Purim Pie or HamenTARTshen

I love the holiday of Purim with its exciting stories of heroic princesses, colorful costumes, and jam-filled cookies called Hamentashen.  A few months ago we were invited to an event called Beyond Bubbies Kitchen and asked to make a dish that was a twist on traditional Jewish food. I glanced at the calendar and saw that the event was being held days before Purim and I am a jam maker, so naturally I decided to make Hamentashen (you just knew there had to be jam involved somewhere).  However, we still needed a twist!

We decided to make a savory Hamentashen with our Evil Apple, spicy apple chipotle jam and a mustard, olive oil crust.  (recipe posted here) and also a cheddar cheese crust Hamentashen with our Falling Leaves jam (apple, fig, cranberry). (recipe posted here)

Our little jam team baked about 1000 cookies for the event but we also had one more idea up our flour-covered sleeves. With a nod to my current favorite television program The Great British Baking Show, we made a showstopper which we called Purim Pie (my hubby renamed it The HamenTARTshen).

Taking my favorite simple pie crust recipe for a double crust 9″ pie (a mix of butter and shortening), I filled a 10″ loose bottom tart pan with the crust. I then made a rope of dough into about a 6″ circle and placed in the pan. I made more ropes of dough and cut them into 5″ pieces, bending and pinching them into a triangle shape. I fit the triangles into the space between the edges of the tart and the circle. when all the spaces were filled, I made another smaller circle and fit more dough triangles in between the two circles.

When all the triangles were placed I started to fill them with jams. I only filled the spaces about 2/3 full so the jam would not overflow. Being a jam company, we had lots of flavors to choose from in our pantry but I think the tart would also be lovely with only three or four flavors alternating in the spaces. Finally, we added a Jewish star cut from pie dough to the middle of the tart and baked the tart for about 30 minutes until lightly browned with bubbly jams.

Happy Purim! Boo Hamen! Horray Brave Esther! Vashti-rock your girl power!

 

 

Cheddar Cheese Hamentashen

If you love Hamentashen and you love cheese, then these Cheddar Cheese Hamentashen are the perfect cookie for your Purim celebration. We filled ours with Doves and Figs Falling Leaves (apple, fig, & dried cranberry) jam but any fig jam or homemade fig filling will work well.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus additional for rolling cookies)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 egg
3 Tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fig jam

Equipment
Cookie sheet
2″ cookie or biscuit cutter or glass with 2″ rim
rolling pin

How To
Heat the oven to 350 degrees
In a mixer or food processor or by hand, cream together butter and sugar
Beat egg and water and add to the butter/sugar mixture
In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt
With the mixer or food processor running, add all of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix just until a ball of dough begins to form (by hand blend in flour with a wooden spoon and hands until dough forms into a ball)
Kneed in the cheese and a bit more flour if the dough is still sticky
Roll out dough to 1/8″ thick and cut out circles of dough
Spoon a scant teaspoon of jam onto each circle and dampen the edge lightly with water on a pastry brush or fingertips
Fold the dough edges to form a triangle
Bake for about 12 minutes until lightly browned
Cool and enjoy your Purim treats!