What I {Blank} Today: What I {Take Credit For} Today

In case you didn't already know...it's Purim!

In case you don't know what Purim is...read about it here.

Basically some guy named Haman (BOOOO!) tried to kill the jews.

Another guy named Mordecai was like "Oh hell no"

A woman, Queen Esther, got to represent for her people (but only got to her position of power cause she was hot and the King's old wife was well...old)

So to celebrate we get dressed in costume, eat preserve filled cookies, and drink until we reveal our innermost selves.

I'll spare you from a post about the last part and instead share my journey to find a "kick-ass" hamantaschen recipe.

After several days of googling I finally narrowed it down to a few contenders.

All the recipes I could find had the same basic ingredients with slight variances of measurements.

Now some hamantaschens can be cake like (BOOO!)

Some recipe's tried to get all fancy with extracts and zests (BLAAAGH!)

Some recipe's called for oil and others for butter.

Some required water and others eggs.

I wanted a crispy flaky cookie texture. I figured the butter/egg combo would yield those results.

So using my minimal (VERY minimal) knowledge of baking I decided to tweak and combine elements of all the ones I had found into my own mutant hamantaschen recipe. And they came out perfect! So I'm gonna take credit for it.

So here it is!

Rachel's Kick-ass Mutant Hamantaschen Recipe

Dough:

3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup room temp butter (= 1 1/2 sticks for special people like me who have to google things like that)
2 eggs

Filling:

Your favorite fruit preserves. I'm a fan of apricot. I'm also quite lazy so store bought was the direction I went. You could get fancy and make your own but you're gonna have to google that yourself.

Directions:

Sift together flour, bak pow, and salt. Set aside.
Using mixer cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Mix in eggs one at a time until combined.
Stir in dry ingredients a little bit at a time until a ball of dough forms. I gave up on the spoon and used my hands cause I'm just a hands on kinda girl.
Stick in the fridge for a bit.
On a floured surface roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. You could go thinner but I hulked out on the thinner batch I made and had to keep starting over. But don't go too thick or you won't be able to work with them.
Using a cookie cutter or drinking glass, cut into 3 1/2 inch circles.
Place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or one of those super cool slipmats (which I heart)
Drop 1 tsp of preserves onto each circle. This is a universal rule: ONLY ONE TEASPOON! Every recipe I read said only one or you will be met with an oozy gooey mess.
Form into triangles. This is where another great debate occurs. There are two schools of thought: pinch, pinch, pinch VS. fold, fold, fold. I opted for fold and I think it payed off.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. The oven I use is crazy hot so 11 minutes was perfect. Just use your best judgment.
Put on a ridiculous costume, drink until you reveal your innermost self, and eat waaaay too many of your freshly baked homemade hamantaschen!