Homentashcen

The Jewish religion has lots of happy holidays, all with their own delicious foods. Purim is a little-known such holiday, which celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from yet another menace, this time the head Wazeer (advisor) of king Xerxes of Persia (read the book of Esther in the old testament). During this holiday, in addition to wearing fun costumes, we eat yummy pastries that are supposed to resemble the Wazeer’s ear. In reality, they are just delicious cookies which I shape like a triangle and overfill with blueberry or prune stuffing. Here’s the recipe.

Cookies

2 ½ cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ cup sugar

¾ lb. sweet butter, cold, cut into small cubes

1 tsp. grated lemon rind

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

Fillings:

Blueberries (my innovation)

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/3 cup sugar (generous)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp. blueberry preserves

1 tbsp. honey

Prunes (tradition)

12 oz. pitted prunes, chopped

1 cup golden raisins, chopped

2 tbsp honey

Juice of 1 lemon

Grated rind of 1 lemon

Making the cookie dough:

Put flour, baking powder and sugar in food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles course meal. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just blended and dough forms a ball. Cover ball with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat over to 350F. Cut ball to quarters and roll out on a floured surface until ¼” thick. Cut into even circles (I use a drinking glass). Fill center with a heaped teaspoon of filling and fold sides to form a triangle. Put on cookie sheet and bake 13-15 minutes. These are great from the moment they come out of the oven.

Fillings:

Mix all ingredients.