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?
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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.Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 6:51
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1@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 ♦Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 12:55
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1 Answer
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.
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@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 KCommented Nov 29, 2023 at 9:07
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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– mblochCommented Nov 29, 2023 at 11:25
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