Hard sell. I was unconvinced — especially as my last batch of the triangular treats had left me underwhelmed.
Nonetheless, I gave it a go. I also read an entry from US kosher food blogger Tori Avey to ensure my technique was up to scratch.
As usual, I had little time to make them. I'd decided to knock up a batch to take to my son’s class the next day. I'd been invited in to talk to them about working as a journalist but, petrified at the thought of appearing in front of 30 eight year olds, felt the need to take a little bribe incentive to keep them on side. As my talk was just before Purim, hamantaschen an the obvious choice.
With no time to mess about, I needed Amir's recipe to work. It read more sable (a fine French pastry) than shortcrust as it uses icing sugar, but perhaps that’s the secret. It was easy to prepare — he'd said simply to mix all the ingredients together. No fiddly pastry techniques there. It worked fine.
Once the dough had enjoyed a little rest in the fridge it was time to roll it out. Avey advises getting them really thin, so I mine was no more than 0.3cm thick. (I even got the ruler out to be sure.) A handy shot glass made a decent cutter.
I used a variety of fillings – mostly on account of only having limited jam left in my fridge. The end of a jar of apricot; some apple jam (leftover from a Rosh Hashanah recipe test); and, when they ran out, some crumbled up chocolate bars. Turns out they don’t melt very well. After some digging in my kitchen stores I found a few cubes of Turkish Delight, which made a more grown up filling and looked jewel-like in their triangular wrapper.
Avey's instructions for folding the dough around the filling were immaculate and I was able to stretch almost 70 biscuits from one quantity of dough. After 12 minutes in the oven, they were crisp and golden. Light, with a perfect balance of biscuit to filling and a lovely crunch. A revelation. I wasn't able to stop at one.
The children loved them too. I keep getting messages from the mothers of my son’s classmates telling me how much they enjoyed theirs and asking for the recipe.
To hamantaschen everywhere, my apologies.
Find the recipe here
