Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen is a traditional Jewish cookie that is served around the holiday's.  Now I am not Jewish so I hope I haven't butchered the recipe, but these are wonderful.  My husband called them cookie wontons, they are similar to a sugar cookie with a jelly filling.  I have always made these using jam or jelly but I do believe if you want to go traditional you would use a nut or poppy seed filling.  I hope you enjoy this recipe...

Ingredients:

For cookie:

2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Dash of salt

For filling:

Strawberry Jam

Orange Marmalade

Any favorite jam/jelly

Cream the shortening with sugar. Add egg and continue creaming until smooth.

Add the vanilla. Stir in the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt until a ball of dough is formed. Chill for 2-3 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Take 1/4 of the dough, roll out on a lightly floured board to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Cut circles of dough with a drinking glass or round cookie-cutter. With your finger put water around the rim of the circle. Fill with 1 teaspoon of your filling and fold into three-cornered cookies.

Bake on a well-greased cookie sheet 10-16 minutes, until the tops are golden.  (Without fail you will have some jam leakage, which is why you really want to grease your cookies sheet.)

On a side note, the jam that leaks our tastes just like a really good fruit roll-up.  A nice little treat for the chef or helpers.  But get it off the sheet as soon as possible so it doesn't harden.



Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I really wanted to make peanut butter cookies this year but I wanted to do something a little different, so...what goes better than peanut butter and chocolate?  Here is my recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peanut butter cups (I used Trader Joes Mini's)

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and peanut butter cups.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Yield: 5-1/2 dozen.

Basic Pie Crust

I have always made my pie crusts the old fashioned way using a pastry blender.  But I have seen so many people using food processors that I decided to give it a shot...and boy did it cut down on time and did a great job. So from now on I have decided that I will use the food processor for all my crust needs. Now due to the size of my processor I made my crust in two batches to make a top and bottom. 

Basic Pie Crust

(Double crust recipe, half it for just a single)

about 2 cups all purpose flour

about 1 stick of COLD butter (you could do half butter, half shortening also)

about  2-3 tablespoons ICE water

Put the flour in your processor along with the butter, cut into cubes. Pulse until the flour and butter are combined, should resemble peas.

Slowly, add the water, one teaspoon at a time until the dough starts to form a ball. (If it seems too sticky, add a little more flour.  If still seems too dry and crumbly, add more water.)

Remove dough from the processor and form unto a ball, wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper and chill for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.

You dough is now ready to roll out!