The Parve Baker

Has it really been almost two months since my last post? I guess so, since I was deep in my annual hamantaschen conundrum and now we’re more than three weeks into counting the omer. Yeesh.

It’s not that I haven’t been baking. A lot. At one point, I had an entire case of parve margarine, now down to about five pounds, in my freezer. There have been cakes and brownies, challah and meringues served at home, in shul, and overlooking a gorgeous lake in the snow at 7000 feet.

Not to mention several dozen nonpareil-festooned, Frosted Vanilla Cupcakes created specially for a small friend and everyone else on hand for the communal celebration of her 4th birthday.

I’ve also learned a few things these past eight or so weeks that might have been helpful to others had I shared in a timely manner. Like don’t even try making the Italian custard sauce, zabaglione, for Pesach with blackberry Manischewitz. Oh, what was I thinking?! Macerating fresh mixed berries in a little superfine sugar and a fizzy muscato wine to serve with your sponge cakes is always a wiser, delicious choice.

Why haven’t I been writing? All excuses aside (and there are quite a few of them ranging from the upper respiratory virus that kept me low for a full month to what to do next after completing an entire year of posting a new Torah Morsel every week, more recipes and less kosher baking advice than I ever expected), I probably just needed a break. I feel a little guilty since my great friends in the old Upper Westside neighborhood, Naomi and Pearl, tried valiantly, but unsuccessfully to get me back on the path before Passover. Pearl even sent me her nonagenarian mom’s recipe for frozen strawberry fluff and her blessing to share it! Since I’ve spoken to them since, I know they love me anyway. This is why they’re my great friends.

So what got me moving? My sister’s friend, Matthue Roth wrote wonderful things about The Parve Baker on Mixed Multitudes, MyJewishLearning’s blog last week.  Jen let me know, but then I got an e-mail about it from another great friend, food writer and blogger Leah Koenig. Then Patti posted her note…That did it.

When you get a chance, check out Stephanie Rosenbaum’s The Astrology Cookbook: A Cosmic Guide to Feasts of Love which was recently published by Jen’s company, Manic D Press.  And if you’re in the Bay Area next week, come and enjoy as the Mission Minyan welcomes its first Torah with three days of parties and other events. Wanna guess who’s baking dessert for Shabbat dinner?

Always be careful what you write in a blog post. It will not be the end of the story. Especially if it’s about hamantaschen.

Last year around this time, I admitted that I hadn’t made any in long time. A lot of people didn’t believe me. A few were outraged. As a result of the general outcry, I decided to make some to go into mishloach manot, gifts of at least two kinds of food given to family and friends on Purim. They were really good, not least because I dressed them up in chocolate coats, a perfect complement to the honey-sweetened dough and apricot filling. (If Chocolate-Dipped Hamantaschen sound good to you and you’re still baking for the holiday, give them try.)

Fast forward to this Adar and what happens? Hamantaschen everywhere. It started with a friend asking if I’d make the dough and fillings for the community Purim celebration. Being cooperative, I said okay. Only later did I find out that the goal was 400 triangular cookies. And could they be vegan and pre-rolled and cut. I agreed to round up some friends who brought a sister and another friend. Eggs went in. We had a great time. Early this afternoon, twelve rounds of dough and four containers of fillings went off to be rolled, filled, shaped, and baked in a different kitchen for tomorrow night’s fest.

Meanwhile, I’ve been fielding all kinds of questions and opinions about hamantaschen. Biscuit-like, flaky, or cookie dough? There seem to be as many preferences as there will be people eating them this week. Maybe more. I shouldn’t kvetch, though. After passing on what was in my kitchen, I drove down to South San Francisco to pick up 21 dozen hamantaschen which will go into mishloach manot to be delivered by the Shushan Brigade to about 120 people in a certain downtown office building. Maralyn Tabatsky, owner of Have Your Cake, has made thousands. Each perfectly shaped with a thin – read: hard to handle – crust. I’m in awe.

The best part about skipping the rolling, cutting, shaping, and baking this year is that it’s given me time to work on hamantaschen fillings: apricot, prune, poppy seed (mohn), and chocolate. The first three are traditional. The last one is because as a French king prawn (not kosher) famously said in Muppets in Space, “It might be filled with chocolate, okay?”

Homemade fillings are easy to make and really bring hamantaschen to entirely different level. The basic procedure for making fillings from dried fruits (lekvar) is to combine them with sugar and water, bring the mixture to boil and then simmer it until the fruit is very soft. If you’re starting with fruit that’s on the hard side, soak it overnight or in boiling water first. An old-fashioned food mill is great for turning the cooked fruit and juices into a smooth-ish paste. I add a little cinnamon to the prunes. My friend, Rachel, uses dried cherries and substitutes cherry juice for the water. Just thinking about that makes me want to nosh a cherry hamantasch.

The poppy seed and chocolate are a little more involved. Requiring cake crumbs, eggs, and additional flavorings, they have to be prepared just before you use them. I make my own crumbs from a simple cake. Did I mention that adding mini-chocolate chips to the cocoa-based spread sends the chocolate over the top? Believe me, it does.

Strangely, there are no hamantaschen in my house tonight. I won’t be surprised if that changes soon.

Chag Purim Sameach! And remember that along with our rejoicing, it’s a Purim mitzvah to make gifts to the poor (mattanot l’evyonim).