Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen are pastry-like, triangle-shaped, cookies that are popular this time of year. Traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday of Purim, hamantaschen are formed by rolling the dough, cutting circles with a round cookie cutter, filling them with any one of a number of delicious fillings (poppy seed, apricot, or raspberry) and folding the circles into triangles. Does it sound difficult? It's really not. Don't let the multi-step process mess with your head. Let's make hamantaschen. I'll walk you through the process every step of the way. I promise.

Hamataschen
This recipe is adapted from Carole Walter's Great Cookies cookbook.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 sticks cold, unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cans Solo filling (I used poppy seed and apricot)

Egg Wash
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons sugar

Lightly beat the egg whites with the sugar until well blended and sugar has dissolved.

Step 1:
Make the Dough
Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse two or three times to combine. [If you don't own a food processor, whisk ingredients together in a large bowl.]

Add butter and pulse five times. Process 5 seconds longer to form a sand-like consistency. [Or add butter to the bowl and break up butter pieces with your fingers while incorporating the butter into the flour. Keep pulling flour from the bottom of the bowl to thoroughly mix as if you were making pie dough.]















Place the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla into a small bowl and mix with a fork to combine. Pour mixture into the processor and pulse four or five times, then process until the dough comes together. [or add the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla and gently mix with a spoon until the dough forms] Be careful not to over process the dough. Pour dough onto lightly floured work surface and form two disks, roughly the same size. Flour hands as needed if dough is sticky. Wrap disks individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 3 days.














Step 2:
Roll the Dough

Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough on a flat surface or on a pastry cloth to a 3/16 inch thickness. Use flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut circles of dough and place them on cookie sheets. If you don't have a 3-inch cookie cutter, substitute the top edge of a drinking glass or cut a 3-inch piece of cardboard and use a paring knife to cut circles. You may collect scraps and roll them once more. Try not to over handle the dough which will make your cookies tough.

Step 3:
Fill the Cookies
Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling onto each piece of dough. Then brush the perimeter of each circle with the egg wash. Lift dough to partially cover the filling, creating a triangle shape. The easiest way I found to do this was to use my two thumbs to lift dough from the bottom edge. Then use your index fingers on each hand to gently lift the dough at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions. Pinch corners together to form a triangle and bush dough with egg wash.















Step 4:
Bake (you're almost home)
Bake cookies for 15 to 18 minutes, or until cookies are golden brown. If baking two pans at a time, rotate sheets from top to bottom and front to back midway through baking. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely.

Step 5:
Pat yourself on the back or get someone to do it for you. You've just made a delicious batch of hamantaschen!

Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You may also freeze them.

Hungarian Shortbread

Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies are another one of my favorites. I tend to have a lot of favorite cookies if you haven't noticed but there's something about the simplicity of shortbread that I especially like. Other types of cookies rely on "stuff" to make them good such as chips, extracts, nuts, or glazes. Shortbread can stand on its own.

I've been making this Hungarian Shortbread recipe for a few years now and it's fairly simple, and makes a delicious cookie with or without the raspberry jam filling. A couple of weeks ago I made a batch of homemade raspberry jam from local raspberries I picked myself (well, with Mike's help) near our upstate home. While I was picking, I came upon a praying mantis among the raspberry bushes and snapped a picture of him with my IPhone. Just as I was about to take the photo, it turned its head and looked directly at me as if to say, "May I help you?"














The recipe requires freezing the dough for at least 30 minutes to 3 hours and then grating the frozen dough on a box grater. This helps the shortbread to have a light, crumbly texture. I bet it would be fun for kids to make (with proper supervision of course).

My oven is on the fritz so the top didn't brown as much as I would have liked. I've called Bill the repairman and he's scheduled for next week.

This recipe is based on one in Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Special equipment needed: box grater and 10" springform pan
Any grater with large holes will do if you don't have a box grater. You may also use a 9" x 9" square baking pan, lined with foil and lightly greased with butter.


Hungarian Shortbread

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup raspberry jam

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter in a large bowl with a mixer on high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Turn mixer to medium and add sugar and egg yolks; mix until sugar is dissolved and mixture is light, about 4 minutes. With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture and mix until dough just begins to come together, about 1 minute.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together with your hands into one lump. Divide the dough in half and form two balls. Wrap each in plastic and freeze at least 30 minutes or up to 3 hours.

