Happy Purim!

Today for the first time in over 10 years I pulled out my KitchenAid mixer. I'm actually shocked that it still works.

Last night the Jewish holiday of Purim began. Purim, in a nutshell, is the celebration of the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s (an anti-Semitic prime minister of King Ahasuerus) plot to kill all the Jews. It's the closest thing we have to Halloween - kids dress up and we give each other packages full of candy :)

Hamantashen is a Yiddish word meaning "Haman’s pockets." It's basically a triangular filled cookie that we make on Purim. One explanation for the shape of these pastries is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat. As always, I'm a last minute kinda gal so last night I emailed my younger sister and asked for a no fail recipe as I was only making one batch. I woke up early, checked my email and got started.

Hamantashen! Nut-free and dairy-free - not that we're allergic to anything...

Here is my slightly modified recipe that made 4 dozen cookies:

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup oil
1/3 cup apple juice (I used apple carrot as that was all I had)
5 cups flour
3 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract (no actual nuts are in almond extract)
3 tsp baking powder

1 jar apricot butter

• Beat 3 eggs and sugar in KitchenAid until creamy
• Add oil and beat
• Add juice and extracts
• Add baking powder
• Gradually add flour until it becomes a good dough consistency
• Roll dough and cut out circles using cookie cutter or a glass (mine were about 3")
• Fill with favorite filling - I used apricot butter (nice thick consistency - jelly or jam is too runny) and pinch 3 corners to create triangle shape
• Line cookie pan with parchment paper and make sure they don't touch each other on the pan
• Beat an egg in a cup and brush each hamantashen with egg using your fingertips 
• Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. I made mine thick - if you roll it thinner for a crunchier cookie, bake for 10-15 minutes) 

I rolled my dough on the back of a Wonder Woman plastic placemat. This is the glass I used to cut out my shapes.

Drop approximately 1 teaspoon of filling in each cookie before pinching three corners.

I used the apricot butter and apple carrot juice. I actually love prune butter but I couldn't find it until I was finished.

Baking in the oven.

My sister is Miss Fancypants so she made potato filled Hamantashen as well as meat filled Hamantashen. I saw a photo of some rainbow ones that some people were making but I heard they were more pretty than tasty. I wanted a basic sweet cookie to put in my Mishloach Manot (the packages of food that we distribute on Purim).

My Mishloach Manot. The Chinese take-out boxes were 90% from Target, as was most of the candy inside LOL. Kids stuck 90% off Valentines stickers on top :) I did have to pay full price for the Easter grass inside because I forgot to buy some last year for my craft box.

Gotta go run to a Purim party! Happy Purim!

Shoppinggal