Hamantaschen

What a tough week this has been.  It's week 5 of kitchen construction and no oven!!  Thank goodness for good friends with ovens.  I use their oven and in return, they receive wonderful desserts to sample.  Seems like a fair trade.  ;)

This week did not disappoint!  A delicate pate sucree and poppy seed. I love poppy seed!

I've made a number of Pate Sucree recipes over the years, and this is by far the best I've eaten.  It's delicate, not overly sweet, easy to work with and tastes wonderful.

Have I sold you on it yet?  ;)  LOL

Making the dough was very straightforward and quick in the food processor.  You mix it just till it's crumbly and then place it in a plastic bag to further work the dough into a ball.  I am starting to believe that Rose has stock in plastic wrap and bags.  :)

I wish my pictures were better, but I mixed the dough at home in my makeshift kitchen, which consists of a microwave, toaster oven and one induction burner in what used to be our office.  Chill the dough, roll and cut out with at least a 3" round cutter.

Before shaping and filling, do not skip the Egg Glaze step.  During the Christmas holidays I made this recipe and just tried to use another egg and cream mixture I was working with.  It did not work!  Each cookie melted away and totally opened up.  Using the correct "glue" is important.

A poppy seed/apricot lekvar filling is recommended, which I followed....well, partially.  Rather than make my own poppyseed filling (Rose provides the recipe), I chose to use ready made can of poppy seed.  It's probably shameful, but I really like that filling.  Both my Grandmother and Mother have used it for years.  I had some leftover Lekvar so I used it as a separate filling.  Combining the two together just didn't appeal to me.

I also experimented with a few other filings, blackberry, raspberry, and chocolate, which were a hit, but like the Christmas cookies, they opened up and baked flat.  :(

I'm not sure why these opened and the others did not.  All were "glued" with the egg glaze and chilled for the same amount of time.  Perhaps the fruit added more liquid to the dough....I'm going to try again with the three above because they tasted absolutely delicious and I'm determined to have them look as great as they tasted!

As always, we're not allowed to share the recipes, but you can certainly run out and buy it.  

And Rose just let us know that it's been nominated for the IACP award!

Here's the latest picture of our kitchen.  Cabinet install begins tomorrow!