Hamentashen

Hamentashen

The Jewish holiday Purim is sneaking up on us very shortly and I thought I would theme this post around it.
Purim is a holiday to celebrate how the Jewish people avoided extermination in Persia at the hand of the king's adviser Hamen. Esther, a Jewish woman living in Persia, became the queen. Because of her position, she was able to save the Jewish people.
A much loved Purim treat is a triangular cookie called hamentashen. It is said that Hamen wore a three-cornered hat. Because of that, these cookies have a triangle shape.

Ingredients:                                                                                              Yield: about a dozen cookies

1/4 cup softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp orange juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° F

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add in the egg and mix until fully incorporated.

Stir in dry ingredients just until mixed but be careful to not overmix.

Add vanilla and orange juice and mix just until combined.

If the dough is too sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too dry, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. If you do have to add water, just be careful because the dough can become too sticky very quickly. 

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 of an inch thick.

 Cut the dough into 3" circles.

Place a teaspoon of your filling in the center of the cookie. You can use any jams you like or any fillings. Here I used apricot, strawberry, and raspberry jam, but feel free to use any filling you want. You can also use pie fillings as an alternative. At the class I taught, we used nutella as a filling and everyone loved it!

Once your cookies are all filled, fold over all three sides of the dough to form a triangle. If the edges aren't triangular enough, just pinch the edges to form more of a triangle. If you need, you can always then fold the pinched edges again.

Bake your cookies in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the corners start to turn a golden color.

Once you take the cookies out of the oven and they cool, you are ready to enjoy your hamentashen! Happpy Purim everyone!

Don't forget to put a burry on it!

xoxo- Rayburry

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

Valentine's Day

I want to start this post by apologizing once again. I'm sorry I was not able to post over the weekend. In order to make it up to you, I am posting this special Valentine's Day post in addition to the upcoming weekend's post. 

In honor of Valentine's Day I thought I should bake something to bring into school. I decided cookies would be the easiest thing. My mom bought me this pan at Target and now is the perfect time to use it.

I started by just making a simple sugar cookie. You can use any recipe or mix you would like, but this was the recipe I used.

Yield: 48 Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted softened butter

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup confectioners' sugar 

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon salt

 Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Cream together butter, oil, confectioner's sugar, and white sugar.

So far your dough should look a little something like this:

Next, mix in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Gradually pour in the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

Here is where I put a Valentine's Day twist on my cookies. I put in pink food coloring into my cookie dough and mixed it in, creating an outcome of pink cookies.

If you have a pan, such as mine, here is where you would grease the pan and fill it with the dough. Or you can put tinfoil over a cookie sheet and make your own cookie shapes. Although this is a very good recipe for a pan, and these cookies do stick really well and are good for rolling into a ball, this is not a good recipe if you are planning on using cookie cutters.

Bake your cookies for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown.... or in this case, golden pink.

Happy Valentine's Day

and Happy baking!

Don't forget to put a burry on it!

xoxo- Rayburry

Popovers

Popovers

As I have previously mentioned, popovers are kinda my speciality.

My whole family loves them. If there is ever a holiday and I don't make popovers, it would be the beginning of World War III! Everyone knows I am known for these rolls; they always ask how I make them, and really it is quite simple. The trick is the pan! If you don't use a popover pan the popovers will not rise right and will not become light and airy. Below are two different views of these specialty pans. They can be purchased at any store that sells bake-ware.

Once you have your pans, you are ready to begin.

Ingredients:                                                                                                     Yield: 6 popovers

1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Place all the ingredients in a mixer, food processor, or blender for 1 minute or until all of your ingredients are fully incorporated.

Next you have to grease your pans. This is very important as you want your popovers to just pop right out of the pan and stay completely in tact and light and fluffy.

Once your pans are thoroughly greased, pour your batter into the cups of the popover pan.

Each cup should be about 1/3-1/2 full

Bake your popovers in the middle rack for 40 minutes or until golden and fluffy.
I suggest keeping the oven door closed until you feel the popovers should be checked on, or need to be removed from the oven.
I usually check on them at 30 minutes and keep an eye on them until they are done after that.
Make sure to keep a close eye on them as one second they look as though they need one more minute, and 30 seconds later they will start to burn a little.

Once your popovers are out of the oven I suggest you serve them as soon as possible and when they are still warm as they do not hold up very well.
One of our favorite ways to eat these is with gravy.
On holidays, my dad will make the entre with a gravy and my family then opens up their popovers and pours gravy inside.
Popovers are a delicious and different alternative to the every day dinner roll and can be eaten in many ways.

Now all you need is some hungry people to enjoy your wonderful warm popovers with you.

I suggest you hide some first though, because if your family is anything like mine, they will all be gone in seconds!

Happy Baking!

Don't forget to put a burry on it!

xoxo-Rayburry