Hamantashen

I'm not officially ending my spring blogger break just yet, but I wanted to pop back real quick to share a fantastic recipe for hamantashen - the three cornered cookies given and enjoyed as part of the Jewish celebration of Purim.

We made ours as part of the Kay Arthur Bible study of the book of Esther, the children are working through right now. But, I realized, from reading the small print at the bottom of the page, that the recipe included in the book is from the kids' Purim pages of Chabad.org (the site we usually visit when we want a child friendly explanation of any of the Jewish holidays).


Anyway, you can find the recipe, here, at Chabad.org, and I highly recommend it. It's a simple enough recipe for children to take on, and it makes for delicious, cake-like cookies, that hold their shape when baking. We didn't have lemons, so we substituted orange rind and juice for the lemon in the recipe, but other than that, we followed it faithfully, and were very pleased with the results.

They're supposed to be shared, but not being Jewish, and not knowing anyone else celebrating the holiday, we gobbled them down ourselves (we did cut the recipe in half, though), while reading Barbara Diamond Goldin's beautifully written Purim tale, Cakes and Miracles. Her book also contains a recipe for hamantashen (which actually calls for orange juice, instead of lemon), as well as a very good lesson on the history, traditions, and spirit of the holiday, all told within a touching story of a blind boy who finds his own way to share what he can see, even without sight, on the special day.

Next year, I think we'll make some hamantashen earlier in the day, and share some with the neighbors - just to surprise them.

It's great to be a homeschooler.