Victory Over 'tashen

Last year, I knew it was purim when my roommate pulled out the crafting supplies and made glittery paper-plate party masks. He then mentioned something about a plan to drink until the line between good and evil blurs, and went off to purim festivities with his girlfriend.

And of course, I made busted hamantashen.

This year, I knew it was purim when my old catholic brother-in-law announced it on facebook.

So I took another swing at the poppy-filled cookies. These 'taschen were made with the citrus that I had on hand.

The poppy seed filling is optional. If you're hankering for something other than the nutty crunch of poppy, feel free to sub in your favorite homemade, or store-bought, jam or jelly. You could swap in chocolate spread. You could even use peanut butter and mini-marshmallows and make a strange fluffernutter.

Poppy Seed, Blood Orange Hamantashen
(adapted, gently, from Smitten Kitchen)

Poppy Seed Filling:

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

Zest of 1/2 blood orange

1/2 cup poppy seeds

Juice of 1/2 blood orange

1/2 tablespoon orange liqueur

1/2 tbsp butter

1/4 tbsp vanilla extract, or seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Dough:

Zest of 1 lime

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 and 1/8 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (4 oz) salted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg yolk

Egg Wash:

1 large egg, beaten

Make the Filling:

Heat the milk, sugar, zest, and poppy seeds in a medium-small saucepan. Cook at a simmer for about twenty minutes. The seeds should begin to plump up slightly. You won't be able to actually see the seeds expand, but you should notice less liquid sloshing around.

Add in the juice, liqueur, butter and vanilla (extract or bean scrapings). Continue heating gently for another ten minutes. Allow the mixture to cool slowly, and then refrigerate it to cool further. The slow cool allows the poppy seeds to suck up as much of the liquid as is possible.

Make the Dough:

In a medium bowl, combine the zest, sugar, flour and salt. Dump in the butter and egg yolk, and use a pastry blender to process the dough until it comes together to form a crumbly mass.

Process a bit more until it hangs together, and then press the dough into a flat shape, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

Form the Cookies:

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Gently flour your dough-working surface (table or counter) and roll the dough out to about a quarter-inch thickness. If the dough starts to crack as you're rolling, don't worry. Just go slowly, allowing it to warm up as you work.

Use a biscuit/cookie cutter or small glass to cut out 2.5 inch rounds, remushing and then re-rolling the scraps of dough to make as many rounds as possible.

Move your dough rounds to your parchment-lined baking sheets.

Put a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of poppy seed filling in the center of each round, and then fold, don't pinch, three sides of the dough over the filling to form the traditional tricorner shape.

Beat your egg wash egg, and then use a pastry brush to apply the wash to the formed cookies. The egg wash is bound to redistribute some of the poppy seeds across the face of the cookie. Don't worry about it. It's... an extra decorative touch.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and refrigerate the trays.

In about ten minutes, pull out the trays, and go over the cookies again with another layer of egg wash.

Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the cookies go golden.

Apple Honey Challah

This bread smells amazing.

It was ten minutes into the baking time, and the house was thick with an eggy, rich aroma.

I've never made challah before, in part because I wasn't sure I'd get a result that was as satisfying as challah from the brookline bakery--a challah that you pulled apart with an eager tug, slightly chewy, rich but almost fluffy... this fit the bill.

The recipe is gently adapted from Smitten Kitchen. I formed the dough into two round braids, rather than one, and I found that Deb's recipe had too many apples for the dough to handle--when I tried it with two medium sized apples, chunks plopped out periodically during braiding.

Apple Honey Challah

from Smitten Kitchen

Bread

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

2/3 cup warm water

1/3 cup plus 1 tsp honey

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs plus 1 yolk

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 1/2 cups bread flour

2 small apples, peeled and chopped into 1/4 inch chunks.

1 large egg, whisked (egg wash)

Combine yeast, 1tsp honey and water. Allow to rest until the yeast gets foamy.

In the meantime, mix the rest of the honey, oil, salt and eggs and egg yolk in a large mixing bowl.

Add the yeast mixture to the other wet. Then add all of the flour. Mix until the dough starts to come together, and then turn it out on a floured surface and kneed unti you have a smooth, elastic dough. Turn it into an oiled bowl, and let it rise for an hour. (Be sure to chop the apples sometime before this hour is over.) After the hour, turn the dough out onto a flat surface and press it out into a oval.

Deposit 2/3 of the apples on one half of the oval. Fold the dough over, and press it down so the apple chunks are sealed into the dough. Repeat this again for the remainder of the apples, folding the dough in half a second time.Tuck the ends of the dough under it, and let rise for 30 minutes.

After the half hour, cut the dough in two. Cut each new dough ball into four sections, and carefully stretch the sections into logs (about 10 inches long).

Place the logs on the parchment where they will be baked, and braid the dough into a rounded loaf (see instructions here for weaving tips). Repeat for the second half, and coat both with the egg wash.

Allow for a third rise (yep. three rising periods in this one.) for about 50

minutes, and then toss it in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 35-40 minutes. If the loaf starts to brown too quickly, cover in foil for the rest of the baking time. It will be beautiful.