Hamantaschen II
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I almost didn’t write this post because my Hamantaschen are so ugly. 
In fact, they’re even uglier than last year’s which I didn’t think was possible. And you wouldn’t know it from looking at my photos, but Hamantaschen are triangular shaped cookies, representative of Purim‘s villain Haman’s triangular ears/pocket/hat depending on whom you ask. I think in Hebrew school we learned it was either Haman’s hat (remember the song?) or ears, but really–triangular ears?
Anyway, Hamantaschen are soft cookies, traditionally with a poppy seed filling, but we grew up eating apricot ones, hence my apricot filling. I used the same apricot filling recipe (yum!) from last year but decided to give this new dough recipe a shot, and it’s good! However, I ran into one weird problem–I baked some on parchment and some on Silpats. The ones on parchment tended to open more and the ones on Silpats stayed sealed. Weird, huh?
Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups sugar + a pinch for the egg wash
3 eggs + 1 for the egg wash
1/4 cup orange juice or milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Approximately 4 to 4 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Fruit preserves. (Not jam.) You can also use Nutella.
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and blend until smooth. If the mixture is too hard to blend or seems curdled, add about 1 tbs of flour to bind it.
Stir in the orange juice or milk and the vanilla. Fold in 4 cups of flour, salt and baking powder. Mix to make a firm but soft dough. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes to give the flour time to absorb all the moisture. If the dough is too sticky to handle after ten minutes have passed, add extra flour up to 1/2 cup. The dough will be sticky when it’s ready, but you should be able to handle it without it getting stuck to your fingers.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 flattened discs and work with one portion at a time. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured board to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Use a 3-inch cookie or biscuit cutter and cut as many rounds as you can.
In a small bowl mix 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of water and a pinch of sugar to make an egg glaze. Brush the rounds with the wash, then fill each with a generous 1/2 teaspoonful of your desired filling. Fold 3 sides of each circle together, creating triangles. I like to leave a little space in the center so you can see what the filling is (plus it looks pretty), but you can also seal your hamantaschen completely.
Brush the cookies with additional egg wash. If desired, sprinkle with regular or coarse sugar, and bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets.
Tips
Bake your hamantaschen in the upper third of the oven – usually the bottom part of the oven is too hot and may also cause premature bottom-browning. If you want to use leftover scraps to make more cookies, only roll them out once more because a lean dough like this one can only be rolled a couple times before becoming really tough.
This dough can be frozen for about 2 months or refrigerated (wrapped well in plastic) for one to three days. Just give it time to warm up before rolling it out. You can also freeze or refrigerate the filled triangles before baking. If you do this, just bake them without defrosting.
More photos here.
My notes
- I used orange juice rather than milk.
- I skipped the egg wash.
- Mine baked in about 15 minutes.
- I used a regular old glass rather than a cookie cutter and got about four dozen cookies.
Recipe from A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking by Marcy Goldman via Baking and Books.
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Hamantaschen
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Hamantaschen are cookies, traditionally filled with poppy seeds, eaten for Purim. I hate poppy seeds, and since I was the one making them, I made an apricot (also a popular flavor) filling. If you don’t want to make a filling, just use store-bought preserves. Anyway, they’re in the shape of a triangle, which symbolizes (the Purim bad guy) Haman’s triangular hat or his triangular ears. Hey, I’m just passing along the info…I didn’t make it up.
Anyway, this was a near disaster, and two recipes in the making. The first one I tried was a pareve (non-dairy/non-meat) recipe. Looking at the recipe, I thought it was missing some wet ingredients (orange juice or oil perhaps), but then again, who am I to second guess? I made the dough in the morning, stuck it in the fridge as the recipe says, went out for the day, then came home late afternoon to shape and bake the hamantaschen. The dough was so dry it just crumbled. Thinking I did something wrong, I tried the recipe again and ended up with the same result. So frustrating.
Back to the Internet, and I found this recipe. It’s just okay, not wow! or anything, probably because it reminds me too much of sugar cookie dough. And it’s heavy. The apricot filling is delicious though.
Filling Ingredients
1/4 lb. dried apricots
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Filling Preparation
Cover apricots with 1/2 cup water. Cook over low heat in covered pan for 15 minutes. Mash and add sugar while hot, then add 2 tablespoons water.
Dough Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
4 cups flour
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Dough Preparation
Cream sugar, oil and margarine. Add eggs and juice and mix well. Blend with dry ingredients and roll into a ball. Refrigerate dough one hour.
Divide dough into four parts. Roll out each piece very thin (approximately 1/8 inch) on a floured board. With the rim of a cup or glass (depending on desired size) cut into the dough to make circles. Place 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each circle. With your finger, put water around rim of circle.
To shape into triangle, lift up right and left sides, leaving the bottom side down, and bring both sides to meet at center, above the filling. Lift bottom side up to center to meet other two sides.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.
Yields 4 dozen Hamantaschen.
Original hamantaschen recipe from Jewish Recipes. I altered it slightly.
Apricot filling recipe from jewishfood-list.com.
Chocolate Chip Meringues
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Another Passover favorite. I believe this recipe is from my mom’s old Hadassah cookbook.
Ingredients
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
Preparation
Combine eggs whites, vanilla, and salt. Beat until stiff but not dry.
Beat in sugar until mixture is stiff and satiny.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
Makes three to four dozen.
Notes:
- I use mini chocolate chips.
- Instead of greasing a cookie sheet, I use parchment paper. After taking them out of the oven, I slide the parchment off the cookie sheet and let the meringues cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
Matzo Brittle
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So easy. So good. Make extra, because these are always a huge hit!
Ingredients
Matzo (about three sheets)
2 sticks of margarine or butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 small bag (10-12 oz) of chocolate chips
Preparation
Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with foil to make cleanup easier. Line the cookie sheet with matzos; it’s okay if they overlap a little.
Melt the margarine with the brown sugar until it starts to boil. Pour the mixture over the matzos and bake at 375 degrees for 7 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and pour the chocolate bits over the matzos. Once they’ve melted a little, spread over caramel mixture. Cool in the fridge for one hour then break into small pieces.
If desired, add sprinkles, sea salt, nuts, etc. while the chocolate is still warm.
Passover Brownies
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These brownies are slightly moister and not quite as dense as most Passover brownies. One of the reviewers on Epicurious said they would use this recipe all year round, not just for Passover. And well, they’re good … for Passover brownies. Read: I wouldn’t make them any other time.
Ingredients
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1/2 cup Passover cake meal
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 325°F. and butter an 8-inch square baking pan.
Chop unsweetened chocolate and in a small heavy saucepan melt with butter over low heat, stirring until smooth. Cool mixture 10 minutes. In a small bowl whisk together cocoa powder and cake meal.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together eggs and sugar until thick and pale and beat in sour cream and melted chocolate mixture. Add cocoa powder mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts with a wooden spoon and spread batter evenly in baking pan.
Bake brownies in middle of oven 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering. Cool brownies completely in pan on a rack before cutting into 16 squares. Brownies keep layered between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container at cool room temperature 5 days.
Makes 16 brownies.
Notes: I omitted the nuts and added extra chocolate chips. I also doubled the recipe. If I make these again, I would probably add an extra tablespoon of sour cream to make them even moister.
Recipe from Epicurious.
