Cookies, called ears, with a subtle irony characteristic of the Jewish people, marks a happy event - the salvation of the Jews from extermination by the cruel and cunning Aman, the vizier of the Persian king. Every year, celebrating this date, it was accepted to bake cookies in Jewish families, which in form, in fact, resemble an ear. Purim does not belong to religious holidays, but in Jewish cuisine there are rules that are strictly observed at any time of the year.
Since we are talking about sweet pastry, where some animal products (eggs, butter, sour cream, milk) are used for dough, just in case, note that these products must be kosher. In particular, an ordinary chicken egg must have a regular conical shape.
If you plan to treat Jewish friends with cookies, and they will refuse the proposed treat, treat this with understanding: although, not in all Jewish communities, the laws of the Torah are observed extremely strictly, but they are forbidden to take food from the hands of those who do not observe them.
Aman's ears - recipe and technology of making cookies
Of course, strict religious rules do not prohibit anyone who wishes to bake traditional Jewish cuisine. If there are no people of Jewish nationality in the circle of acquaintances, then you can safely bake cookies from ordinary fresh eggs.
Jewish cuisine is divided geographically. Traditional biscuits of Sephardic Jews living in the countries of the Middle East are made from biscuit dough filled with poppy seeds, nuts and dried fruits. This choice of filling is a memory and a tribute to the wife of the Persian king, a Jewish woman, Esther, who ate only nuts and dried fruits in her husband’s palace, as there was no other kosher food in the king’s palace. Other fillings are jam, fresh fruit. These options for toppings are allowed in the kitchen of Ashkenazi Jews living in Europe and America. In addition, Israeli and Odessa cuisine stands out, partly absorbed the traditions of Turkish and Iranian cuisine, since the Jewish and Muslim religions have some similarities in terms of food intake. We will not go further into the national peculiarities, because what has been said is quite enough to understand the direction to be followed in preparing the cookies “Aman’s ears”, or “Aman’s pockets” - according to the version of the Jewish language common in Europe.
Biscuit dough for cookies is prepared according to a special recipe, since it must have a sufficiently dense texture, so that it is convenient to roll out the layers and cut circles. Such a dough, moreover, with the addition of butter, is very similar to a shortbread dough recipe. On the eve of Purim, all pastry shops in Israel and in the Jewish quarters of western countries are filled with traditional pastries. There you can also meet and festive cookies from puff pastry.
There is also a version of “ears” made using yeast, and yeast dough is known to be more often used for patties. Note that the yeast in traditional Jewish cuisine is not used, since it is believed that they do not belong to kosher (pure) products. So, the “ears” of yeast dough is the European version of pies, which has only a similar name and method of modeling products with Jewish cuisine.
All these variations of pastry “Ears of Haman” suggest that, in essence, the recipe of this cookie is no different from other sweets, if you do not take into account its national and religious peculiarities. Love homemade cookies - prepare it as you like, well, and of course, you can choose the recipes for the Jewish holiday of Purim to get acquainted with the taste of national cuisine. Note that no special products and culinary wisdom will be required for this.
1. “Haman Ears” shortbread dough with figs and almond flakes
Ingredients:
Fig jam 450g
Almond 100 g
Sugar 130 g
Eggs, canteen 4 pcs.
250 g oil
Condensed milk 125 g
Sugar 230 g
Premium flour 850 g
Salt 10 g
Baking Powder 25 g
Essence, zest, vanilla, cinnamon - to taste
Powder, sugar - for powder Cooking:
Blend soft butter and condensed milk to a creamy consistency. In parallel, in a separate bowl, beat the eggs with sugar. Connect both liquid masses. Part of the flour to separate the powder working surface (10%). Combine the rest of the flour with salt, baking powder, dry flavors. Add liquid extracts to the oil-egg mixture. Combine the liquid and dry part, quickly knead the dough. To the dough does not heat up, it is convenient to knead it in the combine. The consistency should be soft, comfortable for the formation of semi-finished products with the help of grooves.
Put the finished dough in the bag, put it in the fridge for an hour. Mix jam with almond flakes. Prepare the work surface in advance by sprinkling it with flour, and bake the baking tray with flour. Sand dough should be baked only in a preheated oven (200-230 ° C).
Roll out the dough layer (0.5 cm), make sure that the thickness was the same. With a glass or special notch for cookies, cut out mugs with a diameter of 8-10 cm. In the center of each blank, place about half a tablespoon of filling. Close the edges of the circles tightly, forming triangles with a filling in the center of each cookie.
Place cookies on a baking sheet in such a way that they do not touch each other as a result of raising the dough during baking. Baking time depends on the size of the semi-finished products. At a given temperature and volume of cookies, it is no more than 10 minutes. Products should lightly browned. When the cookies cool, sprinkle the powder through a sieve.
2. “Haman Ears” puff pastry with poppy seeds, dried fruit and honey
Ingredients:
Sour cream (25%) 180 g
Sugar 200 g
Soda 15 g
Eggs 2 pcs.
