A Sweet Pastry: Hamantaschen

Hamantashen! With pregnancy on the mind, I can't help but think these could also be viewed as Uterus Cookies (sorry, sorry...gross, I know...)

This week is the Jewish festival of Purim.  There's a whole story behind this holiday, but basically it means children in costumes, rowdy adults, and delicious stuffed pastries called Hamantaschen.

I was hesitant to even try an SCD recipe for Hamantaschen because I grew up with my mom's insanely addictive creamcheese-based version.  But, alas, almond meal pastries are better than no pastries.

And, what a relief, these are actually very good.  Even if you're not Jewish, you'll appreciate this yummy cookie-like pastry.

This is also a good basis for any pastry recipe.  I'm super uptight about eating only well-done eggs and meat while pregnant, but I was so tempted by the amazing smell of this raw dough, I almost tasted it.  That doesn't happen often with SCD recipes.

Here's the original recipe.  I followed it fairly closely (just added cinnamon--which was actually pretty important to the final flavor. I also disregarded the egg wash instruction).

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• about 1 cup of fruit preserves or other filling of your choice (I like Fiordifrutta because they don't add sugar.  It's surprisingly hard to find preserves without sugar added!  But there is pectin, which is illegal on SCD.  You could use fruit or berries if you're being strict.)
• 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract 
• cinnamon to taste (for sprinkling)

Directions:

1. Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor, until most of the butter is dispersed in well. Aim for all butter bits to be pea-sized or smaller.
2. Place the dough into a big piece of plastic wrap and roll it into a log. Freeze for about 15 minutes.
3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Take the dough out and slice a circle off the end of the dough roll.
4. Place the circle on parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet. Place about a teaspoon or so of filling in the middle and then fold the dough around the filling into a triangle. Repeat for each pastry.
5. Make sure to pinch each corner so that the pastries don’t open up when baking. This step is really important.
6. Optionally, you can wash the pastry edges with egg wash. I don't love egg wash on almond meal because I think it turns a little gummy, but it's your choice.  It will be prettier.
7. Sprinkle all pastries with cinnamon, for appearance and taste.
8. Bake the pastries for about 15 minutes, or until they start to brown around the edges.
9.  Cool well before removing from baking sheet.