Cookies “Ears of Haman”. Recipe for Gomentashi or “Haman’s ears” Purim is the most joyful holiday of the year

Purim cookies "Haman's Ears"

Well, what would Purim be without “Ozney Aman” - “Ears of Haman” cookies?!

I make the dough myself using a medium-sized recipe. Any shortbread dough God will send, as long as it is dense enough and the triangles don’t fall apart... But people take this issue seriously. Here are some recipes I found on the Internet:

Option "ears" number one:

Products:
1 1/2 cups (185 g) flour, sifted
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
100g chilled butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 large egg, beat with a fork
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

For the poppy seed filling:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
100 g ground poppy seeds
grated zest of one orange
1/4 cup raisins

1. Prepare the dough. Place all ingredients except the egg in the bowl of a food processor and process into a crumbly mixture. Add the egg and vanilla essence, mix in pulse mode. It is important not to overdo it - as soon as the dough has formed, turn off the machine. Place the ball of dough on a work surface, shape into a disk, wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

2. Prepare the filling. Bring milk and sugar to a boil. When the sugar has melted, add the poppy seeds and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat, cool. Add raisins and zest, stir.

3. Roll out the dough into a layer 4-5 mm thick (it’s convenient to do this using cling film); Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut out circles with a diameter of about 8 cm (you can do less, then the “ears” will turn out small). Place a teaspoon of filling in the center and shape the cookies into a triangle, raising the edges in three places. Place the pies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. It is recommended to cool in the refrigerator for about half an hour or in the freezer for about a quarter of an hour.

4. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Remove the baking sheet from the refrigerator and immediately place it in the preheated oven. Bake for approximately 20 -25 minutes or until golden brown.

"EARS" FILLED WITH PLUM JAM

Products:

200 g chilled butter
100 g powdered sugar
1 yolk
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 packet vanilla sugar
3 cups flour with baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Cut the butter into cubes and grind with flour into a crumbly mass (it’s convenient to do this in a food processor). Add the yolk, salt, vanilla sugar, zest and process until a dough forms. Wrap it in film and keep it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

2. Prepare the filling by mixing all the ingredients (approximate proportions: 100 - 150 g jam, a quarter cup of ground walnuts, lemon zest to taste). If the filling is runny, add a little breadcrumbs or ground cookies.

3. Roll out the dough into a layer slightly less than 1/2 cm thick, cut out circles from it using a glass or a special notch. Place the filling in the center of the circle and connect the edges at three points to form the traditional “Haman’s ear” shape (a triangle with the filling open in the center). Connect the edges tightly so that the “ears” do not open in the oven. Place the pies on a baking tray lined with baking paper, brush with egg wash and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

And another recipe, this time completely different:

poppy seed dough:
1/2 tbsp. milk
150 gr. sugar (about 3/4 cup)
250 gr. ground poppy seeds
3 tbsp. honey
20 gr. drain oils
150 gr. ground almonds
grated zest of one lemon
50 gr. raisins (I had large ones, I cut each raisin into 3 parts)

Preparing the dough:
In a saucepan, heat milk with sugar and honey, stirring occasionally. When the sugar dissolves, add the poppy seeds and cook, stirring for another 3-5 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the butter and zest, stir. Gradually, 3 tbsp. add ground almonds, mix until the dough is completely homogeneous.
Place the saucepan in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to allow the dough to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling:
mix
100 gr. ground almonds
+ 5 tbsp. corn starch (cornflor) - the moment with starch made me a little wary, so I put very flat spoons of starch.
Add
20 gr. drain butter cubes
2 tbsp. honey
grated zest of one lemon.
Grind everything until the mass is homogeneous. At this stage I tasted the filling and thought I could taste some starch, so I added half a teaspoon. bitter almond essence to highlight the almond flavor. IN finished product the starch is not felt, but its role here is still not entirely clear to me.

Heat the oven to 125C

Now to assemble: Cover 2 baking sheets with baking paper. We prepare a bowl of water in which we will have to dip our hands, otherwise it will be sticky. poppy seed dough it won't work. We take our dough out of the refrigerator. Take the dough with a tablespoon, roll it into a ball with your hands and knead it into a flat cake. Place 1 tsp on the flatbread. filling and lift the edges of the dough on three sides onto the filling so that you get an “ear” (you can see more details in last year’s post). Bake 20 min. Cool cookies completely before removing from paper. Since the cookies remain soft, it is worth placing each one in a paper “cuff”. Store in a sealed container.
I got 19 big ears. the author of the recipe writes that she rolled balls the size of Walnut and took half a teaspoon of filling, she got 25 medium ears.

Happy holiday and bon appetit!

