Recipes

Hamantaschen fit for a queen:
This Purim, try poppy seeds again

New York (JTA) — Though people can’t live without poppy seed bagels, they shun the perky seeds in hamantaschen.

A dwindling number of Jews recall the irresistible poppy seed pastries once so prevalent in the Ashkenazi world, especially at Purim. Sadly you have to be a certain age to have tasted poppy seed strudels, coffeecakes, babkas, cookies and candy.

The younger one is, the less likely a poppy seed sweet tooth has developed. Why would children crave poppy seeds when they can get hamantaschen oozing with melted chocolate and preserves in any flavor?

“I’m not going to make my children eat hamantaschen with those ugly seeds,” I heard a woman say. “My kids love chocolate chip fillings — and that’s what they should have.”

I was taken aback and didn’t have the nerve to tell her, when I was a girl in the middle of the last century, hamantaschen only came filled with poppy seeds or prunes.

I waited all year for Purim, so I could dress up as Queen Esther and eat the hamantaschen my father brought home from the Jewish bakeries he’d pass. Carrying the scent of Oriental tea, poppy seed fillings were popular, probably because of their historical link to Purim.

Poppy seeds were baked into Purim confections because Queen Esther is said to have subsisted for three days on poppy seeds and chickpeas while she found the courage to tell her husband, the king of Persia, that his vizier Haman was plotting to annihilate the Jews.

The word hamantaschen is tied at the root to these tiny seeds. Mohn means poppy in Yiddish and German. Tasche is the German word for pocket or purse. Together the two words form mohntaschen, the pastry’s original name in the Middle Ages.

Becoming associated with Purim, mohntaschen evolved into hamantaschen and referred to the coat pockets in which Haman carried the lots, or purim, designating potential days for the Jews to be hung on gallows.

When my daughter was a child, she disliked the gritty texture of poppy seeds in sweets. During the 1980s we baked together, spooning apricot, blackberry and strawberry preserves into hamantaschen. Although we bypassed poppy seeds, I didn’t realize they once were the heart of Purim.

I have an affinity for nostalgic causes, so I recently sought to reconnect with our poppy seed past. My first step was to locate the seeds themselves.

In a gourmet shop in my heavily Jewish neighborhood, the manager explained: “We dropped poppy seeds from the inventory because they just don’t sell.”

Things were worse than I’d suspected. But after two more stops, I found them on a supermarket spice rack. I then discovered you can order high-quality poppy seeds online through Penzeys Spices at www.penzeys.com. At far cheaper than supermarket prices, they sell Holland Blue Poppy Seeds, which turn black in the oven and are recommended for baking.

Perusing cookbooks, I encountered suggestions on how to tame the seeds’ pebbly texture — by torturing them. Various experts recommend steaming them in milk, drowning them in juice or crushing them in grinders. All this to release their slightly sweet, starchy centers.

I concluded that breaking their shell-like exteriors for such a limited yield is responsible for the demise of poppy seed pastries. After thorough grinding, they shed their savory quality, tasting a bit like dates. Yet in their natural state, poppy seeds shine in crispy sweets.

“In our Poppy Seed Cookie recipe, we don’t crush the poppy seeds,” says Rise Routenberg, who with her business partner, Barbara Wasser, is a co-author of “Divine Kosher Cuisine: Catering to Family and Friends,” published in 2006 by Congregation Agudat Achim in Schenectady, N.Y. They are also co-owners of As You Like It Kosher Catering.

“There’s a lovely crunch in these cookies,” Routenberg says. “I don’t perceive it as grit.”
She describes a simple slice-and-bake cookie flavored by cinnamon and ginger, noting that “I’ve had the recipe in my collection for ages.”

Routenberg has tweaked the directions, which came from her mother, a pastry caterer, who at age 83 is still baking.

Working wonders with poppy seed breads and rolls, Routenberg’s grandmother also baked.

“She made a poppy seed kichel, which was not light and airy like typical kichel,” Routenberg says. “She filled a pie shell with lightly sweetened dough, sprinkling it with poppy seeds. It became a crust that we children enjoyed breaking into jagged pieces and eating.”

Searching for this heirloom recipe, which Routenberg could still taste in her memory, she located it and updated proportions for modern tastes.

For Purim, Routenberg and Wasser bake hundreds of hamantaschen. Apricot, cherry, prune and raspberry are popular fillings but they sell many poppy seed hamantaschen as well — to traditionalists, I presume.

“We mix the poppy seeds with various wet ingredients to soften them,” Routenberg says.

She recommends storing poppy seeds in the refrigerator, so they don’t become rancid. They spoil more quickly during the summer.

In my quest for traditional Purim pastries, I discovered recipes for many enticing confections.

First there were Lemon Poppy Seed Cakes, perhaps the precursor to the mini muffins of the same flavor that burst on the scene during the 1990s.

Mohn Kickel and Mohn Candy are definitely worth trying. Not to mention Poppy Seed Sweet Bread, a popular confection renowned from Russia to Slovenia.

I was intrigued by Kindl, yeast dough cookies once popular in Germany and Hungary on Purim. The dough, resembling the shape of children wrapped in blankets, accounts for their name. Along with poppy seeds, their fillings include a combination of jam, lemon, orange, rum, sugar or honey.

The crowning glory, Mohn torte, is a poppy seed cake, a specialty of Silesia in southwestern Poland and the northern Czech Republic. Original recipes called for four layers of short pastry blanketing ground poppy seeds, sugar, chocolate, raisins, candied citrus peels and almonds.

I’m intrigued by the days when poppy seed desserts played a starring role at Purim, nearly upstaging Queen Esther. As fine as black pearls but as durable as diamonds, poppy seeds are a precious legacy. Between now and Purim there are so many pastries to try, I wish I had time to bake them all.

