Hamentaschen

Purim of year 5775 is here at this time of the year. I found this very interesting recipe on http://www.jewfaq.org/ and thought to try it and share it with you then. Celebration is happy and fun, there are costume parties and it is tradition to eat these fantastic triangular cookies, the Hamentaschen.

New Recipe Ingredients

3/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp. orange juice (the smooth kind, not the pulpy)
2 cups white flour
1-1/2 cups wheat flour (DO NOT substitute white flour. The wheat flour is necessary to achieve the right texture)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. dried orange peel (2 tsp. if fresh)
Various preserves, fruit butters and/or pie fillings.

Original Recipe Ingredients

2/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup orange juice (the smooth kind, not the pulpy)
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
Various preserves, fruit butters and/or pie fillings.

Follow this link for a quantities conversion table.

How-to

Blend butter and sugar thoroughly. Add the egg and blend thoroughly. Add OJ and blend thoroughly. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, alternating white and wheat, blending thoroughly between each. Add the baking powder, cinnamon and orange peel before the last half cup of flour. Refrigerate batter for an hour or two (preferably overnight for the original recipe). Roll as thin as you like. I roll it between two sheets of parchment paper dusted with flouer for best results. Cut out 3 or 4 inch circles. I use a 3-1/4 inch diameter drinking glass as a cutting tool. Set aside the excess dough for the next batch and flip the circles before filling to make it easier to fold when the time comes.

Put a dollop of filling in the middle of each circle. Fold up the sides to make a triangle, folding the last corner under the starting point, so that each side has corner that folds over and a corner that folds under (see picture at right). Folding in this “pinwheel” style will reduce the likelihood that the last side will fall open while cooking, spilling out the filling. It also tends to make a better triangle shape.

Bake at 350°F for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown but before the filling boils over!

Traditional fillings are poppy seed and prune, but apricot is my favorite. Apple butter, orange marmalade, pineapple preserves, and cherry pie filling all work quite well. I usually use grocery store brand fruit preserves, and of course the traditional Simon Fischer brand prune lekvar. I have also made some with Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread); I find it a bit dry that way, but some people like it. The Nutella was less dry when I mixed it with marshmallow fluff, and a recent mix of Nutella and cherry preserves got rave reviews at the office.

The number of cookies this recipe makes depends on the size of your cutting tool and the thickness you roll. I am currently using a 3-1/4 inch cutting tool and roll to a medium thickness, and I get 40-50- cookies out of the newrecipe (more like 25-30 with the original).

Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free Variation

If you are on a wheat-free diet for wheat allergies or a gluten-free diet for celiac-sprue, substitute 3 cups of buckwheat flour and 1/2 cup of milled flax seed for the white and wheat flour (for the original recipe: 2 cups of buckwheat and 1/2 cup f flax). Reduce the baking powder to 1 tsp. The resulting hamentaschen will have an unusual pumpernickel color, but they taste great!