Sorta kinda Hamantashen

[magid]

Hamantashen are the traditional filled cookie eaten on Purim, representing either Haman's ear or hat. Why anyone would want to eat either ears or hats is never quite explained, however.

Most hamantashen are made with sugar cookie dough of some sort, cut into circles that have blobs of filling put in the middle, then are pinched into triangular shape. The most traditional fillings are prune and mun (poppyseed), while bakeries also include other fruit fillings that are easily available, such as apple, apricot, and pineapple. Home bakers get more creative, putting in whatever jam, or chutney, or nuts, or chocolate chips are around. I've even heard of humus being used as a filling. (Hm. Savory hamantashen. That could work, with a yeast dough, perhaps some spinach-pine nut sort of filling, rather like individual spanikopitas, or little oddly-shaped pizzas, or something.)

I don't make hamantashen, because I'm too lazy to make cookies in general. Not only do you have to make the dough and make dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces individually, you have to have time to chill the dough, and manage all the trays in and out of the oven, and cooling racks, etc. I did it one year, and realized I was unlikely to make them again.

This year, I read about so many people making hamantashen, and I think it seeped in. I came home from megillah reading rather wanting to make something hamantashen-like. No cookie dough, though; there wasn't time for it to be chilled, then start the whole production cycle late at night.

So I improvised. I made a yeast dough that used half regular white flour, and half rye, figuring that would give me low gluten (and start using up the bag of rye flour I need to finish before Passover). No extra grain add-ins, so the texture would be smooth. I wanted some sweetness, so thought I'd use some maple syrup (another thing to start using up before Passover). And then I decided that I should also use fruit juice instead of water. So, the end of some orange juice and some maple syrup as the liquid.

I let the dough rest while the rolls were baking. It hadn't risen much at all by the time they were done, but I didn't have more time to wait, and didn't know if it would rise much anyway, with all that rye. I rolled the dough out, cut out circles using the wide mouth of the jar I'd been given lentil-parsnip soup in. I rooted around in the fridge to figure out what I wanted to use as a filling. Something that would go with the orange flavor, hopefully. I had an open jar of the cran-citrus jam I made a couple of weeks ago (that includes juice from a whole range of citrus, including orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and honeybell tangerine). It's not a very sweet jam. Actually, some would say it isn't sweet at all. I rather like it, though. So, I put blobs of this jam in the middle of the circles, pinched the dough into the right shape, and put them in the oven. I checked on them some minutes later, and the triangles were falling back into circles. Feh. Must not have pinched the corners hard enough. I took the tray out of the oven, and pinched them back into shape as best I could. Back in to finish cooking the dough, but not long enough for them to fall totally out of shape again (luckily, it was only one tray of them, 15 or so).

Still, they're a bit odd-looking, and the jam leaked just enough, early enough, that they stuck to the foil I lined the pan with (though perhaps had I taken them off the foil earlier, I would've prevented this). I like them; they taste orange and cranberry and interestingly not very sweet, but I can't tell if anyone else would enjoy them... Perhaps next year I will experiment again.

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

The rye bread I make doesn't taste to me like the bakery rye at all, so it might be something to taste, anyway...