Purim and Hamantaschen
Submitted By David Polen
DP and SP Purim Pic _2014.jpg
Purim has always been a special Jewish Holiday that can simultaneously be serious and somber as well as festive and joyous - and somehow it all works. While it’s often referred to as the Jewish Halloween that moniker doesn’t capture the intensity of its story and meaning. It is different from the other Jewish holidays where going to temple meant dressing up in a suit and tie and sitting quietly through the service. No, Purim is different. Dressing up on Purim meant dressing up as Mordechai, Esther, or even King Ahasuerus to hear the Purim Spiel. One of our more enjoyable aspects of Purim is making noise and shaking the gregor to drown out Haman’s name during the Megillah reading. Like all great Jewish holidays, someone, in this case, Haman, tries to destroy us and goes to great lengths to achieve his objective. Like all great Jewish holidays, we survive and in the story of Purim we got to defend ourselves and destroy our enemy. The richness of the story and the plots, sub-plots and twist made it so compelling that as I write this it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been made into a big screen picture.
Hamantashen
Hamantashen
Celebrating Purim is never complete until you eat Hamantashen, which are the three-pointed delicious dessert filled with jam. This is one of the recipes we've found online and used to make our own:
1 cup sugar
1 cup sugar
3 egg
1/4 cup of orange juice
Rind of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Poppyseed Filling:
1/8 lb. poppy seeds
1 egg yolk
1/8 cup sugar
1. By hand, mix together sugar, oil, eggs, orange juice and orange rind.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, add sifted ingredients to others. Add more flour if needed to make a soft dough.
3. Roll out and cut into rounds. Fill with the Poppy seed filling and shape into Hamantaschen.
4. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.