Purim – Hamentashen

Taken from The Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook. Reproduced with the kind permission of Roberta Kalechofsky and Rosa Rasiel, courtesy of Micah Publishing, Inc . Hamentashen Recipe Type: Vegan Author: Taken from The Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook. Reproduced with kind permission of Roberta Kalechofsky and Rosa Rasiel, courtesy of Micah Publishing, Inc. Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 45 mins Serves: Makes about 36 Kids will love shaping these little goodies, especially since they can put them on the shalach manot tray and tell everyone how they helped. Ingredients For the pastry: 2/3 cup/85 g shortening/vegan margarine 1/2 cup/65 g sugar 1 mashed ripe banana 2-3 tablespoons water 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence 2 and a 1/2 – 3 cups/320 – 380 g flour For the filling: 2 medium apples, finely chopped 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts 1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon Instructions In a large mixing bowl, cream the margarine and sugar. Blend in the banana until smooth. Add the water and vanilla. Stir in the flour gradually, until it is thoroughly integrated and the dough can be easily formed into a ball. Wrap the dough in waxed paper or cling film and chill at least 2 hours. (Overnight is fine and often convenient.) Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Divide the dough in quarters and return 3 of them to the fridge while the first batch is shaped. Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch/3 mm thickness. Cut in circles, re-flouring utensils as needed. Make the filling by mixing all the filling ingredients together in a small bowl. Put a heaped teaspoonful of filling in the centre of each circle. Bring up the 3 sides, pinching them together to make three-cornered-hat shapes. Do not close them completely. Filling should show. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the hamentashen begin to brown. Cool on racks. Notes You can use 2 baking trays and bake all hamentashen at once. If you do this, switch their oven positions halfway through baking time. Or you can form half the hamentashen, bake them on one tray, and form the others while the first batch bakes. Set the unbaked pastries on plates until ready to transfer to trays. Variations: Use thick apricot jam as filling. Commercial fillings in poppy seed, prune and apricot can be improved with lemon juice and rind to taste. 2.2.1