For the holiday of Purim, they bake special triangular cookies with sweet filling(usually with poppy seeds or jam), called gomentashn (Yiddish המנטאַשן - umentashn or (h)omentashn, lit. “pockets of Haman”) or “ears of Haman” (in Hebrew ozney Haman).
This is very delicious cookies, despite such a naturalistic name.
Among my very distant ancestors there were Jews and, probably, that’s why I sometimes feel drawn to cook something from Jewish cuisine.
The dough for my ears is curd, Larino. http://i-lara.livejournal.com/ And the filling was different - lemon, walnuts with apricot jam, and nuts with orange peel jam. In addition, I made them small (small ears), cut out the circles with a glass.
Of course I didn't comply traditional recipes. Only the shape remained original. In the form of ears.
Why ears? Let's dive into history?
One of the courtiers of King Artaxerxes (In 486 BC, the son of Darius Asvir, whom the Greeks called Artaxerxes and the Jews called Ahasuerus, became the Persian king), Haman the Amalekite was extremely irritated that Mordechai refused to bow to him. Weaving a network of intrigues, Haman achieved the king’s consent to the destruction of the entire Jewish people. Having learned about this, Mordechai demanded that Esther intercede before the king on behalf of her people. Contrary to strict court etiquette, the violation of which threatened her with the loss of her position and her very life, Esther appeared to Artaxerxes without an invitation and convinced him to attend the feast she had prepared, during which she turned to him with a request for the protection of the Jews. Having learned the background of Haman's intrigues, Artaxerxes ordered Haman to be hanged on the same gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordechai, and to cancel the decree on the extermination of the Jews, a new decree was sent out: about their right to resist the execution of the first. By virtue of this decree, the Jews rose up in arms in defense of their lives and destroyed many enemies (the text speaks of ~76 thousand killed), including the ten sons of Haman. To commemorate these events (salvation from extermination), the Jews established the holiday of Purim.
In the battle with the Jews, Haman died, and his ears, according to local Persian custom, were cut off as a trophy of war. Now they are traditionally “served” for dessert on Purim.
I have heard different explanations for this custom. They are all curious in their own way. For example:
1) Maybe the name in Yiddish is a play on words: in the “poppy pockets” (man – “poppy” and tash – “pocket”) one hears the name “Aman”.
Aman tash can be translated from Hebrew as “Haman’s strength has weakened.” Why did she weaken? Gomentashi have a triangular shape - in accordance with three fundamentals: Torah study, prayer and good deeds. The strength of the Jews is based on this. When the Jews “strengthen” in these three areas, the strength of Haman and the enemies of the Jews decreases in each generation.
But there is also such a funny interpretation:

“For holidays, my Aunt Polya always baked wonderful triangular pies with poppy seeds - umentashen. A curious teenager, which I was (and remained - in the sense of curiosity, not adolescence), asked where the name and invariably triangular shape came from. Auntie answered, as expected, that They say the ears of our defeated enemy Haman were so triangular and that’s why Jews have been baking similar pies for thousands of years.
When I left, my aunt’s husband took me into the yard and said in a conspiratorial whisper that my aunt didn’t know everything, and the truth about mentality was known only to men. So, the truth is that the pie symbolizes in its shape and taste that very sweet and cherished place in Esther, thanks to which she saved the Jews. The truth puzzled me. I realized that I had suspected before that the ears of some Aman could not be so tasty..."

PURIM PIE "OZNEY HAMAN" ("HAMAN'S EARS")

crumbly, tender dough melts in your mouth...
But the taste of the golden pies of my childhood was different...

Traditional Purim pies or cookies “ozney Aman” (“ears of Haman”) in our house were always baked with plum jam, nuts and zest filling. They were amazing delicious pies, and sometimes I even asked my mother to bake them just like that, “after school hours.” The reserves of thick velvet jam could always be more than enough even if “Haman’s ears” had to be baked all spring, all summer and autumn, right up to the first harvest of the fleshy Hungarian plum... With all the local abundance of Purim “ears” I never managed to admire any one view. They are baked with poppy and date fillings, chocolate and even ricotta, to the displeasure of fans of traditional fillings. I tried different recipes test, but never found the one thing I knew and loved from childhood. Just in case - just for order! - posted a recipe for almond pastry pies with poppy seed filling, shared by Michal Levy-Alhalal. In principle, all recipes for “ears” are similar and differ only in details... My mother, whom I pestered about this subject, referred to the fact that she had not baked them for fifteen years and had completely forgotten. In general, everything was against it. Even the plum jam, cooked by my mother and carefully stored just for Purim baking, is completely different - both in color and consistency... But I still made a note - I baked “ears” with plum filling (in the top photo, shortbread dough), and with poppy seed (almond dough). My family liked both. They love crumbly dough that melts in your mouth. But this, my friends, is not at all the same dough and not the homemade pies that I adored...

