This one had me turning to the internet to find out exactly what a Hamentashen is. As it turns out, these are a traditional Jewish cookie, most commonly associated with Purim. Purim is a holiday to celebrate the deliverance of Jews in the 4th century from a death sentence, and is related to the villain who was named Haman. Purim takes place in the springtime (we just missed it in March). I’m not going to try to define this holiday more than that as I don’t want to get anything wrong. I recommend jumping over to Chabad.org for their description, or this one from Brittanica.com. Both sites indicate it is a holiday of great joy!

Hamentashen (alternately, hamentash) are made first as a round disc that is then folded into a three cornered pastry and include fillings, such as poppy seed or fruit. For more on this, I’ll refer you to Wikipedia. There’s so much out there on the history and methods for making hamentashen! Next post I will share some other fillings.

HamenTashen

Dough 1/2 lb butter, 1 lb cream cheese, 2 c flour – wrap in plastic and chill at least 3 hours – roll out on confectioners sugar

12 oz pitted prunes, cut up, 1/2 c chopped almonds, 1 1/2 c orange marmalade, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, cook a few minutes until thick

Bake 375º 30 min