As I mentioned below, I was going to make challah. I took out my mixer and found that I was out of yeast! Since the urge to bake was very strong, I had to come up with something else to put in the oven. It only took me a moment before I remembered that while out to dinner last night, my friend Stephanie told me I should make some hamentaschen for her. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I looked up a few recipes for the dough, and added a few things to make the recipe below.
These imperfect little triangle pastries are a traditional food for the Jewish holiday of Purim (and apparently one of Stephanie’s favorite Jewish treats).
Wikipedia defines it very well:
The name hamantash (המן־טאַש), is commonly known as a reference to Haman, the villain of Purim, as described in the Book of Esther. A more likely source of the name is a corruption of the Yiddish word מאן־טאשן (montashn) or the German word mohntaschen, both meaning poppyseed-filled pouches. Over time, this name was transformed to Hamantaschen, likely by association with Haman. In Israel, they are called Oznei Haman (Hebrew: אוזני המן), Hebrew for “Haman’s ears” where children are jokingly told these tasty pastries are the ears of Haman.
I remember being in Hebrew school (with Stephanie) and singing this purim song while munching on our Hamentaschen:
- My hat it has three corners.
- Three corners has my hat.
- And had it not three corners,
- It wouldn’t be my hat.
The traditional filling for Hamentaschen is mohn or poppy seed (my mom’s favorite), while I’m partial to fruit-filled ones like lemon and apple. I didn’t have any of the necessary pie fillings to make some of the traditional flavors, but I improvised and used some sugar free red raspberry preserves that I had in my fridge.
Even though Purim was just a month or so ago, I’m already looking forward to making LOTS of flavors next year.
Hamentaschen
Based on this recipe, but with a few changes.
Dough:
4-5 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup honey (I put it in the microwave for about 10 seconds to make it easier to work with. Any longer and it burns.
Filling:
Any pie filling or preserves will do.
1. Sift together 4 cups of flour with salt and baking powder in to a large bowl. Make a well in the center (as if you were making pasta).
2. In the well, place the eggs, shortening, and honey. Work all ingredients together by hand until a (very) sticky dough starts to form, gradually adding in more flour until you can actually shape the dough in to a ball.
3. Roll out dough on a floured counter until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. Using a cup or biscuit cutter (I used a martini glass for the large ones, a wine glass for the smaller Hamentaschen) cut out dough.
4. Arrange dough on to a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper (trust me, this is a must if using a filling like preserves).
5. Spoon filling in to the center of each circle -0ne tbsp for the small circles, two for the larger. Spread filling within 1/2 inch from the edge.
6. fold up the bottom edge of the circle, then the top two sides so that it forms a triangle shape. Pinch where the dough comes together (sometimes a little water while you’re pinching helps it to stay).
7. Bake in a 350 Degree oven for about 15-18 minutes or until the Hamentaschen are brown. Let cool.
Enjoy!!
This recipe made a LOT of dough, and I didn’t have much preserves to work with, so stay tuned to find out what I used some extra dough for!