Products:
1 1/2 cups (185 g) flour, sifted
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
100g chilled butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 large egg, beat with a fork
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

For the poppy seed filling:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
100 g ground poppy seeds
grated zest of one orange
1/4 cup raisins

1. Prepare the dough. Place all ingredients except the egg in the bowl of a food processor and process into a crumbly mixture. Add egg and vanilla essence, mix in puls mode. It is important not to overdo it - as soon as the dough has formed, turn off the machine. Place the ball of dough on a work surface, shape into a disk, wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator for about an hour.

2. Prepare the filling. Bring milk and sugar to a boil. When the sugar has melted, add the poppy seeds and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat, cool. Add raisins and zest, stir.

3. Roll out the dough into a layer 4-5 mm thick (it is convenient to do this using cling film); Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut out circles with a diameter of about 8 cm (you can do less, then the “ears” will turn out small). Place a teaspoon of filling in the center and shape the cookies into a triangle, raising the edges in three places. Place the pies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. It is recommended to cool in the refrigerator for about half an hour or in the freezer for about a quarter of an hour.

4. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Remove the baking sheet from the refrigerator and immediately place it in the preheated oven. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

"EARS" FILLED WITH PLUM JAM

Products:
200 g chilled butter
100 g powdered sugar
1 yolk
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 packet vanilla sugar
3 cups flour with baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Cut the butter into cubes and grind with flour into a crumbly mass (it’s convenient to do this in a food processor). Add the yolk, salt, vanilla sugar, zest and process until a dough forms. Wrap it in film and keep it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

2. Prepare the filling, for which mix all the ingredients (approximate proportions: 100 - 150 g jam, a quarter cup of ground walnuts, lemon zest to taste). If the filling is runny, add some breadcrumbs or ground biscuits.

3. Roll out the dough into a layer slightly less than 1/2 cm thick, cut out circles from it using a glass or a special notch. Place the filling in the center of the circle and connect the edges at three points to form the traditional “Haman’s ear” shape (a triangle with the filling open in the center). Connect the edges tightly so that the “ears” do not open in the oven. Place the pies on a baking tray lined with baking paper, brush with egg wash and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Happy holiday and bon appetit!

I will say that these cookies are very tasty, made from the most delicate, crumbly shortcrust pastry, with different options for a sweet thick filling, it’s worth trying to bake it just like that, regardless of religion - it’s worth it. Baking it is not difficult, the products are all simple and affordable. You can also involve children in the preparation; they will definitely enjoy making funny “ears” with sweet filling, just make sure that they don’t just gobble up the filling :)

For the test we need butter, a lot, but making these cookies in small quantities is pointless. The butter needs to be softened to room temperature so that it can be whipped with a mixer. Pour powdered sugar into the soft butter, just powder, not sugar, so that the dough is tender and crumbly. And for aroma, add vanilla extract.

Let's beat it well butter cream, then add two whole eggs and two yolks to it, this will make the dough even more crumbly. Beat everything until smooth.

Beat butter, softened to room temperature, with powdered sugar and vanilla sugar with a mixer, add eggs and yolks.

Sift flour, cornstarch and baking powder into the butter-egg mixture, knead until a homogeneous, sticky dough. There is no need to add flour; the dough will sit in the refrigerator and stop sticking to your hands. Cover the dough and put it in the refrigerator for one hour to firm it up.

For the filling, you can take some thick, very thick jam, marshmallow, dried fruits and poppy seeds minced through a meat grinder, Nutella cream. Do not use jam with pectin, it will melt and flow during baking; the filling should be very thick and quite dry. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and you can remove the dough from the refrigerator.

Sprinkle the work surface with flour and roll out the dough on it to half a centimeter thick. Cut small circles from the rolled out dough.

We put a little filling on each circle and pinch the edges so that we get a triangle with an open middle. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place our cookies. They will bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

While women celebrate March 8, we celebrate Purim. Happy holidays everyone. For those who don’t celebrate Purim itself, I still recommend Haman’s Ears. They also go well on March 8th.

I don’t know what you’re doing on March 8th, but we’re making ears. Aman's ears. In our country, as I already said, Purim is a holiday on which:
1. You have to get so drunk that you can’t tell friend from foe.
2. If possible, dress up in a carnival costume.
Yesterday, for example, I saw a young man in a bathing cap, flip-flops and diaper. He was lucky, it got warmer.
3. Eat Haman’s ears (Haman is the villain who wanted to destroy the Jewish people)
We love ears, especially those with poppy seed filling. I tried different ones, but poppy won by a wide margin.

