Please forgive if I’m a little behind this week on current affairs, I was busy having an epiphany in Tel Aviv.
I was in Israel to muck about with 5 very old friends and we picked by chance a vestibule between Thursday and Sunday that coincided with the festival of Purim, which commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from a plot by the Persian Royal advisor Haman (boooo), who wanted them all dead.
Jewish people eat a triangular pastry called Hamantash named after the above rotter. First you make the dough by mixing the butter, granulated sugar, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla extract, 2 of the eggs, flour, baking powder and salt in that order. When a dough is formed roll to 1/8 inch thickness and shape out as many circles as possible with a round pastry cutter; chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Whilst the pastry is cooling, mix all the filling ingredients and then spoon a little of the mix onto the middle of each chilled pastry disk. Bring the sides of the pastry together to form a triangle, paint with egg wash made from the third egg, and bake in a pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes at 150oC or until the pastry is golden.
Now about that epiphany I mentioned earlier; well if you’re looking to go away somewhere hot, chilled out and very together, look no further……Eretz Israel!
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
11/5 cups granulated sugar
3 tsp. grated orange zest
3 tsps. freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tsps. vanilla extract
3 large eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the filling:
1 cup pitted prunes, cooked, drained and mashed
1 cup dates, cooked, drained and mashed
2 cups dried apricots, cooked drained and mashed
1 orange zested
2 tbsp. orange juice
1-diced apple
1 tsp. cinnamon
