Hand-Pie AKA Pop Tart Hamantaschen

In our usual annual tradition, we have started to make a lot of hamantaschen.

In the course of one baking session, we used one batch of Aunt Dora's dough, one batch of chocolate dough, and a double batch of cream-cheese dough (that's my favorite). It was about 150 cookies. Yum! The chocolate and cream-cheese recipes that I used this year came from Marcy Goldman's cookbook A Treasury of Jewish Baking.

Hamantaschen are, as you might know, the three-cornered filled pastries that remind us in some way of The Bad Guy from the Purim story, Haman. Some say they are reminiscent of his hat, his pockets, or his ears. Either way, they're a fun and delicious treat for this holiday!

So this year, I have started thinking more and more about what "counts" in the field of hamantaschen. After all, there's no list of "rules" for making them -- and over the last few years, perhaps thanks to Pinterest, hamantaschen creativity is off the charts!

So this year, inspired by this post from Kosher in the Kitch, I decided to try my hand at hand-pie hamantaschen, also known as Pop-Tart Hamantaschen.

I picked up a package of refrigerated pie dough (careful, some of the supermarket brands contain lard) and let it come to room temperature. Then I rolled them out into the round circles (meant to make pies of course) and sliced them like a pizza!

I filled up half with chocolate spread and half with strawberry jam, crimped the edges, brushed with a little egg wash, and baked.

Then we added some glaze -- about a cup of powdered sugar and a tablespoon of milk made a nice sugary topping. Then I had a little helper who might have gone a little overboard with the blue sugar...

my helper

I thought they were delicious!
Next time I will make them slightly smaller (it will make more from a batch of pie dough), and perhaps mix up the chocolate and strawberry!

Bonus -- I also made hamantaschen-shaped challah:

Luckily, challah doesn't mind dressing up as other baked goods.

The usual Hamantaschen Post Round-Up:

Hamantaschen Tips and Tricks
Great-Aunt Dora's Dough Recipe (a basic, wonderful, forgiving dough recipe)
Yeast Dough
Chocolate Dough
Cream Cheese Dough
Thin-Mint-inspired Hamantaschen

No-Roll Hamantaschen (And Rainbows)
And if you don't like hamantaschen, try these Palmiers for Purim.

Hidden

On the holiday of Purim, we talk a lot about that which is hidden.

Esther is hidden, even in her very name. Her identity, her true self, her origins....all hidden.

God is hidden, the Holy Name not mentioned in the story even once.

Mordecai's saving of the king from would-be assassins, hidden in the King's record books.

We hide the filling inside our hamantaschen. What kind did you get?

And we wear masks on this day...masks that hide our true identity. We hide ourselves in the cloak of silliness and mirth, we hide behind the goofiness and the giddiness that changing our clothes into costumes allows.

There's a deep gulf of grief inside of me, a hole shaped like Sammy, who isn't here to see that mom relented and let a couple of Purim Carnival fish into the house.

And yet that deep gulf of grief is hidden, especially on a day like Purim. You can't see it on the outside.

"Be happy -- it's Adar!" we say.

And yet it's days like this one that make me want to sink far into that gulf, hide away, and retreat from the world. Purim is a pretty big deal in synagogue life -- we make silly videos, sing funny songs, tell goofy stories and generally act in a way totally opposite from our usual selves. Sometimes it's a total fakery, and that's part of the way that Purim works.

On Purim, we talk about that which is hidden.
And I realize that we all have hidden gulfs inside of us, deep rivers of grief and sadness, pains and problems. We all have these depths that are hiding.

On Purim, a day that we're doing a lot of "faking it" in so many ways...let's remember the hidden in all of us, and let's take that lesson forward into every day.

No-Roll Hamantaschen

Last year, I made these rainbow hamantaschen. (I wasn't in the mood to blog.)

One of the coolest parts of this recipe (besides how they look!) was the way in which the dough circles were created. It was basically a slice-and-bake cookie (with a little more work along the way).

This year, I saw this recipe, and I realized that this rolling-out-the-dough thing could be done in a different way.

How hamantaschen dough is typically rolled out

So that's exactly what I tried.

After making any one of my regular hamantaschen doughs (Aunt Dora's, cream cheese, and chocolate -- I made one of each), I put the dough into a piece of parchment, rolled into a log, wrapped it tightly into the parchment, and refrigerated.

