Two Giant Potato Pancakes for Hanukkah
If you celebrate Hanukkah, did you know it starts this Thursday night?!! And did you know that today is Monday? (Raise your hand if you can never keep track of the days, especially now!)
Like pretty much every other holiday in this crazy year, it’s not going to go like it always has in the past. Sure we can still light the candles, spin the dreidels and exchange gifts… just not in the same space. So, since we’re breaking with tradition anyway, I thought I’d go a little further and take latke eating to a new place too with these Two Giant Potato Pancakes. Golden, crispy and baked instead of fried (yes!!), it looks like miracles can still happen!
It’s not that I don’t like the taste of traditional pan-fried latkes, I do—I just don’t particularly enjoy the scraped knuckles, onion tears and greasy hours of frying. But with these giant potato cakes, the suffering is pretty minimal since all of the cooking takes place in the oven and under the broiler and what you wind up with are golden, tender potato wedges with lots of crispy crusty edges!!
Plus the onions (which don’t even need to be grated—love it even more!) get soaked in salt and vinegar to soften them up which adds a lovely tang to every potato-y bite! If salt and vinegar chips are your thing, you’re going to ❤️ this big time!
Once you’ve mixed everything together, you divide it between two ordinary round cake pans and bake for about an hour to let the insides cook through.
Then, to get that addictively crispy crunchy topping that everyone will be fighting over, you simply pop the pans under the broiler for a few minutes (inverting the cakes in the process so that the bottoms get as golden and addictive as the tops!!)! Yum!!
Every bite is tender with lots of crispy/crunchy potato and onion. It’s amazing on its own—
Or topped with a dollop of sour cream or applesauce. Guaranteed to make whoever you can safely serve this to have a very happy holiday!! Fingers crossed that next year we can all gobble up latkes together!!!
Not feeling the Giant Potato Pancake vibe? How about giving one of these a try? Crispy Potato Latkes, Mashed Potato Latkes, Sweet Apple Latkes, Baked Zucchini-Potato Latkes, Potato-Apple Latkes with Cinnamon Sour Cream, or Hanukkah Latke Waffles.
Happy Hanukkah!!
Two Giant Potato Pancakes for Hanukkah
Makes two 8-inch cakes—these are pretty addictive but you could definitely serve at least 8 people
Ingredients
4 pounds Russet or other baking potato, peeled
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little extra
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Black pepper
Sour cream and/or applesauce for serving (optional)
The Recipe
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the peeled potatoes. Cook potatoes for about 15 minutes or so, just until a knife slides through with some resistance—you want to parboil them, not cook them all the way or until they are falling apart. Drain in a colander, place on a large plate or tray and chill for at least 30 minutes, uncovered (you could definitely do this part the day before—just pop them into an airtight container after the 30 minutes and store in the fridge until ready to use).
2. Place racks in the highest and lowest positions in the oven and preheat to 425ºF. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and brush the pans all over with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, toss the onions with the vinegar and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Let sit for about 10 minutes, until the onions have softened up a bit, massaging them every now and then to help speed up the process.
4. While onion are soaking, grate the cooled potatoes by hand on a box grater or use a food processor and once onions are done soaking, add the potatoes to the bowl and toss well. Season with a little more salt and pepper.
5. Place the prepared pans into the oven on the lower rack for 5 minutes to heat them up. Remove pans from oven and evenly divide the potato mixture between them, pressing down firmly with a spatula to flatten them as much as possible. Place both pans on the lower rack of the oven and bake for about 45-55 minutes, until the cakes look very brown around the edges. Remove the pans and let cool slightly.
6. Turn on the broiler and place the pans on the top rack. Watch carefully and cook until cakes look golden brown all over—this just takes a few minutes. Don’t walk away or you risk burning them as I did on my first attempt. Remove from the oven and and use a small sharp knife to loosen the cake from the edges. Invert onto a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and carefully remove the parchment paper—don’t worry if it sticks a little—you can always fix it and this is supposed to look rustic. Brush the tops (this is what used to be the bottom) with a little more oil and sprinkle with a bit more salt and pepper. Return to the broiler until tops are golden brown—again keep your eye on this—it can go very quickly. Let cool for a few minutes, then cut into wedges and serve as is or with a little dollop of sour cream or apple sauce.
7. The entire thing can be made early in the day and reheated in a low oven to crisp it up.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine. I tinkered a lot with the techniques of this to simplify the recipe.
