The days are short, the temperature has dropped and Mariah Carey has begun to defrost.
This can only mean one thing: Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is just around the corner, which means it’s time to think about where to get sweet, sticky sufganiyot in New York City this year.
These fried Hanukkah doughnuts are a greasy and delicious holiday staple that reminds us of the miracle of the holiday — how one day’s worth of oil for the Temple menorah lasted for eight nights.
We’ve rounded up 15 spots across the city that are making Hanukkah doughnuts this year, with options running the gamut from classic, strawberry jam-filled sufgis to trendier flavors like Dubai chocolate and pistachio.
Keep scrolling for our alphabetical list. As they say in Hebrew: B’tayavon!
(Courtesy Michaeli Bakery)
1. Almah Café
473 Albany Ave. Crown Heights, Brooklyn
87 Utica Ave., Crown Heights, Brooklyn
71-36 Main St. Flushing, Queens
Kosher coffeehouse Almah Café has two locations in Brooklyn, and they’ve also opened a popup in Queens just in time for Hanukkah (open Dec. 7 to Dec. 31). This year, they’re offering an assortment of sufgis, in flavors that range from the everyday to the unique: chocolate, cheesecake, halva, Kinder Bueno, lemon pie, pavlova, pistachio, peanut butter and white chocolate. Available in stores at $7.50 each; customers can also order ahead by texting owner Shira Asias at 347-596-3702.
2. Breads Bakery
1294 Third Ave., Upper East Side
18 East 16th St., Union Square
1890 Broadway, Upper West Side
1230 Sixth Ave., Rockefeller Center
1080 – 1090 Sixth Ave., Bryant Park
20 Furman St., Brooklyn
Israeli-inspired Breads Bakery is serving a selection of mango, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and pistachio-filled sufganiyot this Hanukkah. The doughnuts, $3.95 each or a dozen for $39, are available at all locations. Get details here.
Pistachio sufganiyot from Breads Bakery. (Courtesy Breads Bakery)
3. By The Way Bakery
2440 Broadway, Upper West Side
1236 Lexington Ave., Upper East Side
Gluten- and dairy-free kosher bakery By the Way offers a healthy-ish twist on Hanukkah doughnuts that are baked, not fried. Store quantities can be limited — thankfully, their raspberry jam-filled doughnuts ($4 each or $32 for a box of nine) are available by preorder, 24 hours in advance, for in-store pickup. Visit their website for details.
4. Claudette’s
190 Beach 69th St., Arverne, Queens
157-02 Cross Bay Blvd., Howard Beach, Queens
108-10 Rockaway Beach Dr., Rockaway, Queens (at Rockaway Hotel Café)
Queens-based Moroccan-Israeli café Claudette’s is offering a limited batch of sufganiyot this year, with prices from $5 for a single doughnut to $45 for a dozen. This year’s flavors are rosewater raspberry jam, cardamom lemon curd and pistachio rose cream. Preorders (two days in advance, with pickup on Saturday and Sundays) suggested. Visit their website for more information.
5. Doughnut Plant
89 East 42nd St., Midtown
379 Grand St., Lower East Side
245 Flatbush Ave., Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
196-198 Bedford Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn
3100 47th Ave., Long Island City, Queens
For Hanukkah this year, Doughnut Plant is offering kosher blackberry jam-filled sufganiyot dipped in vanilla bean glaze ($4.75), marzipan ($5.00), or pistachio glaze ($5.00). Doughnut Plant is also selling a large menorah-shaped doughnut, with a cream-cheese glaze and blackberry jam, for $55. Pre-orders available; see their website for more information.
6. Fan-Fan Doughnuts
448 Lafayette Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Mexican Jewish bakery Fan-Fan Doughnuts has a super creative lineup of sufganiyot this year, with preorder pickup beginning Dec. 12. Limited-edition flavors this year include two collabs with author of “Tahini Baby,” Eden Grinshpan: strawberry–sumac jam with fresh whipped cream and meringue and labneh cheesecake with baklava crunch. Other flavors include chocolate halva, passion-calamansi curd, cardamom cream cheese, Persian carrot jam and rose petals, raspberry-lemon verbena jam, Mexican vanilla flan and pistachio cremeux with edible flowers. One box of eight, with one of each flavor, costs $42. Classic flavors include raspberry-verbena, roasted strawberry, and vanilla diplomat. A box of four classic sufganiyot costs $20. For Manhattan orders and pickups, head to Fan-Fan’s sister restaurant Mijo (57 Eleventh Ave.) at Pier 57, and give yourself a two-day lead time.
