I stayed loyal to the poppy seeds.

March 4, 2024 9:42 AM

Purim, the Jewish Carnivale/celebration of averted genocide/celebration of violent revenge, is fast approaching. It's a complicated story that brings up complicated feelings, and usually we only tell the fun parts to our children and focus on dressing up in costumes, having fun with noisemakers, getting so drunk we can't tell the good guys from the bad guys, and arguing about whether Hamantaschen are actually decent cookies or not. Let's do that last one!

Some say we only eat Hamantaschen because it's the done thing and it wouldn't be a proper Jewish holiday without a signature food. Some say they're a woefully maligned pastry. Some say chocolate chips are an acceptable filling. What say you?

Tori Avey gives you the run down on technique.

Jonathan Katz, at Flavors of Diaspora (who really deserves his own FPP), provides another approach to the classic poppyseed filling.

For more advanced debaters, my alma mater offers a venerable annual forum pitting Chanukah's humble potato pancake against Purim's controversial cookie.

posted by cabbage raccoon (37 comments total)

If you want to read a smart, seriously informed, relentlessly inclusive Rabbi on liberatory jewish history - or pretty much anything about contemporary judaism, analyzed through a social justice lens - including purim (but alas, the purim article from last year is behind a paywall), read "Life is a Sacred Text" by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. I hope she puts a generally available Purim article up soon.

e.g. debunking the conquest narrative - facing one of the hardest narrative arcs in the Bible armed with the truth of what really happened.

and the wisest thing written by anyone jewish (IMHO) in the week after Oct 7, before the true horror of what was wrought in Gaza and beyond unfolded.
posted by lalochezia at 10:04 AM on March 4 [15 favorites]

Lets settle on an even ground with raspberry filling.

(but if you truly celebrate the mitzvah, you can't tell if it's rasberry or poppy seed anyway ;-)
posted by sammyo at 10:07 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Ok ok, "celebrate or observe", let's take a wild obscure derail on that subtle difference...
posted by sammyo at 10:09 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

But...hamantaschen are a perfectly tasty cookie!
posted by praemunire at 10:14 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Prune and poppy seed are my two favorite flavors, followed by apricot.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:21 AM on March 4

I'm not a fan of the poppy seed filling but I admit I've never had any that weren't store-bought. Is it possible to make it at home, and if you do, is it not as gritty?

I've also found many hamentaschen cookies are made with margarine instead of butter, to make them parve, which is....not great.
posted by bq at 10:25 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

If-and-only-if poppy, then excellent cookie.

At least for me.
posted by yellowcandy at 10:25 AM on March 4

Learned to love the cookie when I lived in Washington Heights N.Y. ...Yeshiva University was close. The best Jewish bakeries ever. They did a thin(3/4 inch at most) pan sheet thing of just a pie pastry bottom and a crumb butter topping. I cannot find it anywhere, and I have looked. Apricot filling for me.
posted by Czjewel at 10:27 AM on March 4

Hamentashen made with dough that is more shortbread like are brilliant, especially with a tart filling like raspberry. But too many are large and cakey.
posted by jb at 10:34 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Please don’t talk about the massacre hidden at the end of the book.

Purim is a fascinating holiday, particularly how it’s been reinvented over time. In Reform circles, Queen Vashti parties have grown more common, celebrating the previously demonized, non-Jewish queen as a feminist icon.

Like many of our observances, it’s also one I’m eager to celebrate with my children, but then need to unpack afterwards in an age-appropriate way. It’s tricky to navigate tribes without tribalism.
posted by gomi at 10:34 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

My hottest take on my heritage is that literally no Ashkenazi Jewish dessert is worth the calories. But the best hamentaschen probably come closest.
posted by yankeefog at 10:37 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Nutella is also a good filling.
posted by jb at 10:42 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Goddamn it, I hate that Purim is problematic, and I hate that it's problematic in a way that makes it feel especially hard to celebrate this year. Because I really love Purim. Purim, if you skip over the problematic bits (as everyone I know does), is the ideal holiday: costumes, raucous merriment, copious alcohol, and delicious baked goods.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:46 AM on March 4 [13 favorites]

