Monday, March 05, 2007

Chag Purim! (a little late)



"Chag Purim" is "Purim Holiday" in Hebrew. Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrating when Queen Esther saved the Jewish people by foiling Haman's plot to kill all of the Jews (it is the story told in the Book of Esther). The cookies that you see above are called Hamantaschen. They are traditionally served on Purim. There is some confusion over just what the three-cornered cookies are supposed to symbolize. Some say it is Haman's hat, some say his ears, some say his pocket, and others say the name derives from something else entirely. Nonetheless, they are tasty cookies. This is the first time I made a vegan version. I used this recipe, only I creamed together the Earth Balance, sugar, and vanilla first, and replaced the 1/2 cup water with almond milk. I used an all-fruit raspberry jam and chocolate chips as the fillings. This recipe needs some tweaking, as the cookies spread a bit more in the oven than they should have (I'm thinking reducing the baking powder and using one or two "eggs" worth of Ener-G egg replacer might work), but they still taste very good.

4 comments:

Sheree' said...

Your cookies look good!. Thanks for the explanation of the holiday.

n/a said...

I like the looks of the cookies, too. Fruit and chocolate and EB?! Heaven!!!!

anon said...

those hamantashen look great =]
but after going to jewish private school for six years, i just must correct you...
"chag" actually means "holiday".
"sameyach" or "tovim" means happy or good.
so "chag samayach" means happy holidays.

Laura said...

You're absolutely right, oggy. Thanks for correcting me! I fixed it on the post.