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Seville Orange Hamentashen

      It is Purim! The fun Jewish, carnival holiday of drinking, costumes and making noise. For most Jews, Purim would not be the same without the fabulous cookie known as the hamentashen,

Although Sephardic Jews do not make hamentashen they do make other pastries like tea cookies and the ear of Hamen, known as pestiños here in Seville. Although tasty, we are not making pestiños today.

Since it’s all about fusion these days, I thought it be fun to break away from popular prune and poppy hamentashen and add a bit of modern Seville to the traditional favorite.

This recipe of course uses Seville extra virgin olive oil, Seville oranges and orange blossom. I think it only perfect since Seville is bursting of orange blossoms!

Seville Orange Hamentashen 

Takes about an hour

Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used Cortijo el Puerto‘s Maduro EVOO. Available on Oliveoillovers.com). I chose this oil because it is fruity and not too bitter or pungent.

2/3 C Sugar

1/2 of one orange zest

2 tsp of Orange Flower Water

2 1/4 C Flour

1/4 C Finely ground raw almonds (no skin). I buy this already ground.

1 Pinch of salt

1 Tsp of Baking Powder

A handful of roughly ground pistachios

Bitter orange marmalade

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF
2. In a large bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Stir in the ground almonds.
3. Whisk eggs, extra virgin olive oil, orange flower water, sugar and orange zest together. Splash a little orange water behind your ears;) It smells so good.
4. Create a well in the flour mixture and slowly add the wet ingredients mixing until the two are blended but are still a bit crumbly.
5. Use your hands to kneed the dough until it forms a ball.
6. Roll about 1/4th of the dough out to about 1/8inch. I lightly dust my dough rolling surface and my pin to avoid sticking.
7. Use a glass that is about 3 inches wide to cut out dough rounds.
8. Place a small spoon full of orange marmalade in the middle of the round and fold the hamentashen into the traditional triangle shape, start by folding the first left side in and then form a point by folding in the right side. The filling will be inside. Now fold the last third side up and pinch slightly the corners so you don’t lose the filling during the baking. Sprinkle the ground pistachios on top.
9. I like to use a Silpat mat. I am not a big fan of Pam or other cooking sprays however I am sure you can bake on a nonstick cookie sheet as well.
10. Bake at 350ºF for about 20 to 25 minutes. Keep an eye on them and when they are just starting to brown, take them out and let them cool.
11. Enjoy.