These Crispy, Golden-Brown Latkes Are The Only Recipe You Need For Your Hanukkah Celebration (2024)

FAQs

What is the significance of the latkes for Hanukkah? ›

These potato pancakes (called latkes) are meant to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah, when the oil of the menorah in the ransacked Second Temple of Jerusalem was able to stay aflame for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day. The symbolism comes in the form of the oil in which latkes are fried.

A latke (Yiddish: לאַטקע latke; sometimes romanized latka, lit. "pancake") is a type of potato pancake or fritter in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine that is traditionally prepared to celebrate Hanukkah.

Before the potato, latkes were made with grains like rye, cheese, and vegetables like turnips, carrots, and even beans. Safe to say, though, that with the addition of this new world tuber the latke has found a friend forever. Cassola pancakes, a Sephardic cheese fritter thought to resemble latkes of the Medieval days.

During the Jewish holiday, eating crispy, fried, slightly oniony potato pancakes represents perseverance, and a little bit of magic. But miraculously it lasted eight days. Centuries after the fact, Jews were told to celebrate by eating foods cooked in oil.

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that reaffirms the ideals of Judaism and commemorates in particular the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the lighting of candles on each day of the festival.

After the Spanish expelled the Jews from Sicily in 1492, the exiles introduced their ricotta cheese pancakes, which were called cassola in Rome, to the Jews of northern Italy. Consequently, cheese pancakes, because they combined the two traditional types of foods–fried and dairy–became a natural Hanukkah dish.”

Potato pancakes have a creamy, almost mashed-potato-like center, with a thin, golden, crisp exterior. Latkes, on the other hand, should have a deeply browned crust, with wispy, lacy edges. Latkes also aren't hash browns.

Historically, Jews in Central and Southern Europe cooked kaese (cheese) latkes, and Jews in Eastern Europe made latkes from buckwheat or rye flour.

Why do Jews eat applesauce with latkes? ›

Tradition says so

Latkes are usually served at dinnertime along with a meaty main, like brisket. Mixing milk and meat at the same meal is a no-no for those who keep kosher, so sour cream would be out as a latke condiment leaving the underdog apple sauce victorious.

By the way, you don't have to be Jewish or actually celebrate Hanukkah to love latkes. These crispy little potato pancakes make a wonderful appetizer or a great side dish all year long.

Throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, Jewish families like mine celebrate by eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts). Notice a theme? Traditional Hanukkah foods are often fried because they're reminders of the oil in the legendary Hanukkah story.

The centerpiece of the Hanukkah celebration is the hanukkiah, a candelabra that holds nine candles. Eight candles symbolize the number of days that the Temple lantern blazed; the ninth, the shamash, is a helper candle used to light the others.

Lighting the Menorah

The most important of all the Hanukkah traditions is the lighting of the menorah, a nine-branched candelabra that represents the lamp (and the miracle) from the Hanukkah story told in the Talmud, a book of Jewish religious teachings.