7. Michaeli Bakery
115A Division St., Lower East Side
401 East 90th St., Upper East Side
Adir Michaeli’s New York bakery chain will have a first-come, first-served rotating assortment of kosher sufgis at both the Upper East Side and Lower East Side locations throughout Hanukkah. (Whether the Michaeli outpost at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan will serve sufganiyot is TBD, according to owner Adir Michaeli.) Flavors include classic strawberry jam or dulce de leche for $4.90, or banana pecan, halva, hazelnut, pistachio and vanilla-chocolate for $5.90. The bakery will also serve sfenj, a Maghrebi-style Hanukkah doughnut.
Vanilla-chocolate sufganiyot is one of the options this year at Michaeli Bakery. (Courtesy Michaeli Bakery)
8. Modern Bread & Bagel
472 Columbus Ave., Upper West Side
1427 Third Ave., Upper East Side
630 Lexington Ave. Midtown East
139 West 14th St. Chelsea
This Hanukkah, Modern Bread & Bagel is offering gluten-free and kosher brioche sufganiyot filled with either chocolate ganache or raspberry jam, topped with sugar glaze and dusted with powdered sugar. Both flavors are $6.95. Preorders are available; preorders under $25 have an added $5 service charge; visit their website for more information.
9. My Most Favorite Food
37-22 13th St., Long Island City, Queens
Raspberry or apricot sufganiyot will be available this year in full-size or mini at this kosher bakery. Four full-size doughnuts are $20; a dozen minis are $39. Preorders are required, and both pickup and delivery are available. See their website for more information. Like their latkes, My Most Favorite Food’s sufgis are available to order from Sun., Dec. 14, through Mon., Dec. 22.
10. Orwashers
308 East 78th St., Upper East Side
440 Amsterdam Ave., Upper West Side
Orwashers offers traditional sufganiyot with fillings from Beth’s Farm Kitchen, based in the Hudson Valley. Choose from Orwasher’s “favorite” seasonal sufganiyah with powdered sugar and raspberry jelly, or other fillings include sugar raspberry, chocolate raspberry, sugar strawberry, chocolate strawberry, chocolate cherry apricot and sugar cherry apricot. Single filled doughnuts are $5; half a dozen filled doughnuts are $27.50. To order, visit their website. Pickup for pre-orders begins Dec. 13.
Orwasher’s “favorite” seasonal sufganiyot with powdered sugar and raspberry jelly. (Courtesy Orwashers)
11. Ricotta Coffee
513 Albany Ave., Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights-based kosher café Ricotta Coffee is offering six flavors of their “boutique” doughnuts at $10 each: almond cream, blueberry cheesecake, Oreo cookies and cream, crème brûlée, Dubai chocolate and lemon meringue. Order them here or buy them in store.
12. Sababa Bakery
540 Kings Highway, Gravesend, Brooklyn
Sababa Bakery, a kosher staple in Gravesend, is offering an array of sufgis this year. Check out their traditional flavors like strawberry jelly dusted with powdered sugar, as well as custard, dulce de leche, caramel with powdered sugar and Boston cream. New for this year are Dubai chocolate and halva. Mini doughnuts are $2.50, and regular sized ones cost $3.50. See their website for more details and to place an order.
13. Six60One
661 Amsterdam Ave., Upper West Side, Manhattan
This hot, new-ish kosher grocery store on the Upper West Side sells fresh, traditional sufganiyot in flavors like custard, caramel, or chocolate glaze with sprinkles, for $2.49 each. (They are also offering Moroccan-style sfenj at $2.99 each, or topped with kosher “bacon” for $3.99.) If you’re hungry for a meal, Six60One also sells a box of sushi doughnuts from Simply Sushi for $299.
14. Taste of Israel
1322 Ave. M, Midwood, Brooklyn
This year, the kosher candy, nuts and dried fruit store Taste of Israel is serving caramel, custard, Dubai chocolate, halva, jelly, Lotus, Oreo cookies and cream, and Schmerling’s Rosemarie chocolate and wafer doughnuts, from $4.50 to $7 each. Preorders are suggested; call (347) 554-8133 or visit the store to order.
15. Urban Pops
518 Kings Highway, Brooklyn
Urban Pops, makers of a popular non-dairy kosher ice cream sandwich, is selling their Hanukkah version — made with a split doughnut filled with gelato — beginning Dec. 4. Urban Pops has roughly a dozen doughnut sammie flavors this year, at $7 each, including a new pistachio amardine doughnut sammie — a pistachio and apricot blend with apricot filling — as well as knafeh, jelly, Ferrero Rocher and coconut Samoa. Visit their website for more information.