The Hebrew Academy of Orange County likes to do Hanukkah big – really big.

So, this year, when administrators and alumni were kicking around concepts for making this year’s celebration particularly special, the idea of making the world’s largest latke, or potato pancake, was floated.

Unfortunately, as one wit put it, “It didn’t pan out.”

By the time the cooks threw in the towel Friday night and turned off the gas, there were hundreds of little latkes in the 7-foot, 7-inch-diameter aluminum skillet they had made for the attempt. But the dream of a world record had collapsed like a weak soufflé.

On the day before the start of the eight-day Jewish holiday, the school made its attempt to be recognized by Guinness World Records. Witnesses and videographers were gathered, including several college professors and a surveyor.

Rabbi Yitzchok Newman, the head of the school, assembled what he called his “dream team”: Ralph Labelson, in charge of fabricating the more than 45-square-foot cooking surface; Sam Newman, who supplied the propane and five fitted cooking pipes; and Bob Rosenberg, in charge of cooking.

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“We have the biggest and the best here,” the rabbi said the day before the latke attempt. “We figure it’s a good goal. We want to make a latke that will last for eight days.”

Fabricating and shaping the cooking surface took longer than expected, and organizers were unable to perform any practice runs or tests. So, they winged it.

The 350 children who attend the K-12 academy were recruited to prepare the recipe, which consisted of 90 pounds of potatoes, 208 large eggs, 42 cups of flour, 84 teaspoons of salt and 30 teaspoons of pepper, plus an unknown number of onions. The blend was then poured into the skillet that held 35 gallons of canola oil.

As the children awaited the midday festivities in the school’s outdoor “value circle” courtyard, they expressed their excitement.

“Our school is going to be so famous,” said sixth-grader Sivan Schwartz.

“I want to be famous,” Sara Fine chimed in.

“It’s not only going to be the biggest, but the most tasty,” classmate Manachem Niasoff said.

But cold, damp weather and a pesky wind combined to drive down the temperature of the oil in which the latke was cooked.

At 12:45 p.m., as kids were assembling for the Hanukkah festivities, Sam Newman dipped a thermometer into the pan to find the temperature was only 195 degrees, when the frying temperature should be 375 degrees.

This put organizers into full Rube Goldberg mode, and they wrapped two-by-fours in aluminum foil to create a covering for the pan.

Unfortunately, after about four hours of cooking, while part of the creation was golden brown, lots of little latkes floated on the periphery.

Steve Greenspan, who helped with the attempt, said the cooks were unable to get a uniform temperature, and “that caused the potatoes to clump together.”

As a result, the mixture was overcooked in the middle of the pan. And that was surrounded by a ring of latke that organizers said was actually quite good, while the outer ring was undercooked.

Over the years, various groups have claimed to make the largest latke. Last year, a group from Belarus cooked one that was more than 61/2 feet in diameter. In Ireland, a boxty, or Irish potato pancake, came in at more than 1,100 pounds. And then there’s the guy who said he made a 45-foot latke in his backyard.

Officially, the record stands at a 4-foot, 11-inch-diameter latke made in Dublin in May 2015.

The kids still had a fine celebration, featuring the lighting of the 15-foot menorah and Hanukkah games and song. U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa, helped light the middle flame on the menorah. He called the event a celebration of “our Judeo-Christian heritage as a country.”

Greenspan said organizers at the school were unbowed by the setback and already dreaming up new plans.

Contact the writer: gmellen@scng.com