I’m a novice when it comes to confectionery, and I used to bake my own ears and bake them without thinking at all: Why use baking powder? Are eggs required? But this year is a year of doubts, and I went to Chadeika and other sweet baking experts to look up information about chopped dough(from which ears are most often baked), it turned out there are a bunch of them: sablé, sucre - that is, shortbread, brise... I used to think that these were the same thing, but now I understand the difference. Mainly depends on whether the oil is warm or cold. and kneading sequences. Googling the topic, I read quite a lot of angry and not so angry discussions on LiveJournal about how to qualify and into what groups and subgroups to divide. Therefore, I will simply call the recipe “Purim Gomentashen Cookies from Chopped Dough.” By the way, in Hebrew spears do not break. All types of sablé/sucre are called “crumbly dough”, and then they simply say the particulars: From......
In general, this year I have been baking for a week without and with baking powder, without and with yolks, with and without the addition of starch. I also baked, replacing half the flour with spelled flour. I talked with Sasha for a long time fortl and he helped me finally put everything in its place. Thanks to him!

Recipe
350g flour (or 270g flour and 70g starch or almond flour)
You can replace half the flour with spelled flour. You get an unexpected nutty flavor)
200g cold butter, cut into cubes
100g powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder or without it. Without baking powder it’s more crumbly, with it, as Sasha said, it’s more “biting”
2 yolks (sometimes I don’t add them and instead increase the amount of liquid)
1-3 tbsp. cold milk/water/orange juice (if with yolks)
5-6 tbsp. cold milk/water/orange juice (if without yolks)
a pinch of salt
zest of one lemon or orange (optional)

Filling
I write my favorites, but in principle, there is no limit to perfection
Poppy is considered classic:
150g freshly ground poppy seeds
100 g (1/2 tbsp) milk
100g (1/2 tbsp) sugar
30g (1/2 tbsp) coarsely ground walnuts
2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. lemon juice
raisins (optional)

Boil milk with sugar, add poppy seeds and cook until thickened, stirring for about 10 minutes. Add walnuts, honey, lemon juice, stir, remove from heat and cool

Filling with prunes (from the book by Claudia Rodin):

Grind 250g soft prunes in a food processor
1/2 tbsp. orange juice
2 tbsp. honey
coarsely ground walnuts (optional)

Mix and stuff.

I will briefly repeat a few subtle points, most likely for myself, because everyone probably already knows that first you need to mix all the dry ingredients (flour, mole, sugar/powdered sugar, salt).
Then, add cold butter, cut into pieces, and quickly, in a few seconds, mix in a food processor, chop with knives or crumble with your fingers. Remember that the less we paw it with our hands, the better the result. In no case to the point of homogeneity, and even more so, not to uniformity, even if only the dough. Let the butter even remain as small peas, rolled in flour. This will give the dough layering and additional crumbliness.
Then add liquid (eggs/yolks, ice water, milk or juice) and also quickly, in pulses, combine the mass into something more or less lumpy. Just let it stick together and not fall apart into crumbs. No unnecessary movements and no diligence (we don’t knead bread). The less gluten develops, the more tender the products will be. The butter may not even be completely incorporated and remain in pieces here and there. It will be more layered.
Then put everything in a bag and in the refrigerator for 2 hours
The rolling pin, the hands, the heart, everything should be cold. This is the key to success

Take out the dough, divide into 4 parts, leave one for work, and return the rest to the refrigerator. Lightly dust the table and rolling pin with flour, roll out the dough to 3-4 mm, cut out 5-8 mm mugs using a die cutter, mold or glass. They turn out very nicely small, 5 cm, for one bite, but I don’t have the patience to sculpt everything later, and I found a compromise for myself with a size of 7 cm, the shovels turn out to be larger, like in the store. The photo shows that the dough is a little uneven.
Place the filling in the center of each future ear. A little, no more than 1/4-1/2 tsp, otherwise it will come out and mold them into a triangle
To prevent cookies from opening in the oven during baking, 2 conditions are important:
1. brush the edges with egg white or water (this makes them stick together better)
2. Place the baking sheet with the preparations in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at T160-170C. Be careful not to brown too much, otherwise they will be dry.
Once completely cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Basically, Haman's ears are baked from different test, including yeast. So there are a lot of roads for experimentation!
A few Purim pictures. True, from last year, I’ll soon go shoot new ones on the streets of Tel Aviv with Moscow LJ guests. The weather is wonderful, the guests have landed, I’m running to the airport. Happy holiday!!!