Hamentaschen

This is the Jewish holiday of Purim...when the story of Queen Esther is read and children dress in costumes (like Halloween except it's all about beautiful Queen Esther for the girls and, hmmm, something biblical looking for the boys.) Evil-doer Hamen supposedly wore a three corner shaped hat, thus the shape of these delicious annual treats. I can't give you the recipe because no matter which one I try, lots of them open up, loosing their 3 sided shape. I've tried cream cheese dough, buttery dough, cake mix dough, same results. I've used the traditional poppy seed mix, but today I used Bonne Maman preserves: raspberry and apricot. So they taste good no matter the shape, in the end, it doesn't matter, contents, not looks, wins. Look here and here to see where the best hamentaschen can be found in the U.S.A.

This afternoon, after having lunch in the Jewish section, we bought some pastries, one a pain au chocolat (a croissant type dough with a tablet of dark chocolate inside.) We also bought two hamountashn (French spelling) which are special pastries for the Jewish holiday of Purim. We did a taste test. The one on the right is poppy seed from Kocarz bakery and deli. The one on the left is prune from Sasha Finkelstein bakery and deli. They are three doors away from each other. the Kocarz one won big time. It had a very tasty dough, mildly lemony with a nice texture, not too dry. The fillings were different so we couldn't comment on that part. There are a couple more bakeries we could sample from and might just do that. We'll let you know the results of the next taste test. Bon appetit'