Funny how things work - the one week that I have a ton to say and a ton more pictures to go with those words, that is the week that the computer chooses to break. But, thank goodness, we are up and running now - and there are so many things I want to share. But it is 11:00 at night and bedtime took, I kid you not, over three hours tonight, in fact it just ended a short time ago. We've been having some issues lately.
Anyway, so I will quickly share this very yummy hamentaschen treat that I made up all by myself, and I am very proud of myself because man alive, these are good. The hamentaschen I made last week were good too, but my second child, my four year old, declared that he hates Purim because he doesn't like that all the hamentaschen are jelly-filled and also that the graggers* are so noisy, and also because hamentaschen have jelly in them. That jelly thing really had him in a tizzy.
I asked what would make the hamentaschen better and he said "chocolate". Great! I could help! This was something I could actually fix!
Feeling like a supermommy, I used the same hamentasch recipe I used the week before, but I added in three tablespoons of cocoa powder. Why three? I don't really know. Maybe because hamentaschen have three corners - but I really doubt that the reasoning was that deep. I picked three. I went with three. And it came out fine. I will say that the dough was much stickier with the cocoa powder added but that is to be expected because as my friend Alissa pointed out the other night, "chocolate makes everything stickier." And she's right. And so when I was rolling out the dough, I had to add extra flour and make sure that the countertop was extra floured, but all in all, the dough rolled out perfectly well.
I will point out that I did not just dump the cocoa powder into the mixer. I mixed the cocoa in with the dry ingredients first and then added the dry to the wet - and it worked well.
The recipe for the original hamentaschen can be found here. Just remember to add the cocoa powder and you're golden.
For the filling, I used the simplest ganache recipe I could find, and then made it simpler. The ganache recipe I use on a consistent basis comes from The Cake Bible, possibly the most delicious cake book I own. And yet, even this recipe was too time-consuming for someone making hamentashen at 10pm.
So this is what I did instead: Melt four ounces of chocolate chips in the microwave and set aside. Pour an 8oz Rich's Whip into another bowl and microwave for 50 seconds. Stir and microwave for another 20 seconds. Pour the hot Rich's Whip over the chocolate chips and mix well. Once it's a very chocolatey color, you're done. The only thing is, and I forgot this when I was making the ganache, is that ganache needs time in the fridge to set so that it thickens up. At first I was all upset because I thought I couldn't use it in its current state. But you know what, it was fine even all melty. It doesn't really need to set if you don't have the time. Just be extra careful when spooning it onto the circle of dough and realize that you will have to work quickly once you spoon the ganache on to the dough. In other words, don't spoon the filling onto all the circles at once because the filling with spread off the dough. Finish one hamentasch at a time and all will be well.
Me: Look, Mommy made you special chocolate chocolate hamentaschen!
Him: Yuck.
Me: What do you mean? You said you wanted chocolate hamentaschen, I made chocolate hamentaschen.
Him: No, I wanted chocolate on the inside and vanilla on the outside.
Me: No. No. No. You said you wanted chocolate hamentaschen. That's what you said.
Him: I didn't. These are bad.
I mean, it's not like I had anything else to do that day, you know? And I will not have a child not like Purim. Seriously, that's like having a four year old not believe in Santa Claus. Okay, maybe not the most appropriate analogy, but it's all along the same lines. Purim is a children's holiday. And so I made chocolate hamentaschen with vanilla on the outside. And they too were yummy.
*In case you were wondering, "gragger" is a yiddish word for noisemaker, for example, for the do-it-yourselfers, a gragger would be a soda bottle filled with beans. Tighten the cap and shake - specifically during the reading of Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther) on Purim, when the name of the evil Haman is read - or pretty much anytime from when your kids' teachers start sending their gragger projects home, say from about a week before Purim until you accidentally lose those graggers, about a week after Purim - if you're in a generous mood. Gragger is also the term my grandmother always used to refer to one of my grandfather's friends, an old crotchety man who talked too much. I will now use it in a sentence: "Ah Cholyera, here comes the gragger. Where's your grandfather?" I have no idea what "ah cholyera" means, but my bobby only used that term in very specific situations, none of which called for nice words, so I only assume that it is another lovely way to curse in Yiddish.