and a half years ago, we co-authored a Passover Recipe entitled, “4 Bloggers Dish: Passover; Modern Twists on Traditional Flavors“. We had a ball writing that book and have shared a special connection ever since. We share in our success, both food and non-food related. It’s pretty awesome.

So, to celebrate this holiday season, our second as 4 Bloggers who do, in fact, dish, we decided to get 8 of our favorite latke recipes together to share with you. Check them out below and, if you’re interested, you can also check out our book by clicking on the title listed in the paragraph above. Chappy Chanukah!

Cheesy Breakfast Latkes from Kosher Like Me

 Ramen Latkes from Jewhungry

 Rainbow Latkes from What Jew Wanna Eat

Cheese Latkes with Fruity Toppings (Latke Bar!) from The Patchke Princess 

 Latke Gratin (contributed by Melissa Roberts) – Kosher Like Me

 Carrot “cake” Latkes with Whipped Cream Cheese Topping by Jewhungry

Kimchi Quesadilla Latkes by What Jew Wanna Eat 

World’s Best Classic Potato Latkes by The Patchke Princess

Team, I’m teaching health this summer at our school’s summer school. I don’t even know what to do with this new venture. Let’s review my qualifications for a second. OK, I am, actually, the Department Chair for our Health team (which, consists of one devoted and beloved teacher). And sure, I studied early childhood development in social work school. And, yes, ok, I know a few things about mental health being as that I’m the Director of our School Counseling Department. But just because I know some things doesn’t mean I know how to TEACH some things. I can facilitate a workshop on issues of diversity or issues of social emotional health in adolescents like it’s nobody’s business but teaching a State-certified Health curriculum to 13 and 14 year-olds for 4 hours a day is 100% another story. Also, I’d really like to point out that my Head of School (and mentor) will have his son in the class (and so will a few other of my colleagues) so I’m horrified excited to teach them things like, chlamydia, what the scrotum is and the cycle of ovulation. Try not to be jealous.

BFFS share ice cream

. . . or do they?

So I’m a little late on the whole Shavuot-and-cheesecake-thing but who says a quick and easy recipe for cheesecake ice cream can ONLY be posted prior to Shavuot. This is the type of user-friendly recipe that can be, and should be, enjoyed ALL THE TIME. I decided to mix-in candied lemon peel because I’m on a lemon kick these days but you can mix-in anything your little heart desires. Consider the ice cream base your blank canvas. Create!

A few things to note: The ice cream is very creamy due to the inclusion of whipped cream, which I made at home but you could easily substitute with store-bought whipped cream. I liken the texture to gelato than what is traditionally thought of as ‘ice cream’. It’s also not ragingly sweet, which I truly like because it lends itself to the sweetness of whatever mix-in you choose. I have a feeling I’ll be making this A LOT this summer. Enjoy!

P.S. Hi, Julee!

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