17 Classic Hanukkah Desserts That Are Perfect For The Celebration

There is no festival without its traditional desserts, and the Hanukkah festival is no exception. But if you are not used to this festival and its desserts, that is going to be quite a challenge.

However, with this article, I will present to you every knowledge you need to know about these desserts, whether the frying ones or baking ones. That includes making them, changing their flavors to a higher level, and what combination you should use them with, etc.

But, first, let’s go through all the desserts I have for you.

17 Must-Try Desserts For The Hanukkah Festival

All the Hanukkah traditional desserts below are suitable for even non-professional cooks. Even though they are all created long ago, their flavors are still capable of capturing everyone that eats them.

1. Jelly Donuts
2. Chocolate Donut Twists
3. Applesauce Donuts
4. Latkes
5. Apple Fritter Rings
6. Chocolate Babka
7. Challah
8. Chocolate Gelt
9. Gelt Cookies
10. Shabbat Cake
11. Dreidel Cookies
12. Rugelach
13. Coconut Macaroons
14. Hamantaschen
15. Mandel Bread
16. Jewish Apple Cake
17. Noodle Kuge

What are you hesitating for? Start reading now!

5 Frying Desserts To Savour During Hanukkah Festival

Similar to Chinese desserts to celebrate new year eve, the first thing that crosses many people’s minds when it comes to the Hanukkah festival is “frying dessert”.

As Hanukkah connects with a legend about oil, various meals during this festival are fried, including these desserts below.

Jelly Donuts

Jelly donuts, or you can call them by the other name – sufganiyot, are a traditional sweet for Hanukkah. They are just simple deep-fried donuts filled with strawberry jelly or jam. Of course, you can change it into different jelly if you want.

Jewish people believe the oil used to fry these scrumptious kinds of donuts represent the oil at the ancient temple in Jerusalem. Another notice for you is jelly donuts take quite some time and effort to make. So, you may want to invite several friends to help.

Watch this video to know more:

Chocolate Donut Twists

Donut twists have always been everyone’s favorite treat. Now, with chocolate glaze, they can even replace jelly donuts in the Hanukkah festival. The frying process stays the same as you need to twist the dough before deep-frying it.

For the glaze, you can make a typical chocolate sauce or blend it with some brandy for more flavors. You can store these donut twists by wrapping them with plastic wrap or placing them in an airtight container for two days. However, they can get dry as time passes.

Applesauce Donuts

Delicacies with applesauce are varied, including those for this special event. They can be savory dishes or sweet desserts.

While the Hanukkah festival is held at the beginning of every winter, you can still keep the autumn flavors with these applesauce donuts. There are no special steps in frying donuts or making applesauce, but they are still a fantastic sweet treat when combined.

You can use different apples to make applesauce like golden, red, or green ones so that it tastes both sweet and sour. The store-bought sauce is decent, yet I recommend making one yourself for the best experience.

Let’s have a look at the following video!

Latkes

Apart from babka and donuts, latkes are one of the traditional frying desserts during Hanukkah. Simply put, they are potato pancakes with potatoes and onions as the interior. Traditionally, Jewish people will serve them with sour cream and applesauce.

However, in some modern recipes, you can even use apples to replace potatoes. Adding brown sugar and cinnamon is also an exciting way to twist the dish.

Apple Fritter Rings

If you are concerned about your well-being after all those above frying recipes, you can replace them with these apple fritter rings. Aside from being healthy, these rings still taste delicious, and you can finish one batch of them in a blink.

And making them is really a piece of cake. Just dip these apple slices in buttermilk and deep-fry them until they are all golden brown. Sprinkle sugar or cinnamon on top, and serve apple fritter rings with a caramel sauce or white almond sauce.

Watch this video to know more:

However, Don’t Forget About Those 12 Baking Desserts!

Even when the Hanukkah festival is all about “frying”, you don’t have to make every dessert fried. That would be unhealthy. So here I will introduce 12 baking desserts that have always been served during Hanukkah.

Chocolate Babka

A Hanukkah table can’t lack chocolate babka. It’s like the result of a marriage between cake and bread.

In fact, babka is a genuine dessert in Poland that is usually made of brioche dough and filled with various kinds of chocolate like white, milk, and dark ones.

Most Jewish people will bake babka in a loaf pan instead of a swirl babka pan. Sometimes, they even add streusel as a topping for extra crunch or replace the brioche with croissant dough. No matter what version, babka is still a favorite family dish among generations.

In addition, a savory version called potato babka is a prevalent dish in Belarusian cuisine. People in Belarus usually serve it with fragrant herbs and sour cream sauce. 

Challah

If there is an opponent for bakka, it must be challah. While many favor bakka for its buttery texture, others fall in love with challah’s rich and breadier content. Challah tends to appear in two forms: long six-strand braids or round braided loaves.

Original challah is made only with eggs, sugar, oil, and bread ingredients. For the Hanukkah festival, you can make an extravagant version filled with chocolate and honey.

