"hamantaschen" news and stories

• There are dozens of Filipino chefs in L.A. -- but most of them aren't cooking Filipino food. What's up with that?
• If you want to know what a glam supper club from the early 21st century looks like, head to the Tar Pit on La Brea.
• What's so magical about the Magic Wok in Artesia? Could be all that pork.
• You won't find any pork in mishloach manot, the baskets of food given during the Jewish holiday of Purim.
• ... You will, however, find hamantaschen. Here are recipes for nine Purim dishes, including those triangular treats.

The Jewish festival of Purim starts today, bringing with it one of my longtime culinary bugaboos - the hamantaschen. These cookies, meant to resemble the tricorned hat of Haman, the villain of the Purim story, consist of a buttery dough folded around a generous dollop of filling - usually jam, chocolate chips or sweetened poppy seed paste. Sounds good, right? But alas nearly ever hamantaschen I've tried has been awful - sticky, heavy, bland. I've been testing recipes ever since I was a little kid baking in the synagogue kitchen during Sunday School, but have yet to hit on one that's worth the cost of the flour.

Today, however, I'm seeing a glimmer of hope on the hamantaschen front. In a post on the New York Times' Bitten Blog, Deborah Gardner offers her grandmother's own recipe. These gorgeous, golden hamantaschen have "tender, lemon-zest-flavored dough...a far cry from the thick, dry shell of most hamantaschen, and the tart filling perfectly offsets the sweet crumb. These are the kind of hamantaschen for which any self-respecting prune would be happy to meet its maker," Gardner promises.

Source

Starting this weekend, Purim is being celebrated at my daughter's preschool. In celebration of the event, we made hamantaschen, a lovely three-cornered cookie traditionally eaten during this time. Bunny, my three-year-old, enjoyed making and rolling out the dough, then cutting circles with a cup (we're lacking cookie cutters). We filled ours with prune, apricot, and blackberry fillings. Why not try making hamantaschen (with or without kids)? They're not only delicious, but easy as well.

(Thanks to my daughter's school for the recipe.)

Hamantaschen

I used orange rind instead of the vanilla.

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla (or orange rind)

(method follows)