When I was ready to make hamantaschen, I took the logs out of the fridge one at a time, and sliced them.

Let me suggest that you give the "logs" a little extra roll when you take them out to ensure a good round circle shape. Also, I wanted them a little larger, so I used my palm to press each dough piece into a slightly flatter and more circular shape.

I was so surprised at how quickly I was able to prepare lots and lots of dough circles for the kids to fill! I may never roll hamantaschen dough again!

Each year, I like to try something new. This year, I was inspired to try this Oreo-Cookie Dough. (I tried out this dough recipe and it was good, but I would probably use one of my own doughs, and add in the crushed oreos.) I did not use the suggested filling, but instead went and found an imitation oreo cookie filling (I used this one here, and froze it before using it, to make sure it wouldn't run when baking.)

The verdict? The oreo dough was delicious. The filling was also delicious. The filling went well in the chocolate dough as well.

OREO cream-filled chocolate hamantaschen....

If you're still looking for hamantaschen ideas, here are some of my previous posts on the subject:
Great-Aunt Dora's Dough Recipe (a basic, wonderful, forgiving dough recipe) 
Yeast Dough 
Chocolate Dough
 Cream Cheese Dough
 Hamantaschen Tips and Tricks
Thin-Mint-inspired Hamantaschen
And if you don't like hamantaschen, try these Palmiers for Purim.

Purim 2013

This year's Purim was pretty simple.

A lot of hamantaschen were made and eaten.

 The kids wanted to be the characters from the Wizard of Oz. I love the idea of a family theme costume, and we've never done it before...it worked...mostly. Solly would NOT wear a costume at all.

Even without a costume on, I am so glad I got this picture of my four musketeers!

Finally at the end of the Carnival, he let our friend Sam put HIS costume onto Solly.

For about 30 seconds. Just long enough for me to take a picture!

Sometimes Purim is a big blowout. 

Sometimes we just barely make it. 

This year was one of those barely-make-it kind of years.

But you know what? We celebrated, we had fun, and there's always next year!

Costumes and all that hamantaschen....and now we're onto Pesach!

Hamantaschen 2013

Every year we make a lot of hamantaschen. I love them. I love to share them with friends and family.

Many people make amazing themed mishloach manot.
I just give out hamantaschen.

I think it's okay.

So this year we made a lot of "normal" hamantaschen. A few batches of my Aunt Dora's recipe and a few batches of cream-cheese dough. One batch of yeast dough, too.

My brother is visiting from Israel and he helped with a lot of the fun!

Bubbie (my mom) made a whole bunch of filling for us!

Zeyde (my dad) approves

Why yes, they ARE playing with flour. Doesn't everyone?

And as usual, I wanted to try something new.

I was totally inspired by this post from Pragmatic Attic, Midnight Mint Hamantaschen.

But since I already have a chocolate dough that I know and love, my brother suggested that we just replace the vanilla with mint extract. And since I'd already bought the Special Dark Cocoa, I used that too. Just the dough was pretty darn yummy. Then we added the mint ganache as filling and they were outstanding.

Maybe other new ideas coming, we'll see!

If you're still looking for hamantaschen ideas, here are some of my previous posts on the subject.

Great-Aunt Dora's Dough Recipe (a basic, wonderful, forgiving dough recipe)
Yeast Dough
Chocolate Dough
Cream Cheese Dough
Hamantaschen Tips and Tricks
And if you don't like hamantaschen, try these Palmiers for Purim.

P.S. Hamantaschen are GREAT for breakfast. Just ask Solly:

Purim Palmiers

I didn't even know what a palmier was.
My friend Barrett mentioned that she had made them for Purim, using Tina Wasserman's recipe.

I looked it up...and, oh my, they sounded delicious.
Thank goodness for Google, since I could look it up without feeling stupid. Oh, but now I've told all of you....okay. Well... you love me anyway, right? 
Plus, I had two packages of puff pastry languishing in my freezer.
(I think that Purim is a baking holiday just to help us get rid of the chametz right before Passover!) 

So I learned a little about palmiers. They are a French-Jewish Purim treat that are meant to represent Haman's misshapen ears. (Purim has so much silliness.)

Oh, and they do taste amazing. Purim is all about delicious.

 Tina's recipe is here. It was super easy.

