Purim begins tonight – let the fun begin! Purim is a wonderful, fun and joyous holiday when adults are encouraged to play and kids are encouraged to dress up in costume and eat cookies. Temples hold Purim carnivals where countless goldfish are won and, much to a parents dismay, go home with the kids.
Tonight we’ll go to Temple for the “Purim Spiel,” a retelling of the Purim story. Here’s the basic story (that I got from www.aish.com):
The kids will all get dressed up in costume and get noisemakers. As they hear Haman’s name, they are encouraged to make as much noise as possible!
We also give gifts of food on Purim as an expression of our appreciation of people in our lives. One traditional food to give is Hamantashen cookies – a 3 sided cookie, shaped like the 3 sided hat worn by Haman (BOOO!) and filled with fruit or chocolate filling. Yum! We make them every year. Here are some pictures of my son hard at work at Grandma’s house.
Here’s a recipe if you want to try making Hamantashen at home!
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/2 cup margarine
- 3 eggs
- 4 cups flour
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 3 tsps. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- Jam or pie filling
Add eggs and juice and mix well. Blend with dry ingredients and roll into a ball.
Divide into four parts. Roll out each piece very thin (approximately 1/8 inch) on a floured board. With the rim of a cup or glass (depending on desired size) cut into the dough to make circles. Place 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each circle.
To shape into triangle, lift up right and left sides, leaving the bottom side down, and bring both sides to meet at center, above the filling. Lift bottom side up to center to meet other two sides.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush dough with beaten egg before baking. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.
Yields 4 dozen Hamentaschen.
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