Author Notes: As much as I love a good seder at Passover or rowdy game of spin the dreidel at Hanukkah, these delightful Jewish holidays just done stand up to the awesomeness that is Purim.
As a refresher, way back in ancient Persia, our hero Esther saves the Jewish people from the King’s evil adviser Haman’s plans of exterminating all the Jews. Story of our lives. To celebrate, we dress up in costumes in honor of Esther dressing up to hide her Jewish identity and eat and drink. A lot. Is it a wonder this holiday is my favorite? Gluttony and booze? I’m there! The best part is we Jews over the age of 21 (I barely made it!) are literally commanded to get so drunk that we can’t tell the difference between Mordechai (the tag-team hero along with Esther in the Purim story) and Haman. Recovering alcoholics and children are exempt from the tradition. I guess.
We also eat tasty triangular cookies called hamantaschen filled with awesomeness that resemble the three-cornered hat Haman pranced around in. Sweet recipes like raspberry jam and prune filling are popular, but I went crazy this year with a savory caramelized onion hamantaschen. Blame it on the booze. Rumor has it that Esther was a vegetarian to secretly keep her kosher ways, so this fits in nicely! —What Jew Wanna Eat
Makes: 12
Ingredients
Filling
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1
medium red onion, cut into thin slices
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1
tablespoon olive oil
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1
teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
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1
tablespoon honey
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1
cup grape tomatoes, cut into eighths
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1
tablespoon thyme, minced
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1/2
teaspoon crushed red chili pepper flakes
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3
ounces goat cheese
Dough
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1
cup all-purpose flour
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3/4
cup whole wheat flour
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1
envelope pizza yeast
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1 1/2
teaspoons teaspoons sugar
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3/4
teaspoon salt
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2/3
cup warm water (about 120 degrees)
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1
tablespoon thyme, minced
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Slice onions into thin slices and add the them and 1 teaspoon salt to a large saucepan with 1 tbsp oil. Cook slow and low for 10 minutes until the onions start to wilt, stirring occasionally.
- Now you can make your pizza dough. Combine 1 cup all-purpose flour with yeast, sugar and salt. Then add the water and knead for one minute. Gradually add the 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour and thyme and knead until you have a smooth ball (hehe) or about 3-4 minutes. Add more flour if needed.
- Put dough aside. By now, your onions should be pretty soft. Add the honey and a little more olive oil if the onions are sticking. Sweat your onions for 5 more minutes and then add the tomatoes, thyme, red chili pepper flakes and more salt to taste.
- Cook for an additional 5 minutes until the tomatoes start to cook and the onions are cooked down. You also want to make sure to cook away any moisture from the tomatoes so your hamantaschen are not soggy.
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While your mixture is cooling a bit, roll out the dough very thin- about an 1/8 of an inch. Cut the dough into rounds using a 2 or 3 inch circle cutter (the top of a glass will due). Then put a teaspoon and a half of the filling in the middle of each circle.
Fold up the sides to form a triangle, making sure to securely pinch the ends closed. -
Put the hamantaschen on a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkled with cornmeal and bake at 425 for 5 minutes.
Then sprinkle on goat cheese and bake for another 5-7 minutes until your pizzas are golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.