March 1 at Etz Chayim was a big day for Purim. Donna Munic and I made batches of dough for Hamentashen, and many hands rolled, cut, filled and shaped for 2 hours.

This was the recipe Donna used:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cups granulated sugar

1 stick butter (1/4 pound), cold

1 orange, grated

3 teaspoons fresh orange juice 1 egg 

In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Cut the butter into ½ inches slices and with the mixer on low, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the particles are fine and the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Beat the egg lightly just to mix. Add the egg, orange rind and orange juice into the dough. Mix thoroughly and then stir well until the dough is completely moistened and smooth.

Shape into two discs and wrap in wax paper or parchment. Refrigerate overnight…or longer, if you wish.

When you are ready to bake, adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment.

Work with half of the pastry dough at a time refrigerating the other half. It is important to work with dough that is cold. Work quickly or the dough will become sticky.

On a floured pastry cloth or Silpat non-stick baking mat, with a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough, turning it over occasionally to keep both sides floured. Roll it to an even 1/8-inch thickness. With plain round 3-inch cookie cutter (I use a glass), cut the dough into rounds. Reserve the scraps of dough, press them together, and rechill until firm enough to roll.

Hold one round in your hand. Place rounded teaspoonful of your desired filling in the center. Fold up two sides of the dough-each side being a third of the circle and pinch them together where they meet. Now fold the third side and pinch together at both sides, forming a triangle and leaving a generous opening at the top.

Place hamantashen about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes (depending on your oven) until the cookies are barely colored on all sides. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Each recipes yields about 30 hamantashen.

My recipe was very similar, but not identical:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons orange zest

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 2/3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, zest, juice and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Mix flour and baking powder and add to wet ingredients. Divide into 2 or 3 portions and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (you can also freeze it at this point)

Preheat oven to 350 F .

ON A FLOURED COUNTER Roll dough to a bit more than 1/8 inch thick and cut into circles with mason jar lid.  To insure proper sticking together of corners, outline the edge of the dough circle with your finger (keep a cup of water on nearby for this) and pinch into triangle shape.

Place hamentashen on baking sheet with at least 2 inches between them, and bake until lightly golden or corners turn light brown. About 12-15 minutes.