Visual Step by Step Hamentaschen for Purim

Ever wonder how they get those delicious fillings into the sweet pastry dough? well look no further because below is a step by step slideshow on how to assemble these tasty triangle treats as well as written step by step instructions and recipe below. enjoy!

Healthy Hamentaschen
Dietary Considerations/ Can be made to be; Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Whole Wheat, Low Fat

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Click here for a recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Hamentaschen.

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour (substitute Bob's Mill Gluten free flour mix for gluten free Hamantaschen)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup earth balance (or butter if health and or a bikini is of no concern :D)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons packed finely grated fresh orange or lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
fillings of your choice (in this post I used my lemon curd recipe and also a mix of chocolate and caramel)

Directions/
Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat earth balance, sugar, and egg at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add zest and juice and beat until incorporated. Add flour mixture, stirring, until a smooth dough is formed. Gather dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 375° F. Halve dough. On a lightly floured surface roll out half of dough (keeping other half wrapped and chilled) 1/4 inch thick. With a 3-inch cutter cut out as many rounds as possible. Transfer rounds with a metal spatula to a large baking sheet, arranging about 1/2 inch apart. Re-roll scraps and cut out more rounds. Put 1 teaspoon filling in center of each round and fold up edges to form triangular cookies resembling a tricornered hat, pinching corners together and leaving filling exposed. (Pinch dough tightly enough so seams are no longer visible and sides are taut enough to prevent cookies from leaking filling as they bake.)

Bake hamantaschen in middle of oven 20 minutes, or until pale golden. Cool hamantaschen on baking sheet 5 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely. Make more hamantaschen with remaining dough and filling in same manner. Hamantaschen keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days. ENJOY!

Turning Three?

Sunday was a big day for Upsherins in the Jewish world so below are some images for such a Lag BaOmer event...

Can you guess what they are??

Still no clue?

We tied on our own tassels...

Tzitzit!

Still no clue what they are?? If you're curious and ready to read... follow all of the links above for the full explanation. Happy learning. Thanks :D

Gluten Free Passover Carrot Cake Muffins

Alright now I know there is a stigma around passover food in general but I think its because of all of the Matzah meal floating around that makes things takes like, well... CARDBOARD... And I don't know about the rest of you Ashkenazi folk out there but 4 days in and I'm DONE! This recipes uses none of that, and I find that the substitute of almond flour in any of your recipes will work just the same! I even made my usual banana bread subbing out the flour for almond meal... try it! You wont regret it!

Other amazing passover treats include:
Passover Caramel Crunch Candy
Passover S'mores

Gluten Free Passover Carrot Cake Muffins
Makes about 1 Dozen

Ingredients/
1.5 cups almond flour
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
¼ cup honey
3 tablespoons applesauce
1.5 cups grated carrots
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts (optional but delicious)

Directions/
Preheat your oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, honey and applesauce. Stir carrots, raisins and walnuts into wet ingredients. Stir wet ingredients into dry. Pour batter into any sized muffin pans. Bake at 325°F for 15-20 minutes. Cool to room temperature and if you are feeling adventurous spread with cream frosting and make some cute marzipan carrots... How could you go wrong??

Healthy Lemon Poppy Seed Hamentaschen (gluten free variation)

Ok so traditionally I know they are supposed to be FILLED with poppy seeds, but why not get crazy and add some lemon curd into the mix!? My friend Yael (not to be mistaken with Yael from Israel- the star of the previous post on CAKE-KEBAB)... But Yael, my nurse friend in NYC who is just such a delight to spend my mornings with, came over to assist me in some pre-Purim traditions... In addition to the usual suspects of apricot, raspberry and chocolate filled hamantaschen, we decided to make a poppy seed dough and fill them with a zesty lemon curd to create the most divine treat you have ever had... well, that is of course in lemon is your thing. (I know my dad is probably drooling on his keyboard right about now! ENJOY!

SEE RECIPE BELOW - Click here for Lemon Curd recipe

And for all of you readers who have NO IDEA what a Hama-wha is... click here

Healthy Lemon Poppy Seed Hamentaschen
Dietary Considerations/ Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Whole Wheat, Low Fat

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour (substitute Bob's Mill Gluten free flour mix for gluten free Hamantaschen)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup earth balance
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons packed finely grated fresh orange or lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
2/3 cup lemon curd filling (click here for a lemon curd recipe)
1/4 cup poppy seeds (or more to your liking)

Directions/
Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat earth balance, sugar, and egg at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add zest and juice and beat until incorporated. Add flour mixture, stirring, until a smooth dough is formed. Add poppy seeds. Gather dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 375° F. Halve dough. On a lightly floured surface roll out half of dough (keeping other half wrapped and chilled) 1/4 inch thick. With a 3-inch cutter cut out as many rounds as possible. Transfer rounds with a metal spatula to a large baking sheet, arranging about 1/2 inch apart. Re-roll scraps and cut out more rounds. Put 1 teaspoon filling in center of each round and fold up edges to form triangular cookies resembling a tricornered hat, pinching corners together and leaving filling exposed. (Pinch dough tightly enough so seams are no longer visible and sides are taut enough to prevent cookies from leaking filling as they bake.)

Bake hamantaschen in middle of oven 20 minutes, or until pale golden. Cool hamantaschen on baking sheet 5 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely. Make more hamantaschen with remaining dough and filling in same manner. Hamantaschen keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days. ENJOY!

An Appearance on the Rachel Ray Show!

So I get a phone call in July for a custom holiday cookie order... huh? I calmly tried to explain that the cookies would not last until December... but they wanted them anyway! Toward the end of the conversation the cat gets let out the bag and I find out one of the Real Housewives of Beverley Hills was to appear on a pre-aired holiday special with Rachel Ray and she wanted to bring her my cookies! Now I'm no RHW fan but apparently Kyle Richards is Jewish and wanted to bring both Chanukah and X-Mas cookies in honor of the multi-cultural holiday! Regardless I had a blast making holiday cookies well before the rush- good luck finding ANY holiday cutter in July! So the show aired on December 23rd but because I was away in Montreal I missed it!! and CANNOT find a video of it anywhere! well I'll keep looking but in the meantime below are some photos for a sneak preview! You can even see the bag of cookies on the table in front of them!!