Claire Brown shares her family’s recipe for everyone’s favourite Purim treat, hamantaschen.
Ingredients:
- 8oz/225g self raising flour
- 4oz/110g hard margarine
- 2oz/55g sugar
- 1 egg
Fillings
- Mon (see recipe below)
- dates and walnuts
- Raisins with Jam
- Chocolate square
- Chocolate spread
Mon Filling
- 8 oz whole unground poppy seeds (1 1/2 cups)
- 2oz unsalted butter or marge 1 cup milk/pareve substitute e.g. soya milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, beaten
My wonderful late mother in law, Freda, gave me this pastry recipe over 20 years ago, and it is virtually foolproof. It can easily be doubled if you want to make more cookies.
The filling for these biscuits can be varied according to personal preference. Have a play and see which filling combinations you like the best. Traditionally these treats are filled with a combination of poppyseed, honey and sultanas, but you could go down the chocaholics route and use chocolate spread or a square of chocolate, go Persian and mix dates, walnuts and rosewater, or child friendly with jam and raisins.
Method for pastry
- Sift flour into a large mixing bowl and grate the margarine into the flour.
- Rub the margarine into the flour till it forms fine breadcrumbs then stir in sugar.
- Crack the egg into a glass and beat with a fork. Pour into the centre of the dry mixture and work with a knife until it comes together, then using your hands to draw it into a ball. If the mixture is too dry to form a ball add a teaspoon or two of water until the desired consistency.
- Wrap the ball of pastry in cling film or foil and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. The mixture can be frozen at this point and thawed at a later date for use.
- After an hour divide the mixture into two balls. Roll each ball out on a floured board to form a thin rectangle of pastry. Using a round cookie cutter cut out circles of dough and place on a lined baking sheet. Gather together the scraps and repeat until all the pastry is used up.
- Place a spoonful of your chosen filling into the centre of each disc of pastry and draw up the sides and pinch together to form a triangle shape.
- Bake the pastries in a pre- heated oven gas mark 4 160C for 10 to 15 minutes until they are a pale golden colour.
- Cool on a wire tray and then dust with icing sugar to serve.
- These cookies keep in an airtight container for a week or can be frozen until needed.
Mon filling method
- Grind the poppy seeds in a coffee grinder in batches for about 15 to 20 seconds per batch, until they are ground soft and powdery. Use a food processor if you don’t have a coffee grinder.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the milk, sugar, honey, and salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, till the sugar dissolves and the honey melts.
- Pour about one cup of the hot liquid into a cup.
- Immediately but gradually drizzle the hot liquid into the beaten eggs. Whisk briskly and constantly till all of the hot liquid is integrated into the eggs. Do not pour too quickly, or you’ll scramble your eggs. It should take about a minute to drizzle all of the liquid.
- Slowly pour the heated, tempered egg mixture back into the hot liquid in the saucepan, whisking constantly.
- Continue to whisk and cook for three to five more minutes over medium heat till the mixture thickens and turns light yellow. It is ready when it thickly coats the back of a spoon.
- Remove the saucepan from heat. Whisk the ground poppy seeds into the buttery liquid and stir well to blend all ingredients.
- Allow filling to cool to room temperature before using. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for four to five days.