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A person who for health reasons avoids eating fried foods. Can he make the minhag (custom) to eat a donut baked in the oven without oil on Chanuka? ​

Avi
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  • The main minhag is to eat foods made in oil, like latkes. A doughnut without oil would not have a point. – N.T. Nov 29 '23 at 06:51
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    @N.T. if eating a baked donut helps you remember the miracle of the oil and join yourself to the broader community isn't that equally effective? (There's not that much that's being effected here.) – Double AA Nov 29 '23 at 12:55

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R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach has a novel interpretation of the custom to eat doughnuts (mentioned here). According to him, the point is to eat something which will entail reciting the beracha me'ein shalosh after-blessing, which references the altar in the temple, an important part of the Chanukah story.

So, if these baked doughnuts are made in a way that they would be considered pat haba'ah bekisanin, and you eat them in a non-meal context so that afterwards you recite al hamichya, one can argue that you are keeping (at least part of) the custom.

Joel K
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  • Wouldn't these baked doughnuts have a bracha of ha-motzi ? – mbloch Nov 29 '23 at 08:59
  • @mbloch They may be pat haba beikasin. Depends how much sugar and liquids other than water are in the dough. Alternatively, if they are filled with a significant amount of jelly before baking. – Joel K Nov 29 '23 at 09:07
  • It is complicated. Some say regular sufganiot deserve hamotzi (see eg., SA OC 168:13) and that a good reason for them to be mezonot is that they are fried (see e.g., here) so remove the frying and you have even more reasons for a regular sufgania to be hamotzi. Now I understand recipes differ so we might come from different angles – mbloch Nov 29 '23 at 11:25
  • @mbloch Yes. It definitely depends on the recipe. But note the last words of the Rama in 168:13 וכל זה לא מיירי אלא בעיסה שאין בה שמן ודבש וכיוצא בו אלא שמטוגן בהם אבל אם נילוש בהם כבר נתבאר דינו אצל פת הבא' בכסנין. The discussion there is about frying (what started as) regular bread dough. If the dough is sufficiently sweetened, then all agree we are in פת הבאה בכיסנין territory. – Joel K Nov 29 '23 at 11:33
  • We agree, remove the frying and depends on the recipe one might be in either territory, the OP should then be careful – mbloch Nov 29 '23 at 11:48
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    @mbloch True. I've edited to make that point clearer – Joel K Nov 29 '23 at 12:44
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    Are jelly donuts filled BEFORE baking? – rosends Nov 29 '23 at 13:36
  • @rosends Regular jelly donuts are filled after they are fried. I don't know how one prepares a baked jelly donut. – Joel K Nov 29 '23 at 13:50