Grandma Beauty’s hamantashen – with a healthy twist

DAWN LERMAN/JNS.ORG

Pictured: Grandma Beauty’s hamantashen – with a healthy twist. PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY DAWN LERMAN

As a child, Dawn felt undernourished both physically and emotionally, except for one saving grace: the loving attention she received from her maternal grandmother, Beauty.

“My maternal grandmother always told me that if just one person loves you, it is enough to make you feel good inside and grow up strong. For me, that person was my grandmother, Beauty.

“I spent most weekends with my grandmother because my parents liked to go out and stay out late, and my mother hated to pay good money for a babysitter only to find her asleep on the couch.

“Each and every Friday night, when I arrived at my grandparents’ house, my grandmother would run down her front porch stairs in her lacy matching nightgown-and-robe set and scream in excitement: ‘My little beauty, my little beauty!’ I thought when I heard her say ‘beauty’ over and over again, she was trying to tell me her name – so ‘Beauty’ is what I called her. The name stuck, and soon everyone in her small neighbourhood of West Rogers Park in Chicago knew my grandmother as Beauty – including my grandfather ‘Papa’, my mother, and all the neighbours.

“The cooking aromas coming from her kitchen made my mouth water. Beauty always had a pot of something cooking on the stove.

“Beauty was the perfect name for my grandmother. She was like a shiny star that radiated light on the top of a Chanukah bush.

“Beauty would say: ‘G-d is in my kitchen, not in temple’ – which was really upsetting to her very good friend and neighbour, the rabbi next door. My grandmother lived in a neighbourhood with many religious families, although Beauty never believed in organised religion or going to temple herself. ‘I am a culinary Jew,’ she’d proclaim. ‘I honour tradition and those who came before me and I want to pass the history of the food on to you.

“’I can find my heritage in a bowl of soup. I believe in the power of sweet-and-sour meatballs. I believe that when I combine, eggs, raisins, cottage cheese, yogurt, and baby shells into a kugel, I honour my own grandmother. I believe that stuffed cabbage connects me to my father, whom I miss. My bible is recipes that fill your soul and will keep you healthy and nourished for years to come’.

“From the time I could hold a spoon, my grandmother involved me in the cooking process”.

Grandma Beauty’s hamantashen with a healthy twist

(Can be gluten-free or vegan)

Yield: 12 cookies

This hamantashen recipe includes almond and oat flour, coconut oil, and some flaxseed – making it not only delicious, but nutritious. It’s a win-win as both a dessert or an on-the-go breakfast/snack.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons coconut oil or softened butter (put a tablespoon aside for greasing the baking sheet if you are not using parchment paper)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons non-dairy milk

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup almond flour or oat flour (plus additional, as needed, for thickening)

1¼ cups oat flour (you can make your own oat flour by blending oats in a blender)

Pinch of sea salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup strawberry jam or preserves

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the oil or butter, egg, vanilla, non-dairy milk, and maple syrup, and mix well.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, salt, and baking powder. Then combine the ingredients from both bowls and mix together with your hands until they form sticky dough.

3. If the dough feels a touch dry, you can add a splash of water to thin it. And if it feels a bit wet, you can add a touch more almond or oat flour.

4. Chill the dough for 10 minutes, then roll out to 3,18 mm (1/8-inch) thick. Make sure it is firm but not dry. Cut in 76 mm (3-inch) circles, or larger if you prefer. The larger, the easier to fold and fill.

5. Make sure your jam for the filling has been refrigerated so it is thick, not runny. Use about one teaspoon per cookie.

6. Place filling in centre and pinch the edges firmly together to create a triangle, leaving the centre open to expose the filling. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

7. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly brown on the bottom. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar (if desired) before eating. Yields one dozen.