ב''ה
These are wonderful hamentashen. Most hamentashen dough is parve and fairly bland. These are very dairy, buttery, flaky and full of flavor.
Mis en place.
Some of the fillings. Every one already has favorites, so I did not make the one from the recipe.
Some characters from the Purim story. The concept is that Divine intervention is not mentioned in the story, even though it was obvious divine influence. The moral being to recognize the hidden divine influence in ones own every day happenings. So the theme is 'hidden', such as the name "Esther", which means hidden, children wearing costumes and um, foods that have a stuffed 'hidden' center (kreplach are another).
Omi-girl is already in costume. :)
Turbinado sugar.
I do not have a dairy food processor so I ground the turbinado in my coffee grinder...
…and mixed the flour and butter with the hand mixer...
…until it was 'pebbles'.
I multiplied the recipe x 4. Then I realized we would need more for the holiday and made another x4 batch. Everyone is obligated to gives gifts of ready to eat gifts of food to friends and neighbors ('shalach manos'). Hamentash are often a traditional part.
After the hand mixer reached this point, I kneaded for a minute by hand until it came together.
It is a lovely, workable dough.
I use this cup that has a rounded lip. If you push down right it creates a vacuum that pops the cup back up when you push down and leaves the dough-round unattached to the cup. If it sticks to the cup, I use a knife around the edge to loosen it and let it drop.
I did not put it in the fridge for any rest. I rolled it right away and did not have any problem.
The 'mun' (poppyseed) filling is wonderful. Apricot lekvar is also classic. It seems Rose's version is a combination of the two.
We like to experiment a little with different filling.
Shaping.
Toaster shot.
All the kids like chocolate chip hamentash. However, chocolate chips do not melt in the oven. Next time, I'll have to make a ganache. We skipped the egg glaze.
We made a large assortment, with many different flavors. You can use any fruit preserves as long as they are not too watery.
If you use watery jam, such as the cherry on the bottom left, it bleeds all over. :)
Poppy, prune and apricot.
8 times! That's amazing. I love it when you have pictures of your kids.
ReplyDeleteYou challenged me. :)
DeleteMendy, what a fun post! Your children are just precious. Cherry filling is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteMendy.. they look wonderful! and like you I also chose to do different fillings, of course not as many as you.. but I did not use the poppy seed one. Could not get on board with it.
ReplyDeleteI like reading it from your perspective! Now i understand it more. If this pastry is considered buttery, then the parve ones must be very bland. I suppose it is meant to be like that. Maybe for me, it is cos we are so used to buttery pastry, the more butter flavor the better!
ReplyDeleteI always like your interactive posts. Making two batches of 4x the recipe?! It must have taken you all day! However, I'm sure you managed to keep from eating them all. BTW, has anyone mentioned that Leonard Nemoy only preteneded to be a Vulcan? The media talks about him like he was Spock. And he pretended to be only half Vulcan. The part we loved about him was the human part, cause 100% Vulcan is not very appealing, except for the logic/reason part, which has a short life span, in the scheme of things.
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DeleteI agree. Leonard was a real character in his own right. It is the human ability to go beyond intellect that is so appealing to people though. When you compare pure intellect to intangible human abilities you can see it so clearly there.
Omi-girl - precious. I always look forward to your toaster shots too :) The characters from the Purim story are very interesting.
ReplyDeleteMendy, I love your photos! Your daughters are lovely - they are going to be great bakers when they are older. Very creative to use a cup as cookie cutter.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love to see how your kids all help with the baking, great post, I bet you were tired after all these cookies.
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DeleteI'm still tired. :)
From eating or baking? :)
Deletegreat post, i love seeing your kids.
ReplyDeleteOoooh, chocolate chip! Mmmm.... I think I would have like these a lot better with chocolate chip filling. Smart kiddos!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful children, and great cookies, Mendy! You are a wonder to have made so many! I would like to have made at least one other filling. Perhaps next year! Wishing you and your family a blessed holiday.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Mendy, I forgot to thank you for the lesson on Purim--the "hidden" divine intervention. I really enjoyed that also!
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