Recipe from Marcy Goldman’s “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking”

In the Old Testament’s book of Esther, Persia’s Queen Esther saves her people, the Jews, from a massacre orchestrated by the story’s villain, Haman. Purim, which starts this evening and ends tomorrow evening, celebrates their deliverance. By tradition, Jews eat these triangular-shaped, filled cookies on the holiday. There are many explanations for the name, among them that the cookies represent Haman’s hat, or his ears, or perhaps his pockets (“taschen” means pocket in German), said to be a reference to Haman’s pockets being filled with bribe money.

DOUGH

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup orange juice or milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Approximately 4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Filling: cherry or blueberry jam or prune lekvar

EGG WASH

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

1-2 tablespoons water

Pinch sugar

Granulated or coarse sugar, for sprinkling

To make the dough, cream the shortening, butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and blend until smooth. Stir in the orange juice or milk and the vanilla.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder, then add and mix to make a firm but soft dough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat the dough into a smooth mass. Cover and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place a rack in the center of the oven.

Make the egg wash by whisking the egg, yolk, water and pinch sugar together in a small bowl.

To make the cookies, divide the dough into 2 or 3 flattened discs and work with 1 portion at a time. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut as many rounds as possible, re-rolling the scraps no more than once.

Use a pastry brush to glaze the rounds with egg wash. Fill each with a generous teaspoonful of filling. Draw 3 sides toward the center of filling to form tri-cornered or triangular pastries, with the filling visible.

Repeat this process with the remaining dough and filling.

Brush the pastries with additional egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven.

The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic.

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