The Baptism of Our Lord Doughnuts

History

There are a few recipes that are associated with the celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. Many of them act as a commentary on Jesus as a child, which is appropriate for two reasons. First, it helps the church think about Christ’s baptism and its feast day as a sort of transitory moment between our Lord’s birth and his adult ministry. Second, when the Lutheran Church contemplates the sacrament of baptism, we often think about it in terms of infants becoming members of the Body of Christ.

We had these ideas in mind when selecting the dessert that we decided to share with you today, which we found once more in our acquaintance with Evelyn Birge Vitz’s work. However, this specific recipe is not from Vitz’s A Continual Feast—a source we have referenced before—but rather from her project “A Continual Feast…Continued,” which adds a few more liturgical living ideas to her original cookbook.

Zalabee

Doughnut cakes, or Zalabee, originally come from Syria and have long been associated with the Orthodox Church’s celebration of Epiphany. However, their appropriation and appreciation within the United States over the past 200 years has caused other denominations that emphasize the importance of Epiphany—including Lutherans!—to adapt it themselves.

Although this recipe is not as historically Lutheran as some of the other ones that we’ve chosen to share here at All the Household, we appreciated that this specific dessert is directly linked with the Baptism of Christ and has long been observed as a part of Epiphany celebrations. Moreover, it is uniquely baptism-themed! After all, while you prepare these doughnuts, you’ll find that your actions directly mimic the act of baptism: first, you dunk the dough in oil, then you bring the cakes out of the pot transformed, and finally, you cover them with powdered sugar, just as baptism brings a covering of the gift of eternal life. Thus, these doughnuts resemble baptism’s marvelous—and sweet—re-creation of Christians!

It should be noted that while Vitz suggests making her doughnuts in strips, we made them in more of the common donut hole form. You can shape the donuts however you’d like. With that said, we hope that you’ll find this recipe just as inspiring as we did and that you’ll consider making Zalabee in commemoration of this wonderful Epiphany feast day!

Recipe

Ingredients

½ package dry yeast

1 ½ cup lukewarm water

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon oil (olive oil or vegetable oil)

Granulated sugar

Optional: cinnamon

Olive oil or vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then stir.

Sift the flour with the salt into a large bowl.

Stir the yeast and the oil gradually into the flour.

Knead briefly until the dough is well mixed and smooth.

Let the dough sit, lightly covered, for 45 minutes to an hour—until the dough has risen.

Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into strips about 2 inches wide and 7 inches long. Then roll the strips into evenly-shaped balls.

Fry the strips in a frying pan in about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of hot oil until they are golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.

Sprinkle the zalabee

with sugar and (optional) cinnamon while they are hot.