 My recommendations - it took longer that 30 minutes to defrost the puff pastry to be workable. Almost an hour. I thought I'd be able to roll out hamantaschen while waiting for them to freeze, bake, etc, but it seemed silly to clean up all that sugar on the board so I couldn't really multi-task. They baked for much shorter than the time suggested, only about 8 minutes on the first side and 3 on the second side so watch your oven.

Rolling up the puff pastry:

What they look like all rolled up:

After rolling, you freeze them for 30 minutes and then slice and flatten them out:

The finished product:
 

The verdict:
2 out of 4 of my kids loved them.
I am a big fan and planning to make them a new part of my Purim baking routine!
I'm not giving up on hamantaschen though.

Purim is Coming!

Baking hamantaschen is one of my favorite yearly traditions.
We started a little early this year (maybe?) but I have plans, as usual, to make many.
We started with some of the usual kinds...chocolate, date, apricot...
And we started with some of the usual helpers...

Homemade apricot filling created by Bubbie using recipe found in this post.

Are you looking for some Hamantaschen Tips and Tricks?

Last year I posted some of my favorites! 

People have been posting their Mishloach Manot themes...very creative!

This is one of those times when I tend to be very...boring.

I like to give hamantaschen.

I can't help it!

They're so yummy.

If I didn't give them away...

I would just eat them all myself.

I have some ideas for creative hamantaschen up my sleeve so stay tuned....

Snippets of Purim 5771

Delivering mishloach manot

Queen Esther...in flipflops. She abandoned the costume almost immediately.

Bigsan, one of the palace guards who tried to kill King Achashverosh. Yes, he came up with that.

How cute is this pose? He couldn't decide what he wanted to be so he dug through all the old costumes and settled on this one.

Solly woke up with a runny nose and fever. He didn't feel like donning a costume. This headband had to do...

And they all got face painting...love the Purim Carnival...

I was the Hamantaschen Fairy and I hope a picture is coming soon....


Purim by the numbers...
approximately 12 dozen: hamantaschen baked
15: Mishloach Manot delivered
11: how many times I reminded the children prior to the Purim Carnival that we would NOT take any fish home
10: Packages mailed
8: Minutes before Yael took her costume off
5 (or 6): Costumes that Sam rejected before settling on the thing he ended up wearing
1: blue tutu that I was able to get shipped overnight for my fairy costume
0: how many fish we took home

How was your Purim?

A Purim Playlist

Looking for a few good Purim videos to make the week festive?

Here's a Purim playlist for you!











What's your favorite Purim video or song?

Snippets of Warmth

A nice quiet week...not much happening.

We did have a birthday...but more on that when we have the party in 10 sleeps. Let's just say that the birthday girl has told everyone she meets that she is now 4.

It warmed up and before the snow all left, the boys made this snowman. Note that David isn't wearing a coat...now there's a Midwesterner for ya!

Who needs a mobile when you have a willing 5-year-old?

Friday is Purim Katan, mini-Purim. It's a rare day, it only shows up on a leap year...and this is such! There's not much in the way of observance but I'm thinking extra dessert is in order.

How was your week?

Purim is OVER!

A Somewhat-Wordless Wednesday

(Yes, he's a dragon with a sword.)

It looks like she's making herself smile, doesn't it?

A little Dora the Explorer. Hard to tell.

He abandoned his costume before the carnival even started!
(Taken from a distance - from the Bima during the Purim Spiel!)

The Five Minute Megillah

If you are using this in a synagogue or other setting, please consider making a donation to St. Baldrick’s as a thank you - https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/purim5779

Chapter 1:
Once there was a king named Achashverosh, who lived in Shushan, the capital of Persia.
He wasn’t wise.
He wasn’t clever.
He wasn’t handsome.
But he was rich.
And he had a beautiful wife, named Vashti.
One day, he threw a party for a whole week.
And he invited his wife, Vashti, to dance before him.
Naked.
Guess what? She said no.
The king was not pleased.
He threw her out, and went looking for a new queen.

Chapter 2:
The king decided to throw a Miss Shushan pageant, so he could see all the girls in town.
It was a little more than a swimsuit competition, let’s just say.
One particular Jewish girl, named Esther, niece of great guy Mordechai, got into the final round.
And whaddaya know? She won the day.
Queen Esther. Who knew a nice Jewish girl from Shushan could get to be queen!?
Oops, but that was the secret.
She couldn’t tell the king that she was (whisper) Jewish.
Oh, and by the way, these two guys tried to kill the king.
Uncle Mordechai overheard and told Esther, who told the King.
He wasn’t wise or clever, but he was lucky.

