I rarely bake with anything but oil - the two times a year that I'll whip out the margarine are Chanukah and Purim. I used this weird margarine on Chanukah and I definitely noticed a difference - the cookies spread while baking, no matter how long they sat in the fridge, just chilling out and relaxing, before baking. It's almost like they were a little too relaxed.
In the back of my head, I knew the hamentashen would probably not make it, but I thought, hey, maybe there'll be a Purim miracle. But, sadly, it was not meant to be.
I'll show the hamentashen in a minute - the good, the bad and the ugly. I believe in sharing the failures as well as the successes so let me start with the the fillings this year:
The winner - chocolate chip hamentashen. But these aren't your regular chocolate-chips-in-the-center hamentashen, these guys have chopped up chocolate chips in the dough. And then, okay fiiiine, chocolate chips in the middle. With the right margarine, these guys could be fantastic.
The loser - that sounds harsh. Let's call it the runner up. But we all know what that means. Vanilla-coconut. In theory, a nice combination. In practice, not so much.
I had some Duncan Hines vanilla frosting sitting around, so I mixed it with a little shredded coconut and used that as a filling.Then I baked them. And I learned that there is a reason that frosting is added to a cake after baking and not before. Frosting does not do well in the oven. It melts. It runs. It sticks to everything.
Wanna see? Are you sure? It's okay to look away. I did.
Shall I go on?
Wanna see what else the margarine did?
Hmmm.
Okay, so let's recap.
This hamentash recipe? Very good.
New hippie margarine? Very bad.
Chopped chocolate chips in the dough? Very good.
Frosting as a filling? Very (very) bad.
Got it? Good.
If you are looking for some fantastic hamentashen inspiration, check out the ones we made last year. I'll have to rest on my laurels because I'm pretty sure another round of hamentashen ain't happening this year. Good thing our theme doesn't need any hamentashen because if it did, at this point, I'd just change the whole theme.
Happy almost Purim!
:)
Jen
ps For a fun reminder of how to shape and bake hamentashen, click here.