Sentimental Journey, Purim Style

As I may have mentioned three or four million times, I'm a sucker for Purim. Mention the word and I--what else?--purr. I still get into the Purim spirit and put together my own Shalach Monos, and yes the baked goodies are homemade. I particularly like baking the hamentaschen. A little background as to why.

Back in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-50s, the sisterhood of the shul we davened at was looking for a good fundraising project. My mom suggested making and selling hamentaschen. The kosher bakery had closed down and we wouldn't be competing with anyone. There was a lot of discussion as to what to fill the hamentaschen with and then my mom proferred her recipe. The ladies tasted, and it was unanimous that mom's recipe would become the one to be used. Up until the year we left Portland the shul baked mom's hamentaschen, a couple of hundred dozen of them. And when she left the project withered. Without mom there to supervise and encourage the project became just too much to do.

Unlike the lekvar--prune butter--and mohn--poppy seed--fillings you see in most bakeries, my mom's recipe uses a whole slew of fresh and dried fruits and nuts: dates, prunes, dried apricots, golden raisins, dark raisins, fresh orange, fresh lemon, walnuts, shredded coconut, apricot jam, raspberry/blackberry preserves and sugar. These are all ground together, kneaded and then refrigerated to let the flavors meld together. It sounds so simple typing it out here but it's a messy, labor intensive job. Until you have had to force dried fruit through a grinder you haven't lived. That was yesterday's job, and yes, I stalled all of last week because I know what the kitchen looks like when I'm done. And washing that grinder is not fun. But I realize that despite my grousing that filling is going to get made. With every bite of a hamentasch I go back to what were some pretty wonderful times. My cousins and I attended every session of the shul hamentasch making and were rewarded occasionally with a small spoon of the filling--taam ha'man. I can picture my mom and my aunt, both young and with the will and enthusiasm and energy to do anything.

Our hamentaschen differ also in the dough used. We use a muerbe teig, very different from the kind seen in the bakeries. And our hamentaschen are closed, not open. There's a real trick to getting the hamentaschen pinched just so so that they will stay closed. My mom taught me, and I'm passing the knowledge down to my daughters.

But there's an added twist to my mother's hamentaschen. Growing up the rabbi of the conservative shul was our next door neighbor. The rebbitzin had a kid who was kind of a fussy eater but she hit on using peanut butter as a filling for his hamentaschen and he loved it. My mom would always make a few to send in her shalach monos so that Meir would have something he liked too. And guess what? We kids also loved them. When my kids were little my mom made them the special peanut butter hamentaschen and they could hardly wait. Well, they're all grown now, and peanut butter hamentaschen are still a request.

I'm pretty sure that I'm the last one in the family who is still baking her own hamentaschen for Purim. Most of what we get is going to be ready made purchased Shalach Monos. I have nothing against those who buy the ready made and send them out. It's just not for me. I would truly miss the thinking and reminiscing time that making those hamentaschen give me. I haven't been that little girl in the shul kitchen for many years, but give me one of mom's hamentaschen and I whisk right back in time. Yup, I've mastered time travel, all thanks to a scrumptious goodie known as the hamentasch.