Chapter 3:
Then one day the King appointed a guy named Haman to be his chief advisor.
Remember, we said this king wasn’t so clever.
Haman was a little full of his own power, and required people to bow to him.
Mordechai thought this was ridiculous, not to mention against his religious beliefs.
When Haman heard that Mordy wasn’t bowing, he vowed revenge.
Cuz he was that kind of guy.
Haman told the king that there were all these folks who wouldn’t follow the rules.
The king gave him permission to destroy them.
Remember, we said he wasn’t too clever.
So Haman set a date for the execution of all the Jews of the land.
This is where it gets a little hairy.

Chapter 4:
Mordechai told Esther that she had to do something.
Um, didn’t you tell me not to tell anyone that I’m (whisper) Jewish?
Change of plans. Time for the big reveal.
Just FYI, it’s not a good idea to go to the King without a Friendship Request.
Your account gets deactivated, if you know what I mean.

Chapter 5:
Esther gave it a go – she went before the King.
She dressed up too!
She invited the King and his henchman Haman to a feast.
Seemed innocuous enough.

Chapter 6:
The stuff in Chapter 6 is not totally relevant to the story.
So we’ll skip it.
Remember, we said 5 minutes.


Chapter 7:
Esther invited the King and his evil compadre for another feast.
Things were going well.
The king was happy.
And remember, he’s very rich.
So he offered Esther a present. Anything.
“My life!” she cried, ever the melodramatic sort.
She told the king that Haman was trying to kill her.
The king didn’t seem to care that she was (whisper) Jewish.
He was more perturbed that this dude wanted to off his wife.
“Off with his head!”
Haman’s end.

Chapters 8, 9, and 10:
The king made it up to the Jews.
He wasn’t so clever, but he knew where his bread was buttered.
Haman and his sons were toast.
Mordechai and Esther were heroes.
And they all lived happily ever after!

Composed by Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (that's me)

Hamantaschen Test Kitchen #5: Aunt Dora's Recipe

This is my history.

I used to make these hamantaschen with my mom. Every year.

We used this recipe, from my great-aunt Dora. My mom followed her around (when she was pregnant with me) and wrote down exactly what she did.

Aunt Dora's Hamantaschen Dough
2 sticks margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
5-6 cups flour
4 rounded teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pre-sift together flour and baking powder. Start with 5 cups. If necessary, use the 6th cup in preparation of the dough. Beat margarine and sugar til creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Add the flour/baking powder mixture. Add the 6th if necessary. Add vanilla. Mix well.

Roll out very thin (the original recipe said "on wooden board with rolling pin" - do you think there was magic in that wooden board? Must have been. I use Roul-Pat.), cut circles with rim of glass, put in filling. Make the hamantaschen. Bake at 350 until real light brown. Watch your oven, do not over-bake.
(Yep, there wasn't a time listed. I think about 15 minutes.)

My mom even made Aunt Dora's fillings. All are delicious. Worth the work, I tell you.

PoppySeed Filling
1 can Solo poppy seed filling
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon margarine
1/2 cup chopped nuts
lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together, place in pot on the stove. Stir constantly and bring to a boil. Continue to stir and turn down heat to simmer. Add lemon juice (if ncessary to unsweeten) to taste. Simmer for a few minutes. DO NOT LET THE MIXTURE BURN. Remove from heat. Allow to cool, use for filling.

Prune Filling
1 lb pitted prunes
1/2 lb raisins
1 small jar cherry preserves
1 cup chopped nuts

Grind prunes and raisins in food grinder (or electric mixer or blender). In bowl add mixture and cherry preserves and chopped nuts. Mix together, ready for filling.

Apricot Filling
1 can Solo apricot filling
1 package dried apricots (around 6 oz)
1/2 cup water
lemon juice and sugar

Steam the dried apricots in covered pot of water to soften. Remove from water, chop. In bowl mix apricots and filling. Add, if necessary, sugar (to sweeten) or lemon juice (to unsweeten) to taste. Ready for filling.

Wasn't I a cutie-pie?
Yes, this is me and not my daughter. 

Previous Hamantaschen Test Kitchen posts here:
Cream Cheese Dough
Gingerbread?
Gluten Free Hamantaschen
Chocolate!