In recent years, sufganiyot - Hanukkah donuts - have become a real event at specialty bakeries. First, they replaced the traditional red jam filling with a host of other flavors, and now the bakeries are exercising their imagination and creativity in order to produce a variety of baked and deep-fried delicacies, all of which are presented as sufganiyot.

At the Lehem Tati cafe and bake shop, chef Mark Shulman gets the credit for a new invention: a savory sufganiya filled with Roquefort cheese. Tati's sweet sufganiyot are filled with strawberry jam, chocolate, halva cream and caramel. All of them are good, although the savory sufganiya challenges the palate, which is accustomed to a burst of jam. All the varieties cost NIS 5 each. Available at Lehem Tati, 53 Derech Hashalom, Givatayim.

	Advertisement

This year the Roladin bakery chain is offering mini-sufganiyot with a wide range of fillings, such as toffee, cream and forest berries, white chocolate with cassis, coconut cream and espresso, and white chocolate-, vanilla- and pecan-flavored whipped cream. The chain says the sufganiyot (all very good) are fried in canola oil, which is considered more healthful than soybean oil, and contain 170-240 calories each. Cost: mini jam-filled - NIS 4.5; other fillings - NIS 6. Regular sized gourmet sufganiyot cost NIS 8.50. Available at Roladin branches.

Engish Cake bake shops are also offering several flavors of mini sufganiyot this year, as well as donuts with festive toppings. Our testers sampled sufganiyot filled with walnut cream and halva, both new flavors introduced this year, as well as others filled with strawberry confiture and chocolate, plus chocolate-coated donuts. The dough was not particularly delicate, but was reasonable. Cost: jam-filled - NIS 4; other fillings - NIS 5. Available at English Cake bake shops.

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar branches surprised customers with elongated Moroccan spenj sufganiyot, served with toffee, strawberry and chocolate dipping sauces. These sufganiyot are sold in take-out packages. Cost: NIS 20 for five, or NIS 32 for 10. A decadently worthwhile purchase for anyone who can justify the caloric intake. Available at Max Brenner bars.

Another worthy excess dose of calories is on display at Lehem Erez, in the form of small, soft, brioche rolls, baked with an abundance of butter (more than one-third by weight, the bakery says), and filled with orange or chocolate cream. Cost: only NIS 5. There are also medium-sized brioche rolls, filled with pastry cream and orange, for NIS 12. We tasted them after warming them slightly in the oven, as the bakery suggests, and they were very good. Available at Lehem Erez branches.

Lovers of heavy sufganiyot laud the offerings of Tal Bagels, which makes medium-sized classic sufganiyot topped with icing. Cost: strawberry confiture - NIS 5; other fillings, such as halva, chocolate or caramel - NIS 6. Available at Tal Bagel branches.

La Lyonesse is a bakery with three branches in Ashdod. It supplies baked goods to the Negev and the south, and also bakes the croissants served by the Ginsburg cafe in Tel Aviv. La Lyonesse makes very good sufganiyot, with vanilla caramel cream, raspberry jam and other fillings, available at the bakery's branches: 4 Habonim Street, 47 Jabotinsky Street and in Ashdod's City Mall.

The Gidron bakery supplies Super-Sol with the simple, common version of sufganiyot, in a variety of flavors. The fillings taste quite basic, and other sufganiyot are recommended as preferable. Cost: jam-filled - NIS 2; other fillings - NIS 4.50.

Ben Ami bake shop, headed by Ben Ami Bertini-Shavit, is making medium-sized sufganiyot this year, filled with nice quantities of jam, caramel or chocolate. This is a good version of this ethnic food, and the prices are very reasonable: A box of nine assorted sufganiyot costs NIS 29. Available at Ben Ami branches.

Eidelson 10 also makes medium-sized sufganiyot, filled with homemade jam and topped with lots of lemon-scented powdered sugar. Their flavor attests to the importance of quality at this bakery. Cost: NIS 5.50. Available at Eidelson branches in Tel Aviv, at 252 Ben Yehuda Street and 117 Dizengoff Street.