Today and A Hamantaschen Recipe (repost)

This is a repost from my old blog from 2013. 

 A hamantaschen is an Ashkenazi Jewish triangular filled-pocket pastry cookie associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim. The name refers to Haman, the villain in the Purim story. 

 Buttery Hamantaschen

We make the dough the night before and stew the dried apricots.

We'll assemble it the next day...

 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

 The dough can be challenging to work with initially; you really need to knead it thoroughly. However, it doesn't take long for it to become more manageable.

This buttery hamantaschen has a rich, buttery flavor with a subtle hint of orange zest.

I appreciated the texture of this recipe. It's a keeper!

My husband is much better than I am at rolling out the dough because I tend to be impatient. He also has a better technique for folding these little hats. (Haman hats) Therefore, I’ve decided to give him this task from now on since he enjoys it so much.

I use  Lekvar Apricot Butter Filling recipe.  You can find all the beautiful step-by-step pictures there, which show the process in detail. I believe in not reinventing the wheel, especially when the existing resources are already effective. Plus, let's be honest—I'd have to clean my kitchen to take my own pictures! 😊

Here's my picture of stewing the dried apricots

I made this last night, and we will soon assemble the "little hats" to bake. 

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

Ready to fold, which is a technique in itself. 

The Lekvar Apricot Butter Filling is delicious. (The recipe is below.) The recipe yields enough for two batches of dough. I have quite a bit left over that I won’t throw away. It can be used as jam and is less sweet. 

 The yellow flecks you see are bits of orange zest mixed into the dough—delicious!

 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 - 

Ta-da! 

 The finished product! 

These are incredibly delicious and perfect 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 a royal position

for such a time as this?"

Purim is at sundown tonight! 

That was a repost from 2013. 

Now today - 2025.

Just out of the oven...

My husband has been busy baking in the kitchen all afternoon. He even laid down a drop cloth on the floor to keep things tidy—what a thoughtful guy! 

He will bake the four-berry ones tomorrow- I will take a photo of them and post it tomorrow.

Today, he made delicious four-berry Hamantaschen and apricot ones as well. We plan to share a dozen of the four-berry ones with our neighbor across the street, who surprised us with beautiful Christmas cookies in December that we so appreciated. 

I’m so grateful he’s taken on this annual tradition. Plus, it’s clear he really enjoys making them!

The story of Esther exemplifies God's providence and protection. In the book of Esther, God orchestrates events to save the Jewish people from destruction through Esther's courage and the king's favor (Esther 4:14)

See you tomorrow

Debby