Arrange an oven rack in the center of oven. Heat to 350 degrees. Grease a 10" springform pan with butter. Remove a ball of dough from the freezer, unwrap, and grate, using the large holes of a box grater, directly into prepared pan. Gently pat the grated dough to even it out. Spread jam evenly over the dough, leaving about a 1/2" border around the edge. Grate remaining dough on top of jam and pat gently until the surface is even. Bake until light golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan, on a rack, before cutting into wedges and serving.

Cookie press rating: 3.75 cookies (out of 5)

Grated Dough (looks like cheese!)













Spreading the Jam

Raspberry-Cream Sandwich Cookies

The name says it all. What could be better than raspberries and cream in the form of a sandwich cookie? Nothing comes to mind. Sandwich cookies are great because you get two cookies wrapped around a creamy center. There is a reduced guilt factor since technically you're eating only one cookie. Am I right?

The filling is made with white chocolate, heavy cream, and fresh raspberries. Believe me, these cookies are so rich you won't want to eat more than one at a time. They're great for sharing since their shelf is two or three days at most. After three days they turned to a sweet ball of mush.

The recipe calls for fresh raspberries, but I'm sure you could use frozen strawberries thawed and drained of excess liquid. I used a tablespoon of dough for each cookie but I suggest you make them smaller since they spread quite a lot which led to rather large cookies.

Here's the recipe on Martha Stewart's website.

Cookie press rating: 3 cookies (out of five)

Jam Sandwich Cutout Cookies

With the Fourth of July holiday just days away, you might be looking for a cookie that is festive, delicious, and easy to prepare. Well, two out of three ain't bad. I made these Jam Sandwich Cutout Cookies last week for the first time. These bites of buttery sugar cookies are star shaped and laced with a thin layer of jam. They were a huge hit at Mike's family's second annual BBQ and fireworks watching extravaganza in Point Lookout, New York.

I should tell you something before you begin. These are extremely labor intensive. There. Don't say I didn't warn you. The result is well worth the time and effort. Mike's sister called them "outrageous."

The multi-step process includes making the dough, refrigerating it for 3 hours. Rolling the dough and refrigerating for 1 hour. Spreading the jam on dough and refrigerating for 1 hour. Cutting out the cookies and refrigerating the cookies another 30 minutes before baking. That's a total of 5 1/2 hours of refrigeration time! I know it's not "active time" but it still makes for a long process. I whipped up a batch of red velvet cupcakes in between while I waited patiently each time the dough chilled.

I made the rookie mistake of not reading the whole recipe before I started and ended finishing up at almost midnight. I won't make that mistake again. Ever.

To make this process even more challenging, I made these in our small city apartment where I have exactly 18 inches of counter space to roll the dough if I move the coffee maker out of the way.

Baker's note: Let the dough soften a bit before cutting the stars. This will make cutting the cookies easier to do and the jam will not ooze out as much. Dip the cutter edges in flour if the dough becomes sticky. Try cutting other shapes as well. Next time I will try a round cutter with a scalloped edge.

I found this recipe on Martha's website. She calls them Red, White, and Blue Stars. I prefer to call them Jam Sandwich Cutout Cookies since that's more descriptive. You could really cut them into any shape at all or simply cut them into bite-sized bars before baking.

I recommend making the dough a day or two ahead of time to make the process seem shorter (even though it won't actually be).

I also recommend baking as many of the scraps as you can. The jam oozes out the sides of dough scraps and after baking, made a deliciously crispy and sweet cookie.

Jam Sandwich Cutout Cookies

Yield: about 40 cookies (depending on size)

5 cups cake flour (not self-rising or all purpose)
plus more flour for rolling
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons heavy cream, plus more for brushing
3/4 cup raspberry jam
3/4 cup blueberry jam
2 tablespoons sanding sugar

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.

Cream butter and granulated sugar with a mixed on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until well combined. Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with cream and beating well after each addition. Shape dough into four disks, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate for at lease 3 hours (or up to 3 days).

On floured parchment, roll 1 disk of dough into a 1/8 thick rectangle (mine ended up as an oval despite my best efforts to roll a rectangle). Repeat with remaining disks. Stack sheets of dough and parchment on a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for 1 hour or freeze for 30 minutes.

Spread the raspberry jam on 1 sheet of dough, blueberry jam on the other. Top each with a plain sheet of dough and refrigerate for 1 hour or freeze for 30 minutes. I used a jar of my homemade raspberry jam which is so sweet and delicious.

Cut out cookies using a 2 1/2 inch star-shaped cutter, and space 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush with cream, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. I used Demerara sugar. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden, 16 - 20 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely. Bake extra dough scraps.