Growing up, my mom never really made a big deal about the more minor holidays of Judaism. We always talked about Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur since they have always been the most important, but it wasn’t until I went to college that I really learned more about the minor holidays and how much fun they can be. One of those holidays is Purim, which starts tonight.
The story of Purim is an inspiring one – one where a strong woman saves her people. This site can explain the story much better than I can. It’s a fun holiday. People dress up in costumes, party, and eat celebratory foods – including one of my favorite cookies – hamantaschen.
If you’ve never had them, hamantaschen are a simple filled cookie. My favorite have always been the ones with poppyseed filling, but you can make them in any combination you can imagine. Traditional ones have jam or poppyseed filling, but you could also do chocolate, peanut butter, nutella, nuts – like I said, any combination.
I first made hamantaschen my freshman year of college, and I’ve never forgotten the experience. So many holidays we experience through food, and I want to make sure Abbie has memories of these foods and celebrating whenever we can.
This is the recipe I typically use to make them. It originally comes from The Holiday Kosher Baker by Paula Shoyer. It’s a simple recipe that actually uses no butter and comes together quickly. I filled some of them with a simple store-bought jam, and the rest with chocolate chips, and they were delicious! I hope you enjoy them – they may be a traditional Jewish cookie, but there’s no reason you can’t make them for other holidays too!
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4 Responses
YUM!
So fun! I made these once with the girls when Marissa was in Kindergarten and we were studying other countries. They were SO tasty!
Oh my those look delicious! And I love the story behind them!
Those cookies look so yummy!!