Purim Baklava Hamantaschen (2024)

This Sunday Purim festivals will take place across the country, sending millions of bagged goldfish into the hands of irresponsibly giddy children, whilst confusing all the remaining Gentile children about why all these Jewish children with new goldfish are dressing up for Halloween in March. Ah, yes, I have fond memories of the yearly Purim carnival held by my very kosher reform temple built on a lot that was once a BBQ restaurant. I may have dropped out of Hebrew School just shy of my Bat Mitzvah, but I never missed the opportunity to dress up like Queen Esther and win me a bagged goldfish at the Purim carnival.

Purim's a great holiday all around, but the classic hamantasch cookie really elevates its status and makes up for the fact that other Jewish holidays require completely flourless desserts. But, be warned, store-bought hamentaschen (if you're from a place where these exist) are notoriously bad, with this sort of muted sweetness characteristic of all cookies eastern European grandmothers make. The jelly filling is gummy and stringy while the cookie is dry and bland, so it just tastes like its gone way past the sell-by date. Meanwhile, homemade "hammies" offer up endless possibilities for yummy cookie dough combined with any filling your heart desires as long as it's shaped like evil Haman's triangular hat (QUEUE THE NOISEMAKERS). Ok, if you aren't getting all these Purim references you're just going to have to google it.

So, it occurred to me that hamantaschen might be filled with another of my favorite desserts that one might find in Persia - sticky-sweet baklava. It also occurred to me that that this might turn out like a twist on one of my favorite cookies across the board - Russian tea cakes - if I opted for a buttery shortbread cookie dough combined with a nutty filling. I had to add an egg white to the butter/sugar/four dough to make it malleable enough to "triangulate," but this didn't alter the flavor or texture a bit. I'm kind of afraid to do an internet search for "baklava hamantaschen" in fear that millions of others have already thought of this idea, so I won't, and instead I'll keep pretending this was my once-a-month stroke of genius.

I tested two variations of baklava filling, pistachio-almond and hazelnut-almond, preferring the pistachio slightly (although Garrett disagreed). Traditional 'taschen were, of course, in order. If you go that route, which admittedly saves you lots of time, I recommend apricot jam filling.

In completely different news, I'm excited to announce that I had the opportunity to collaborate with the folks behind a new iPad cooking app called SideChef. Their "thing" is offering a great interface for home cooks to try our new recipes with step-by-step instructions (with voice commands for dirty hands) and big, beautiful pictures along the way. I'm honored to be one of their featured bloggers to help them launch. Download it for your iPad in the app store and enter the code JENESSASDINNERS250 for some bonuses.