Day Late Hamantaschen

In my late teens, I did a lot of baking, all self taught. I would bake for myself and would give gifts to my then boyfriend, now (for many years) my spouse.   As the mother of a young son, I would do some baking with him, too.

I never got to be really good, but I enjoyed scratch baking. 

As I got older, that changed.  It's been years since I've done anything but cake mixes, and I didn't even get into the pandemic baking of 2020.  But recently, the urge to do some scratch baking (with my spouse's help, because he loves cooking so much that he can't stand to see me bake without helping) has hit.

The Jewish holiday of Purim started Thursday at sundown and ended yesterday at sundown.  This holiday is a celebration of a long ago event told in the Old Testament Book of Esther, and how Esther, a Jewish woman married to a Persian king foiled a plot by the evil prime minister Haman to kill all Jews.  A popular cookie for this holiday, hamantaschen, is shaped like a tri cornered hat and has a thick filling.  Traditional filling were poppyseed (what I grew up with) or apricot, but many non traditional fillings are used. 

At the last minute I decided - why not make hamantaschen?  I hadn't made them in oh, over 40 years, after all.  Why not?

The traditional dough can be difficult to work with so I decided on something simple.

I used an "easy Hamantaschen Dough" from Melinda Strauss.  We had European strawberry jam in the fridge so decided to use that as the filling.  I made the dough and spouse did the rolling and cutting.  I did the filling and baking.  It's nice to work together with him in the kitchen.

They look dark because we only have white whole wheat flour in the house.  I was hoping the cookies wouldn't be too tough.  This is an oil based dough, incidentally.  I used canola oil.  Here is the filling - about a teaspoon per cookie.

Melinda's recipe was for 24 cookies.  I cut it in half.  It's just the two of us.  In these times, I didn't have anyone around for a cookie swap.

Probably the ugliest hamantaschen you'll ever see.

These were ready to bake - on parchment paper, on a cookie sheet, at 350 degrees.  I think we made the dough a bit too thick - we baked these nearly 25 minutes, not the 18-22 suggested minutes.

I definitely will never be a food blogger.

But they did taste good.

I have to watch my weight carefully, as a lifetime WW (Weight Watchers) member.  We figured these to be approximately four smartpoints each, but that's an estimate based on points for the ingredients added together and divided by 12.

So, I am publishing this a day late - but no matter, if you make them today or next week, they will still be delicious.

Have you baked recently?