Chef Monsta: I cook, therefore I blog

Last year I posted a recipe for your basic traditional hamantaschen to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim. This year, it was time to come up with some new flavors to brighten up this drab winter that seems to NEVER END. Peanut butter and Jelly hamantaschen anyone? Lemon custard filling? No problem.

Firstly, preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

Dough:

5 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/3 c orange juice

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and mix by hand.

See? I said BY HAND.

Roll out dough with a rolling pin until large flat sheet of about 1/4 inch thick.

Using a glass, cut out your hamantaschen circles.

Lemon Custard Filling:

1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
juice and zest of two large lemons
2 tablespoons all purpose flour

In your electric mixer/ hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs until nice and smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Fold in the flour.

Simmer on low flame for 10 minutes, mixing continually until custard thickens. As you can see below, the heat changes the texture from a batter like consistency to a jelly, right before your very eyes.

Here is a snapshot of a proper custard (damn straight).

And now for the assembly….

Spoon your fillings into the middle of the dough circles, pinch the sides to close.

Bake at 350 F degrees for 30 minutes and voila!