Amy Eddings' Food for Thought: Hamantaschen

I can't let the Jewish holiday of Purim go by this weekend without writing about hamantaschen. Naomi Lewin wouldn't let me.

Lewin is my colleague at sister station WQXR 105.9 FM and my BFF.  We've bonded over food — specifically pies. She changed my life by giving me a circular, clear plastic, zip-up bag that I use to roll out pie crusts.  No more torn crusts!

Now, she's altered my life with her hamantaschen. She brought them in to the station Thursday, and sent me an e-mail letting me know they were going fast. I understood why. 

Most hamentaschen that I see in delis and bakeries are the size of hockey pucks; hers were small and dainty. The cookie dough was flaky and buttery, more like a good pie crust and less like a shortbread.  I loved them.

"What's not to love?" she said. "There's all this fat in it."

 The secret is cream cheese.  

"These are totally non-traditional," she told me.  "The recipe came from a friend of mine who's now dead: Michael Klein.  I always give him credit, though I think he got it from someone else."

She made apricot hamentaschen. She couldn't find prune butter, and didn't feel like making a poppyseed filling: "I also had quince jelly on hand, but quince hamentaschen? That would be a little too weird."

NAOMI LEWIN'S DAINTY HAMANTASCHEN (with thanks to Michael Klein)

DOUGH:

2 sticks (1/2 lb.) butter, softened to room temperature

1 box (8 oz) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

2 cups flour

2/3 - 1 cup confectioner's sugar, to taste


FILLING:

Apricot jam or prune butter -- "whatever floats your boat," said Lewin.

Cream the butter and cream cheese, using either a standing mixer fitted with a paddle or a wooden spoon.  Add the flour and confectioner's sugar. Knead the dough gently. Gather into a ball, wrap in plastic film, and chill for one hour.  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Pull off 1 inch round balls of dough and flatten onto the baking sheet. Add about a teaspoon of apricot jelly, poppyseed filling or prune butter.  ("I also like black current jelly," Lewin said.)  Pinch the dough around the jelly into the shape of a triangle.  ("Mine always fall apart in the oven, so you really have to pinch the dough.")  

Now, for the baking. 

"The recipe calls for 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, but my oven wasn't baking them fast enough. I turned it up to 390, and baked them for about 13 to 14 minutes," Lewin said.  So, start with 375, and bake until the edges turn light brown.  Remove them from the baking sheet, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To round out my reporting, I asked Naomi Lewin, a foodie, where to find the best hamentaschen in New York.

"I never buy them," she told me. "'Cuz I like mine!"