Nanny's Hamantashen with Prune Filling and my variation - Spiced Carrot Wholewheat Hamantashen too!

While most kids were babysat by a local teen, I was babysat by my grandparents.  I was the youngest grandchild of four and was the only one to grow up just a few steps away from her home, so I was just a bit spoiled. My grandfather, Pop Pop, always had candy in the freezer for me, and Nanny always had something homemade waiting to be defrosted for my enjoyment.  Growing up, my maternal grandmother - Nanny - was a great cook, but she was THE baker of the family.  It's no wonder I grew up with an interest in food!

When I showed an interest in cooking, my grandparents delighted in it and started providing me with my own cookbooks.  Every Chanukah, I would get cookbooks.  I blame Nanny for my extensive cookbook collection.  I was just learning from her - my grandfather was continually building more bookshelves for her collection of books, clippings and recordings of PBS cooking shows.  When I went off to college, she began "loaning" me cookbooks.  I say "loaning" because we both knew that those books would never come back to her.  I was once notorious for my Borg-like ability to assimilate my family's belongings into my own collection. Then, her appliances starting their trek to my kitchen too.  While she was alive, she looked forward to my Friday afternoon phone calls telling her which of her precious books I had used and what I had cooked that week.  Mostly, we talked about Jewish food traditions and family food traditions.

Nanny died several years ago after succumbing to colon cancer.  While in the hospital, she wouldn't talk to me about her illness.  Instead, we talked about food.  She made me promise to split her cookbook collection with my mom, and to use the cookbooks well.  On a recent trip home with my older brother, I found my Nanny's treasured collection of her favorite recipes handwritten in a small green plaid binder which I am sure she got as a freebie from a cookbook publisher as a reward for her many purchases.  In this binder was this recipe for Hamantashen with Lekvar, or prune filling.  I can't call Nanny every Friday like I once did, but I get to remember her every time I'm in the kitchen. Nanny, this one's for you.

For those of you not 'in the know' - Hamantashen are one of my favorite Jewish food traditions. They are eaten for the holiday of Purim which celebrates the story of the Jewish Queen Esther and her rescuing of the Jewish people from a king's adviser - Haman - who wished to exterminate the Jews in the Persian Empire.  This is the basis for many Jewish Holidays - they tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!  Above are the two types of Hamantashen I made this year.  I made my Nanny's Orange Sugar Cookie based treat as well as an improvised Spiced Carrot Wholewheat version.  I filled each with Nanny's Prune Filling, known as Levkar among Eastern European Jews, or some homemade strawberry jam I had lying about from last year.

To make the either Hamantashen, first set out a stick of butter to soften.  I did this while I was doing the dishes.  Then, sift together two cups of unbleached, all purpose flour, salt and baking powder and set it aside.  Cream together the softened butter and one cup of sugar for about two minutes or until "light and fluffy" as my Nanny put it.

Then, add one egg and mix for one minute.  After this, mix in orange juice and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture a bit at a time, until well incorporated.  Shape the dough into a flat disk on a large sheet of wax paper and place in the fridge until firm enough to roll out.  At this point in the handwriten recipe, Nanny makes sure to remind the reader to roll out the dough after sandwiching the dough between a second sheet of wax paper, "making sure to roll from the center."  Thanks for the reminder Nanny.  She even gives a note to put it in the freezer if the dough is too hard to handle.  I found that spooning the dough from the wax paper and rolling in a bit of extra flour helped to make the dough easier to work. This dough was marked with a sticker saying "my favorite recipe" and after tasting a baked cookie, I can attest to that.  This was my family's go - to Hamantashen recipe and now it can be yours too.

Ingredients:
1/4 pound butter softened, this is typically one stick
1 cup sugar
2 Cups Unbleached, All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

***My Variation - Spiced Carrot Wholewheat Hamantashen
Following the same recipe above, substitute Unbleached, Wholewheat Flour for the All Purpose.  Also, substitute carrot juice (my juicer is good for something!) for orange juice and add 3/4 teaspoon of garam masala.  While garam masala is a spice mixture that is often used in Indian savory dishes, it's a warming mixture of spices that reminds me of pumpkin pie spice and really accentuates the carrot in an delicious and somewhat unusual way.

Prune is a traditional filling that is now often left behind in favor of more modern fillings like strawberry, cherry and chocolate.  I think prune is making a come back, or it will if more people try this filling. 

First, place raisins and prunes in hot water in a bowl for 15 minutes to allow the fruits to plump and soften.

 Drain the fruit and then place the fruit in a food processor along with honey, vanilla, lemon juice and cinnamon.  Process until smooth. If using the nuts, fold them into the filling now. 

 My grandmother used less lemon juice and split half of the honey with brown sugar, and then blended it with chopped nuts.  I simplified the recipe a bit and made it to my tastes, but tried to keep to tradition. I liked the tartness of the filling, but my hubby thinks I should have stayed closer to Nanny's amounts for the lemon juice.

Filling Ingredients:
9 ounces pitted prunes (dried plums)
1/3 cup raisins
2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons honey (Nanny's recipe stated 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice (Nanny's recipe says 2 teaspoons, I just read it wrong)
*1/2 cup nuts, toasted and cooled (no nut is specified, but she was partial to walnuts)

Assembling the cookies:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. After rolling each dough piece into a three inch circle, fill each circle with a 1/2 teaspoon of your favorite filling and fold the dough to make an equilateral triangle.

 Bake for 15 to 20 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

 As you can see, the ones with jam have a tendency to spread a bit so be forewarned and bake these cookies on parchment paper.  These cookies last for several days, but very rarely make it that far in my house.  They also freeze beautifully, but better as dough then as baked cookies.