Looking for a good kosher sufganiyot donut source for your Chanukah celebrations this holiday season? Look no farther than Café Alma, where traditional oil-fried donuts await in three yummy flavors — all sounding scrumptious.
Here’s the inside story, from Lainey Richler, owner/operator of the café, along with husband Yair: “For Chanukah, we’re doing the sufganiyot, which are the traditional donuts (for the 8-day celebration). Last year, we did them, and they were a huge hit. We made all our sufganiyot in-house and it was extremely tedious. We baked everything (actually, only the shells of the donuts) because we do not deep-fry here at the café. It’s part of our ethos as a healthy Mediterranean restaurant,” she stated.
There is a “however,” however. “It’s very traditional to fry them (sufganiyot donuts for Chanukah) in the oil. We eat a lot of oily foods, like the latkes (during Chanukah). But for us, we wanted to do the healthier version and people were totally fine with that. Everyone really liked them at the end of the day. But they were not traditional.” And baking the donut shells was a pain.
So, the nuisance factor spawned a change in approach that accommodates tradition and provides an easier work-around for Café Alma, where the kitchen does not deep-fry anything. “This year, we decided to go more traditional, and we bought donut shells from the Tylersville Krispy Kreme (a kosher establishment),” she said, adding that having the shells to work with made life easier for all concerned.
The house-made part of these sufganiyot donuts is what goes in and on them, according to Richler. There are three different flavors from which to choose. The leadoff spot in the order is the traditional jelly-filled variety dusted with powdered sugar. Tradition. Next up is the Nutella and crème version, which sounds like my kind of filled donut. This one is filled with pastry crème, à la your basic French kitchen. The filled donut then is topped with Nutella hazelnut spread sprinkled with chocolate chips. And number three is a coconut-rose donut, which features a rosewater-flavored icing topped with shavings of coconut. The filling for this intriguing donut is custard flavored with rosewater and coconut extract.
Café Alma has been taking pre-orders for bulk buys of its sufganiyot donuts for better than a week now. With Chanukah at hand, Richler said that while pre-orders take a few days to fill, anyone needing donuts in bulk should call promptly to see what can be worked out. There are a limited number of donuts available for individual purchase at the sweets display in the café, but bulk buys are done through pre-orders only.
Mention of the sweets counter brought to Richler’s mind some other items which Jewish diners-out may wish to include for holiday celebrations. “Since last time we talked, we’ve started making our own babkas in house. We have a chocolate babka and an apple-cinnamon babka (available daily). Also, we have puff pastry, including butter croissants and chocolate croissants, along with bourekas in two flavors, very traditional Middle East flavors — very Israeli, very Turkish. The fillings are mushroom and potato. And we have really good cheesecake too,” she added.
On the savory side, there are a variety of quiches that are available at the café on a rotating basis. In addition, whole 16-slice quiches can be pre-ordered with the kosher ingredients desired. Among the quiches available are broccoli, sweet potato, spinach, mushroom, and a lox and leek combo.
About Chanukah and other Jewish holiday celebrations, Richler said of patrons: “They know that around these holidays, we’re going to have something fun that’s a little bit different; treats that come out for these different (Jewish holiday) celebrations.”
See you at Café Alma!
