Sufganiyah (Hebrew: סופגנייה): a ball-shaped doughnut that is first deep-fried, then pierced and injected with jelly (aussie: jam) or custard, and then topped with powdered sugar.

When I think of a donut, I think of Homer Simpson - drooling over a box of pink frosted donuts. Mmm…donuts.

Doughnut?

Or donut?

Both. If you want to get technical, the correct spelling is doughnut. The word was shortened to donut in the US, allowing these fried balls of dough to be more marketable and easier to use in advertising (think Dunkin Donuts). More proof that our society is getting lazier with age.

An even older version of the word is doughnaught which means “dough zero”. Did they used to be made out of solely jam and frosting?

Anyway, for the sake of this piece of writing, I’ll stick with donut (the US has done it again).

The Hebrew word for donut, is Sufganiya, derived from the Hebrew word for sponge (sfog) because of its sponge-like texture.

Next week, all around the world the festival of Chanukah (Hanukah) will be celebrated. Instead of one day of presents, we get 8 craazyy nights:

(http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/adam+sandler/the+hanukkah+song_20003925.html)

-          apologies for the corny reference -

Most of our holidays have unique customs with religious or traditional significance, including Chanukah. However, the tradition of giving presents on Chanukah was taken from Christmas. That’s right, we couldn’t even give Christianity their holiday all to themselves..

Usually I celebrate Chanukah in the Land of Oz, with beaches, barbeques and Chanukah in Caulfield park with jumping castles and fairy floss. This year, I will be celebrating Chanukah in its rightful wintry state. The streets are already lit up with Menorahs and the bakeries have been bursting with colourful designer donuts throughout the past month.

A little bit of History…

Chanukah is one of those festivals where the focus is all about the miracle. The Miracle of Lights. Coincidently it falls out around the same time as Christmas, but really has nothing to do with it. Oddly enough, it also happens to be one of the festivals that no one seems to remember the actual story. So here it is in short:

In 165 BCE, a small group of Jews rebelled against the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus. At the time, the King had banned many Jewish practices and introduced idol worship in the Jewish temple. Antiochus and his army were destroyed by this small band of rebels (known as the Macabees), and the defiled Temple was brought back to its original state. Chanukah literally means dedication – referring to the re-dedication of the temple in J.town following the Jewish victory over the Syrian- Greeks.

At this point of the tale you may be thinking, where do lights fit in? When the Macabees were attempting to re-purify the temple, they planned to light the Temples Menorah with ritual oil for 8 days. To their dismay, they discovered that there was only enough oil for one day. They lit the Menorah, regardless of this, and hey presto – the small amount of oil lasted for 8 days! And that - is the miracle of Chanukah. So we celebrate this festival with lots of oil – oil in the Menorah, oil in our foods, and oil in our hair (ignore the last statement). Donuts just happen to be one of the many oily foods we enjoy.

A Spot of Nutrition…

What could possibly be healthy about oil, dough and icing sugar?

Ok, so really – not much. Fat + Sugar = ? Bad idea.

Donuts are almost always deep fried (a baked donut would be more of a piece of sweet bread). Most of us know that deep fried foods absorb a lot of oil, making them extremely high in fat. However, we also have another problem on our hands. Frying foods at high temperatures for a long period of time produces a carcinogen called acrylamide, which has been known to increase the risk of cancer.

While there are ways around this, such as using healthy, unsaturated oils to fry the foods (e..g canola, sunflower, safflower) or heating the oil to the correct temperature before frying the food so that it doesn’t absorb as much fat – majority of people aren’t frying their own donuts. They’re buying them.

So what to do?

The solution to every dietary issue – moderation. If your usual diet consists of whole grains, fruit, vegetables, healthy fats and whatnot, your body shouldn’t suffer too significantly from a few stray donuts.

Unfortunately this usually isn’t the case over the festive season. A common conversation over Chanukah is competing over how many donuts one has consumed. Usually its not 3 or 4..

As a famous Aussie once said..

“9 out of 10 nutritionists recommend your kids eat Weetbix”

How many (donuts) do you do?

This is not my t-shirt

Just for fun: I used to have a t-shirt that said “Hakuna Matata”. For some reason, every time I wore it people thought it said “Hanukah Matata”. I miss that t-shirt.