Chocolate Mohn Torte (pareve)
By Linda Morel
(Torte improves when made a day in advance.)
Filling:
1/2 cup poppy seeds, two
1.25-ounce jars
1/2 cup apple juice
3/4 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt

In an electric coffee grinder, or better still, a Cuisinart Mini-Prep Processor, grind poppy seeds for three minutes, or until they have the consistency of pepper and are slightly sticky.

Place poppy seeds and juice in small saucepan and cover it. Boil on a low flame for five minutes.

Remove from flame. Reserve in covered pan for an hour. (Poppy seeds will swell and may absorb the juice.)

Place almonds in a standard-sized food processor. Using metal blade, grind for two to three minutes, until nuts reach a coarse sand consistency. Move to a large mixing bowl.

Place chocolate chips in food processor. Using metal blade, grind for one to two minutes, until chips break into smaller pieces. Add to mixing bowl.

Add poppy seeds and remaining filling ingredients to mixing bowl. Beat for two minutes, or until mixture reaches a pasty consistency.

Dough:
No-stick vegetable spray
8 1/2- or 9-inch springform pan
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
10 tablespoons well-chilled margarine
1 egg, beaten
2-3 tablespoons ice water
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Coat springform pan with no-stick spray. Reserve. Place flour and sugar in food processor bowl and mix well. Break margarine into chunks and add, along with egg.
Cover bowl and start processor, slowly adding water until dough forms a large ball. (You may not need all of the water.) Divide dough into two unequal balls: 1/3 and 2/3. Cover each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

When ready to roll dough, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously sprinkle flour onto counter, rolling pin and larger dough ball, which should be firm but malleable. (Leave smaller ball in the refrigerator.)

Roll ball into a circle slightly larger than the springform pan.

Place a piece of aluminum foil over half of the circle. Fold second half over the foil. Move dough to springform. If dough tears, simply repair it. Push dough evenly into place with fingers, making a 1/4-inch rim up the side of the pan.

Spoon filling on top of dough. With an offset spatula, spread filling evenly over dough, stopping 1/8 inch from the pan’s edge.

Roll out second dough ball, repeating the procedure. Place over poppy seed mixture and gently press dough around the pan’s edge to meet bottom crust.

Bake 45 minutes to one hour, until golden brown. Cool completely and sprinkle with sifted confectioner’s sugar. Yield: 10 slices

Hamantaschen with Creamy Poppy Seed Filling (dairy)
By Linda Morel
Creamy Poppy Seed Filling:
1/4 cup poppy seeds, 1 1.25-ounce jar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/8 cup water
1/8 cup Amaretto
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup walnuts

Place poppy seeds in coffee grinder, or better still, Cuisinart Mini-Prep Processor. Grind for three minutes, or until seeds have the consistency of fine black pepper and become slightly sticky.

In a double boiler, place cream, water and Amaretto; cover. On a low flame, bring to a boil. Let bubbling water bring cream-Amaretto mixture to a slow boil for five minutes.

Remove top of double boiler from heat and keep covered for an hour. Don’t proceed for an hour to give seeds time to puff up and absorb some liquid.

In a standard-size food processor, use the metal blade to mix raisins and sugar for one minute, or until crumbly. Add to cream-Amaretto mixture, blending well.

In a food processor, use metal blade to grind walnuts into bits. Add to cream-Amaretto mixture, blending well. You can cover mixture and refrigerate for a day before proceeding.

Cream Cheese Dough:
1 egg
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup cream cheese
(not reduced fat)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for
dusting counter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
Parchment paper

In a large mixing bowl, mix egg, butter, cream cheese, vanilla and milk until well blended. Mixture will appear lumpy.

Sift dry ingredients. Add to egg mixture and mix well, until dough sticks together and appears smooth. Form dough into two balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on 2 cookie sheets.

Remove one dough ball from refrigerator. (It should be firm but malleable.) Dust counter, rolling pin and dough ball with flour, adding more flour as needed. Roll dough into a circle 1/8-inch thick.

With a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut as many circles as possible. Move circles to lined cookie sheets.

Pick up remaining dough scraps. Form a ball and refrigerate.

Fill circles with 1/2 teaspoon of Creamy Poppy Seed Filling. Pinch edges of filled circles in three places, equal distances apart to form triangles.

Use dough scraps to make hamantaschen until there’s no dough remaining. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges brown.

Using second dough ball, cut shapes and fill them, as described above. Yield: 30
hamantaschen

Poppy Seed Cookies (dairy)
By Rise Routenberg
and Barbara Wasser
From “Divine Kosher Cuisine: Catering to Family and Friends,” published in 2006 by Congregation Agudat Achim, Schenectady, N.Y.

1 cup butter
9 Tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. With an electric mixer, cream butter with sugar at medium speed. Beat in egg, salt, and extracts. Mix in flour, spices, nuts, and seeds.

Roll dough into six logs, 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill 30 minutes. Cut into 1/4-inch thick diagonal slices. Place on cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Grandma Fanny’s Pan Kichel (parve)
By Rise Routenberg

2 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
Cinnamon-sugar (Mix 1/4 cup sugar with 2 teaspoons cinnamon)
1/4 cup poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease four pie pans. Mix together eggs, oil, vanilla, sugar and salt.

Pour into a well of flour and blend together. Knead for a short time, until smooth. (This is not like bread kneading.) Divide into four equal portions.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion until very thin. Place in pie pans, bringing the dough up the sides. The rolled dough can be irregular in shape. That adds to its charm.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and poppy seeds. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

Cool completely. Let children break kichel into pieces — and enjoy! Yield: four pans of kichel