Watch this video to know more:

Chocolate Gelt

There is no Hanukkah festival without gelts. Giving gelt to children has been a long-established Hanukkah custom. While you can buy tons of ready-made gelts in numerous stores, making them yourself ensures higher-quality chocolates.

You can even create some changes for the original gelts like sprinkling them with crushed candies, chopped gingers,… Wrap these chocolates in gold foil, or if you believe in your skills, paint them with gold luster dust for a finish.

You should see the video below:

Gelt Cookies

When you want to elevate the long-established gelt, these cookies might be an exciting try. Unlike these typical dishes in Hanukkah, gelt cookies aren’t cooked in oil. However, the butter in the recipe will be switched with olive oil.

Make sure to place these chocolate coins on top of the batter before baking so that they can stick better. And if possible, sprinkle some edible gold so that your cookies have a sparkle appearance just like the original gelt.

Shabbat Cake

Shabbat cake is a dish that you should bake yourself instead of buying a ready-made one so that you can use any fruit you like or in season for the filling. For example, I tend to use strawberries, blueberries, and nectarines in summer.

Or, for the Hanukkah festival, a simple Shabbat cake with cinnamon as a garnish is enough. What’s best about this dessert is it requires low maintenance. You can just leave it in the fridge for breakfast the following day.

Dreidel Cookies

These cookies surely bring joy to your family, especially to your children, at the Hanukkah festival. Nothing can make kids happier than biting into one of the Dreidel cookies and finding out the surprise filling.

You can even make it more fabulous by placing pretzel sticks, chocolate kisses, marshmallows, and melted chocolate beside the cookie plate so that everyone can make a version of their own.

Let’s have a look at the following video!

Rugelach

Rugelach is a classic dessert originating from the Jewish community, so there’s no reason not to make it during Hanukkah. Just like the meaning of its name (“rugelach” means “little twist”), rugelach is the rolled-up dough with various fillings.

You can roll rugelach into the crescent or horn shape. Just make sure you add cream cheese to the dough for a crunchy exterior. For the filling, there’s no limit to your creativity. Rugelach matches perfectly with hot drinks like tea, coffee, or chocolate.

Coconut Macaroons

If you want some chewy, sweet snacks but are too lazy to make complex desserts, these coconut macaroons are for you! Taking about 20 minutes with a few ingredients to bake, this dessert is suitable when you just need something quick.

Fold the coconut, milk, honey, vanilla, and salt into the whipped egg whites. Then, bake the mixture for roughly 15 minutes, your batch of coconut macaroons is done! You can swap the milk with coconut milk if you want more coconut flavor.

Watch this video to know more:

Hamantaschen

Although hamantaschen are a typical treat for the Purim holiday as a luscious dessert in the spring, there’s no rule stating you can’t make it during Hanukkah. While traditional hamantaschen are filled with poppy seeds, today, people enjoy creating other fillings.

I usually use chocolate, mince nuts for my hamantaschen. But you can fill yours with anything you want, like berry jam, Nutella, honey, etc. Since this food with “H” as the first letter is pretty sweet, you may want to make it in mini size.

Mandel Bread

As a classic Jewish dessert, Mandel bread is a must-have on the Hanukkah table. Many compare it to the Italian biscotti, though Mandel bread is richer and less dry than the latter. However, if you want your bread to taste just like biscotti, you can leave it in the oven for longer.

Since Mandel bread requires baking twice, it’s pretty dry and crunchy. So, for the best taste, you should dip it in tea or coffee before eating. Today, there are many variations of Mandel bread by using chocolate, walnut, or fruit preserves as filling.

Let’s have a look at the following video!

Jewish Apple Cake

Jewish apple cake is almost the same as the regular apple cake you used to meet at various pastry stores. The only difference is that the Jewish type uses only vegetable oil instead of butter like other typical American cakes.

Why do Jewish people replace butter with vegetable oil? It’s because their dietary laws prohibit people from eating meat and milk. Apart from that, there is no strict regulation for other ingredients. You can even switch milk with orange juice for more acidity.

Noodle Kugel

You can find noodle kugel in almost every Jewish festival, including Hanukkah. Kugel is a baked pudding containing egg noodles.

Moreover, you can make it in either savory or sweet styles, but most of the time, kugel is served as a sweet dessert or side dish for brisket or roast chicken. Whatever way you choose to enjoy it, I believe you will be satisfied.

The traditional recipe combines egg noodles with cheese, sour cream, and sugar. But you can switch out the egg noodles for potatoes or other medium-sized noodles. You can add brown sugar and apple slices to make an upside-down apple cake version to make it sweeter.

Watch this video to know more:

Have You Decided On Your Hanukkah Dessert Party?

Hanukkah traditional desserts may be easy to make. However, if you want to make them in large quantities, you may need some friends to help as these dishes can take lots of time and effort.

I’d be glad if this article is helpful to you. So, please share it with your family and friends to prepare for the upcoming Hanukkah festival. And you can write down any other ideas regarding these desserts in the comment section below.