Showing posts with label Hamantashen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamantashen. Show all posts

Hamantaschen - The finished product and recipe review


Purim Hamantaschen 2013


The Husband is much better rolling the dough out than I am - I'm impatient. He is also better with the technique of folding these little hats - so from now on, I am giving him this chore project to do since he enjoys it so much.





 The dough can be hard to work with at first - you have to really pound it out. 
But it doesn't take long for it to comply.


Buttery Hamantaschen has a buttery taste with just a hint of orange zest. 

I liked the texture of this recipe. This is a keeper!



Ready to fold - which is a technique unto itself. I tend to add too much apricot filling. This filling is much better than using apricot preserves which run out of the cookie part when baking.


Lekvar Apricot Butter Filling - is delish. The recipe makes enough for 2 dough recipes. I have a lot leftover that I won't throw out -



 Those yellow flecks are the orange zest added to the dough - yummy!




 The folding process looks easy until you do it.  The Husband does a good job!


  

A good-looking pre-cooked, perfectly folded hamantaschen.




350 degrees at around 20 minutes - I need a new oven so I really had to watch them. They could have been a bit more golden brown on top - I was afraid I would burn the bottom. I have an oven thermometer in the oven and my oven was off by 25 degrees and more!  Next year - A NEW stove and OVEN!!! (Lord willing) 



Ta Dah!  The finished product!  

These are soooooooooo good. Great with a cup of coffee or tea. 


Purim Sameach    

פורים שמחים

 Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position
for such a time as this?"

Apricot Filling for Hamantaschen



This is the first time, I made the filling with dried apricots. Some of the other recipes use apricot preserves and they would ooze out when baked, burn a little and you just can't get the full taste when more than half of your filling is burnt on the baking sheet pan. I am hoping this is not the case, this year - by opting to make it myself.

Original recipe is Lekvar Apricot butter filling - GO there for all the nice big pictures, showing the process, step by step.  I figure, why rebuild something if its not broken - those pictures work better than mine! - plus lets get REAL here - I'd have to clean my kitchen. :-)


The Filling Recipe


Ingredients

  • 2 cups dried pitted apricots
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Pinch of salt
Total Time: 40 Minutes
Servings: About 2 cups of filling
Kosher Key: Pareve
my picture of stewing the dried apricots
I made this last night and soon we will assemble the "little hats" to bake. 
Purim is at sundown tonight! 

photo credit; http://theshiksa.com/images/2010/02/Lekvar-Apricot-Filling.jpg

Apricot Hamantaschen - the Dough


Photo: Tori Avey

It's that time of year again - when I make this special dessert cookie. So good - I really should try and make it more often - so good.

Here's the recipe I used this year -  Buttery Hamantaschen

Please visit the original recipe with all the pictures.  Saves me having to take my own pictures -

We made the dough last night and stewed the apricots. We'll assemble it soon...


  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature  *I used salted butter and omitted the 1/4 tsp of salt. 
  • 2/3 cup sugar 
  • 1 egg, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp grated orange zest
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1-5 tsp water (if needed)
Servings: About 35 hamantaschen
Kosher Key: Dairy






Coming soon - Hamantaschen


last year -apricot hamataschen

Tomorrow is the first day of Purim. In my family we make the traditional cookie known as Hamantaschen. 

The festival of Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar (late winter/early spring). It commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day.” The beautiful heroine is Queen Esther also known as Hadassah, but it is Haman we like to boo at.  Every time, Haman's name comes up, we do not say it - instead we boo and hiss. It is a festive time for families - Children especially love Purim, since it is like a biblical Halloween. The food is good and then there is the cookie - Hamantaschen.

Hamantashen cookie



So tonight I wanted to bring homemade hamantashen cookies to our Torah/Shabbat group. For some reason I did not want to make the ones I always make, instead opting for a new recipe.

 I guess I was hoping for an easier recipe. I went with this one - (See link below) Unfortunately the jam, baked out of the cookie part - I should have made them bigger and thinner. I couldn't find my biscuit cutter, so I had to use a glass. It wasn't very big. They taste alright - but they are not presentable enough to bring. Some burnt on the bottom. I also used the Smuckers apricot spreadable fruit. Not thick enough like jam. 

I love when they are made with poppy seeds.

 Ingredients:


  • 3 cup  flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
  • 3 eggs
  • your choice of filling (jam, jelly, preserves, chocolate chips, nuts). The recipe also included directions for a prune filling: blend raw prunes in a food processor, adding the juice and rind of one lemon and 1/2 C honey for every pound of prunes used.
Directions:


They look better here - still not taking them
  1. Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
  2. Mix in butter and eggs.
  3. Roll out dough and form hamantashen (I've got step-by-step visuals on this below).
  4. Bake on a well-greased cookie sheet or on parchment paper for 12-15 minutes at 400 F.  

Read more: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/03/hamantashen-recipe-tips-to-make-perfect.html#ixzz1oflx3qQM