I'm a superstitious atheist raised Catholic, once born again, and dating a Kosher-keeping-Jew. Veggies and Vegans abound in my growing family. Communion with God or the natural or community: this is where the sacrosanct lives. Also, I'm pretty chuffed that I figured out how to do my creamy mushroom garlic sauce Kosher with meat, coconut milk, and cashews. My squash soup is also now vegan. Two pans for pancakes and latkes. Between those camps, I've got like ten salads. Food is maybe the best place to find common ground. Humans are gift-giving things, at heart, and we want to share food from the get go!
posted by es_de_bah at 10:46 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

My hottest take on my heritage is that literally no Ashkenazi Jewish dessert is worth the calories

Does babka count as a dessert? Because it's absolutely worth it. Although my main quibble with pareve desserts is that sometimes (hamantaschen in particular, I'm looking your way), I really want some butter in the dough. Shortening or oil just don't do the trick.

Anyway, my family is only Jewish-ish (my mother-in-law is Jewish but never really practiced [it just came naturally! try the fish!], and my father-in-law is a lapsed Catholic [as am I], and my wife was raised Unitarian Universalist [of course]), so I can make the desserts however I want, and you better believe I use me some dairy.

And I do like the poppy seed filling, although I prefer apricot. My wife only really likes chocolate, though.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:53 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Sudden memories of a Jewish friend I worked with who brought in hamantaschen every year. I don't think she ever did poppy, but apricot and raspberry yes.

She was an older lady and passed during (though not due to ) COVID. I still miss her.
posted by emjaybee at 11:00 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

Megilat Ḥam-Ed — the Scroll of the Steamed Portions of Cham
posted by avocet at 11:05 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Purim imparts a very important lesson for Jews worldwide: there is no country that is so welcoming and tolerant that a practicing Jew can live there without fear. There is no nation on Earth whose populace hasn't eventually turned their eye towards us and said "You live here, but you are not of our kind. You are other. And for that, we will hurt you." History bears this out.

With respect to the hamantaschen, good poppy seed paste is hard to find or make, so I've come to accept apricot filling instead, but berry fillings are usually too sweet and I could buy Fig Newtons instead.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:18 AM on March 4 [14 favorites]

Claire Saffitz's hamantaschen are really really good if you're looking for a new recipe.
posted by potrzebie at 11:38 AM on March 4 [6 favorites]

berry fillings are usually too sweet and I could buy Fig Newtons instead.

I use a low-sugar raspberry jam that is great - it doesn't have any artificial sweeteners, just less sugar. It's tarter than most jams - more like a pie filling - and I like it better for everything (toast, cakes, hamantaschen.
posted by jb at 12:25 PM on March 4 [3 favorites]

The chocolate hamantaschen from Canter's deli in LA are stellar.
posted by and for no one at 12:27 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Does babka count as a dessert? Because it's absolutely worth it
Like all Ashkenazi desserts, I find babka perfectly acceptable.. But there are just so many other dishes that will give me substantially more pleasure for an equivalent shortening of my life span. In a world with chocolate chip cookies and ice cream and brownies and chocolate lava cake, why would I ever choose babka?

That said, may I've just never had great babka. I am definitely open to recipe (or bakery) suggestions that will change my mind.
posted by yankeefog at 1:24 PM on March 4

I avoid the poppy seed if I have to take a drug test.
posted by mike3k at 1:52 PM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Instagram just served me a reel with a recipe for “Hamburtaschen,” which … I think I’m down with that.
posted by uncleozzy at 3:05 PM on March 4

Poppy seed is best! Yum yum! For me, it's THE hamantaschen experience.

I don't have Jewish heritage that I know of, but grew up with plenty of Jewish kids in my school and then moved to NYC, so most of what I've experienced of Judaism is centred around food. Now I live in NZ and have to make my own bagels (they're ok, still improving) but haven't tried any of the other deliciousness that I miss.

Hamentaschen this year? Maybe!