Cinnamon
Salt
Flour 800 g
Margarine 300 g
Mack 200 g
Milk 250 ml
Honey 100 g
Raisins, dried apricots 200 g
Cooking:
Combine sour cream and eggs in a deep bowl, perebite blender. Whip margarine with sugar separately to a creamy consistency. Mix flour with salt, soda and cinnamon. Add to the liquid mixture of sour cream and eggs. Stir the mixture thoroughly to a plastic consistency. Put the dough in the fridge for an hour. Then roll out very thinly, and grease each layer with butter cream, fold in half, again cover with a layer of margarine, whipped with sugar, and then fold the layer in half. Put the dough prepared in this way back into the refrigerator. In the meantime, do some stuffing. Wash the poppy seed, pour boiling water over it and pour the water through a sieve and put it into the boiling milk. Boil slowly until the poppy swells, and the milk is almost evaporated. In this mass, add steamed dried fruit and honey. Crush the filling with a blender or scroll through a meat grinder.
Now roll out the dough, cut the circles, as described in the first recipe, mold the semi-finished products filled with poppy and dried fruit. Bake at medium temperature. To make the products look beautiful, beat the egg with a spoon of sugar and a spoon of butter, and spread the cookies with this mixture before sending it to the oven.
3. “Haman's Ears” with Nutella and Peanuts
Ingredients:
Sand dough 1 kg (prescription number 1)
Nutella 400g
Roasted Peanuts 200 g
Working order:
Prepare shortbread dough according to the recipe and technology described in the first recipe. For the filling, on request, Nutella can be replaced with boiled condensed milk in the same amount. Chop peeled roasted peanuts, but so that their pieces are felt in the filling. The manufacture of semi-finished products and baking technology is absolutely repeated, as in recipe number 1.
4. “Aman’s Ears” made of biscuit dough with jam from plums
Products:
Flour 650 g
Oil 180 g
Eggs 3 pcs.
Sugar 120g
Jam plum 450g
Salt and vanilla to taste
Cooking Method:
Beat butter with sugar until creamy consistency at high speed. Hammer in one egg. Combine the flour with salt and vanilla, previously separated from the total mass of 100 g, on the surface of the powder and the rolling of the dough. Change the nozzle in the combine, and continue to knead the dough, reducing the speed to medium speed. The dough should be moderately soft and dense. Keep it cold if the butter has melted heavily. Try to work with him quickly, and the temperature in the kitchen should be no higher than 18-20 ° C. If the dough is poorly formed, then add a little flour. Mold cookies as described in previous recipes. Ready baked goods immediately bake at 180 ° C.
5. “Haman's ears” made from cottage cheese dough with dried apricots and orange syrup
Product Composition:
Bold cottage cheese 600 g
Oil 150 g
Sugar 200 g
Vanilla powder
Salt
Baking powder
Flour 900 g
Eggs 4 pcs.
Dried apricots for filling 500 g
Orange syrup 150g
Cooking Procedure:
Chop dried apricots through a meat grinder or using a combine, combine with citrus syrup, boil for 3-5 minutes and cool. The filling should be thick, so if necessary, add a spoonful of cornstarch to it during cooking.
Put fatty cottage cheese, butter and 3 eggs into the bowl of the combine. Carefully peel the mass at high speed. Sift flour, leaving 10% of it, to form cookies. Combine the rest of the flour with vanilla, salt and baking powder. Add to the whipped curd mass, replacing the nozzle and reducing the speed of beating to minimum speed.
Form the “ears” by rolling the cooled dough with a sausage and cutting it into small portions: from each piece of dough, roll out a thin and round cake, place it in the center of the stuffing and make a triangle. The center of the triangle must remain open. Spread the cookies on a baking sheet, brush with a beaten egg. Bake at 170 ° C until ruddy color.
6. “Aman’s ears” with halvah and nuts
Ingredients:
Margarine 250g
Sour cream 200 g
Soda 20 g
Salt 15 g
Sugar 150 g
Flour 1.1-1.2 kg
Egg 1 pc.
Halva 700 g
Peanuts 250 g
Chocolate 200 g
Vanillin, rum essence
Cooking:
From halvah, grated chocolate and roasted peanuts, prepare the filling by combining the ingredients and grinding them with a blender.
Pour the sifted flour on the desktop, dip the cold margarine in it with a knife, having prepared a fat flour crumb. Collect the mass of a hill, make a recess in it, add an egg, sour cream, sugar, salt and baking powder. Knead plastic dough.
Then roll it a thin layer, divided into 2-3 parts. When working with one piece, keep the rest of the dough in the fridge so that it retains its plastic consistency: the melted fat will not allow the formation of a beautiful cookie. Roll out the dough into thin layers, cut the mugs and form a triangular biscuit, putting the prepared stuffing in the center of each. Bake in the preheated oven, check the readiness with a bamboo stick.
“Aman's Ears” - useful cooking tips
To make sandy products tender and crumbly, add at least 25% of fat in relation to the total mass of dough.
Sand dough must be prepared very quickly in order to prevent melting of fat during its preparation and molding of confectionery products. If, during the rolling process, fat begins to separate, remove the dough into the cold for a while, and then continue working with it.
Before baking sand products, be sure to warm up the oven to the desired temperature: if the semi-finished products are placed in a cold cabinet, they will melt, lose their shape, and the cookies will turn out to be hard and tense.
