#HanukkahHacks

It’s that time of year again—The Festival of Lights is here!
When launching into the Hanukkah season (let alone so quickly on the heels of Thanksgiving 2021), we need to be as efficient and thoughtful as possible about holiday traditions to highlight, foods to prepare, and most important, which messages to impart.

Here are the top 3 #Hanukkah(Food)Hacks in our family this Hanukkah season:

(1) You can make your own gelt!

Thanks to Judaism Unboxed, Audrey Morris tested her hand as a chocolatier and made her very own Hanukkah Gelt this year. The chocolate molds were adorable and the final products delicious. We are eager to try them when we play Dreidel games later this Hanukkah week.

(2) You can make your own donuts!

Since the story of Hanukkah involves the miracle of oil that burned for 8 nights, oil-laden foods like donuts and latkes are inextricably linked to this decadent holiday. This year, we tried our hand at making them ourselves. The key: letting the yeast-filled donut-shaped dough rise for 45 minutes before frying them. The results were surprisingly fluffy treats (albeit deep fried).

(3) It’s ok to puree the latke batter.

I prefer potato pancakes from shredded potatoes. But I feared that little girl fingers would also get shredded. So we made our batter of potatoes, white onion, flour, and eggs in the Cuisinart, pan fried them in vegetable oil, then baked them prior to serving on Hanukkah night one. The results were surprisingly tasty latkes.