The History of the Bagel and a Hamantaschen recipe

Can you really have a recipe when you're going to talk history of the official food of the greater New York area? We'll see what we can come up with by the end. Some time ago, Slate had a very interesting article on the History of the Bagel (subtitled "from Ancient Egypt to Lenders"). Who knew? This also led to a good review of a book, "The Bagel," which I found from a link on Marginal Revolution.

No trip to New York is complete for me without acquiring at least a dozen bagels from Bagel Boss in Hicksville and usually several Hamantaschen cookies. So with the history of the bagel, here is a good Hamantashcen recipe that made its way to my Google reader a few weeks ago.

The recipe comes from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies (Knopf, 1977)

Makes 27 cookies

PASTRY

• 2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter, cold and firm
• 1 egg
• Finely grated rind of 1 bright-colored orange
• 1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice
  

Sift together, into a large mixing bowl, the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch slices, and with a pastry blender, cut it into the dry ingredients until the particles are fine and the mixture resembles coarse meal. Beat the egg lightly just to mix. Stir the egg, orange rind, and juice into the dough. Mix thoroughly and then stir well until the dough is completely moistened and smooth. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap, flatten the dough slightly, and refrigerate overnight.

The filling may be made the next day or it may be made ahead of time and kept at room temperature for a day or two or refrigerated for a longer time.

FILLING

• 12 ounces unsweetened dried pitted prunes (about 2 cups, lightly packed)
• 6 ounces unsweetened dried apricots (about 1 cup, lightly packed)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup honey [these are better with a mild clover honey than with a strongly flavored one]
• 2 1/2 ounces (3/4 cup) walnuts, cut into medium-size pieces
  

Cut the prunes and apricots into small pieces. Place them in a saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower the heat so that they just simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until very soft. (Some fruits are drier than others -- if the water evaporates before the fruit is soft add another spoon or two of water and cook a bit longer.) Add the lemon juice and honey. Cook, stirring almost constantly, for about 5 minutes (it should not get too thick; it will thicken more while cooling). Stir in the nuts and set aside to cool.

When you are ready to bake, adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 400 deg. Cut aluminum foil to fit cookie sheets.

Work with half the pastry at a time; refrigerate the other half. Work quickly or the dough will become sticky. On a floured pastry cloth with a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough, turning it over occasionally to keep both sides floured. Roll it to an even 1/8-inch thickness (that is thin but be careful -- if you roll the dough too thin, it will be hard to handle). With a plain round 3-inch cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds. (Reserve the scraps of dough, press them together, and rechill until firm enough to roll.)

Hold one round in your hand. Place a rounded teaspoonful of the filling in the center, mounding it rather high -- it will not run out in baking. Fold up two sides of the dough -- each side should be a third of the circle -- and pinch them together where they meet, forming a triangle and leaving a generous opening at the top. The filling should extend above the top of the pastry. (If the rounds of pastry become soft or sticky before you shape them, transfer then with a wide metal spatula to a tray or cookie sheet and chill briefly in the freezer or refrigerator only until they are firm enough to handle.)

Place the Hamantaschen 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart on the cut foil. Slide cookie sheets under the pieces of foil. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookies are barely colored on the sides, slightly darker on the edges. Reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back to insure even browning. If you bake only one sheet at a time bake it high in the oven.

With a wide metal spatula, transfer the Hamantaschen to racks to cool, or serve them warm. If anyone is in the kitchen with me when I bake these, very few if any actually have a chance to cool.