Dear Readers,
This month's newsletter arrives a bit early, for a change! It occurred to me that it might be fun to share my recipe for Hamantashen and give you time to try it if you're so inclined. Purim is still a few days away.
The recipe goes along with sharing my newest article, this time in Kveller, the Jewish parenting online magazine. Topic: How I got into the custom of exchanging Mishloach Manot, the small gifts of food Jews traditionally exchange on
Purim:
This was, by the way, not my title, and I don't like it, but such is the nature of publishing. Editors slap on whatever title they think works best. So this is it. Other than that, it was truly a pleasure to work with the editor at Kveller. I hadn't worked with her before but she really insisted on me digging deeper on how I came around on Mishloach Manot when before I had such an attitude about it. She teased that
out over a few rounds of edits! This is why I love to do this kind of writing; you get to know yourself better, and a good editor can bring a piece to a whole new level.
Anyway, following is my recipe for Hamantashen, which I have always made for Purim, even before I got into Mishloach Manot. Main reason: I love the traditional poppy seed filing, and so did my father-in-law. So every Purim, I shipped him a parcel. I use my grandmother's poppy seed grinder, and I love how
this proved to be another junction of her Austrio-Hungarian cuisine fitting right into my adopted Jewish one (Her recipe for hazelnut torte, which I make for Passover, is another one).
A poppy seed grinder turns out to be quite the gourmet chef item to have. Years ago, I was chatting with the Hamantashen master baker at my kids Jewish day school and mentioned how the grinding was a bit of a chore. He had not heard about there being such a thing! He'd always wondered why his poppy seed
filling turned out grainy.
So yes, for this to work properly, you must grind the poppy seeds! Apparently, however, you can also use a coffee or spice grinder. This is according to Leah Koenig, whose poppy seed filling I've appropriated below because she includes chocolate. That made the poppy seed filling more palatable to my three kids, none of whom has inherited the poppy-seed-loving gene from their grandparents or me.
Hamantashen
Chocolate-Poppy Seed Filling
1 cup/130g poppy seeds
1 cup/240ml milk
1/2 cup/100g sugar
1 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp grated lemon rind
1 oz/30g bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Use poppy seed grinder (or spice or coffee grinder) to grind the poppy seeds, working in batches. I always send a bit of matzo meal through the grinder before putting in the poppy seeds to clean it out as it hasn't been in use for a year.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, sugar, and ground poppy seeds. Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down and cook, stirring often, until almost all the liquid is absorbed and the mixture thickens. About 10 minutes.
3. Add the orange juice, lemon juice and butter. Cook until absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the chocolate, lemon rind and vanilla extract, stirring continuously until the chocolate melts and the mixture is very thick, about 2 to 3 minutes more.
4. Remove from heat and let cool. You can even make the filling ahead of time and store it in the fridge.
Dough
4 eggs
1 cup/225 g sugar
1/2 cup/125 ml vegetable oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 lb/600 g whole wheat flour
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir in the sugar until the mixture thickens and bubbles appear. Mix in the oil, lemon juice, lemon rind and vanilla. Add in the baking powder, and mixing continuously, add the flour. (Here I switch halfway through from using beaters to dough hooks on my electric mixer as the dough will stiffen.) Gather dough with your hands, and add flour, if needed, until it
isn't sticky.
Assembly
Preheat oven to 350 F/ 180 C.
On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/8" (3 mm) thickness. I work in three batches. Cut out 3" (7-8 cm) circles. (I simply invert an IKEA plastic cup that's left over from my kids' childhood and that's about 3 inches wide.)
Transfer the circles to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. They can placed close to each other as they don't expand while baking.
Put a teaspoon of filling on each circle, then fold up two sides first, giving a little squeeze, then fold up the third side.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes until they show only a slight touch of brown. (If you brown them too much, they come out too dry.)
Let cool on sheet for 15 minutes, then on a wire rack.
If you have some dough left over after using up all the poppy seed filling, fill the rest with Nutella. At least that's what my kids prefer!
I hope you're not exhausted from reading the recipe! Every year when I make Hamantashen, I wonder why don't make things with poppy seeds more often because I really like that taste a lot. But then I start grinding and remember, that's why! I guess the effort involved is what makes this all so special.
For now, I'm on to assembling a few Mishloach Manot, and wrapping up the package to my daughter at college, as promised in my article.
On another note, I have two events coming up this spring in Chicagoland:
As always, it would be lovely to welcome you at one of them. If you do come, please introduce yourself to me!
In the meantime, I wish you a Happy Purim, should you be celebrating it! Since Purim coincides with the official beginning of spring, I wish you all an enjoyable
spring, especially if you're in the Midwest, where we've had a pretty intense winter.
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