Yael's Hamentaschen Bake

I rarely do recipes, but I like a daytime party.  I love women and to occasionally break out of my writerly isolation with them is a joy.  

My friend Yael hosts a Hamentaschen Bake in her home during Purim, and never forgets to invite me, for which I am extremely grateful.  Not only do I get some group girl fun, in the time-honored baking tradition, but I get to eat all these delicious cookies which are not that fattening (unless you eat 20 all at once. Which I've never done. Really.) They're three-cornered cookies with a fruit filling. Purim ended on the 20th.

Since I'm a history and mythology nerd, the background for these delicious cookies needs to be noted.  Hamen, for whom the cookies are named, was the villain of Purim which is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by the aforementioned bad guy.  So when you eat the cookies, you're also getting sweet revenge.  

That's Yael in apricot putting egg on the folded cookies before popping them into the oven. Rose is listening and watching, while Rochelle, in foreground, is mastering the art of Hamentaschen shape.

 2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
water or orange juice
poppy seed or other fruit filling.  I like apricot and strawberry.
Directions:
1
Mix everything together until you have a nice dough.
2
Take piece by piece from the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin on a floured surface until you get a nice disk.
3
Taking a drinking glass, use it to make a nice circle.
4
Fill it up with fruit filling and close it in the shape of a triangle.
5
Schmeer some egg on uncooked dough.

6

Bake it in a preheated 350 F degree oven for about 30 minutes. Makes 50 to 60 cookies.

 By the expression on Helene's face, I don't think the commentary is regarding the recipe.   Rochelle looks  amused, so we may have started our Shades of Grey discussion.  

More women arrive.  Eris, on the end facing camera, flew in from Pittsburgh especially for this event.




Yael's grandson being tended by Jaime.

           

 

   Yay, the last batch, and now time to sing and dance.

Men are there to eat and listen to gossip. Don't let them fool you, they love it.

      Yael, and the best toddler ever.  He didn't fuss or cry once.

On a non-dietary note, Rudy Ch. Garcia, whom I introduced in last week's Next Big Thing blog, has posted more on his new book Here.