(And also my spelling is now some inconsistent mishmash of US and NZ, but whatever.)
posted by inexorably_forward at 3:25 PM on March 4

MetaFilter: Come for the hamantaschen, stay for the latkes. Or vice versa.
posted by concinnity at 3:41 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

MMMMMM.... poppyseed are the best. Prune are pretty good. Apricot. Walnut. A friend's mum used to make a filling that was maybe... cottage cheese? Cream cheese?

But poppyseed is what I'd drool for.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:20 PM on March 4

Up until the start of the pandemic when she hurt her back, my mom always sent me care packages for Purim. They were a mix of the standard (poppy seed, prune, apricot) and whatever flavor I'd requested she try that year. The winners were definitely Nutella and lemon curd. That said, I've never had a store-bought hamentaschen that was worth eating. (When you grow up with a consummate baker in the house, store-bought is almost never worth it.)
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 7:10 PM on March 4

A true story about hamantaschen and Los Angeles. We were in the process of moving to "Beverly Hills Adjacent" just south of Whitworth in a January more than a few years ago. Scoping out the neighborhood, we stopped into a local bakery, where we noticed a great selection of hamantaschen on display. I said to the little old lady behind the counter, "Isn't it a bit early in the year for those?"
She responded, "In LA, it's Purim all year long."
posted by Citizen Cane Juice at 7:21 PM on March 4 [13 favorites]

I think that this:
I've never had a store-bought hamentaschen that was worth eating.
may be the answer to this:
My hottest take on my heritage is that literally no Ashkenazi Jewish dessert is worth the calories. But the best hamentaschen probably come closest.

While store bought chocolate chip cookies and brownies and cakes are still (pretty good) chocolate chip cookies and brownies and cakes, store bought hamantaschen and rugelach and babka and other Ashkenazi dessert suck. Like, you can have crappy pizza and yay you're eating pizza. But crappy hamantaschen aren't worth it, for sure, and store bought chocolate babka is just meh at best.

It's homemade or bust and you'd better find yourself a very good home baker. But homemade hamantaschen and rugelach and babka and pontshkes are absolutely 100% worth it. I am team poppy seed for hamantaschen and team cinnamon for babka. I grew up with cinnamon babka (with raisins and walnuts), my grandmother was phenomenal home baker, and I learned how to make it from her, so my baked goods are pretty good. I'll need a few more decades to really get to her level, though.
posted by carrioncomfort at 5:41 AM on March 5 [3 favorites]

I'm not Jewish (though I have some Jewish roots) but my most significant Purim memory is of singing Handel's Esther in a North London synagogue, called in at the last moment to replace a mezzo who'd broken her nose. It was a pretty nice performance, with lusty booing for Haman at the curtain call (which he was delighted with-- pretty much the equivalent of opera-house bravos). And the post-gig hamantaschen were the best I've ever had in my life.
posted by Pallas Athena at 7:17 AM on March 5 [5 favorites]

The only good hamantaschen are the soft sweetroll kind. Preferably with poppyseed filling.
I will take no questions at this time.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 9:14 AM on March 5

I've had stellar store bought rugelach actually! I only bought them once because they were so good I couldn't stop snacking on them and ended up eating like 6000 calories worth of rugelach in an afternoon. I thought my kids would like them but they thought they were too rich so it was up to mommy to heroically finish the entire box.

Worth it? Maybe. I'm literally drooling thinking about them. I'm here to tell you that grocery store rugelach are sometimes actually not a bad bet. Mine were from Metropolitan Market, the Seattle area chain. This was years ago so I can't vouch for what they're like now...but about a decade ago? Whew. So so good.
posted by potrzebie at 9:45 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

>and usually we only tell the fun parts to our children

Tell them the whole thing! Every holiday for every religion, country, and ethnic group has complicated aspects. Jewish holidays tend to make the complicated parts more explicit, and that's a great thing
posted by Easy problem of consciousness at 10:05 AM on March 5 [2 favorites]

Best babka I’ve bought: Boulangerie Cheskie in Montreal.

Best babka I’ve made: Binging with Babish. They do have lots of (delicious) dairy though.

I’ve never successfully made hamentaschen. Someday, maybe. (Mine always slump. I blame our too-cool oven).
posted by nat at 10:14 AM on March 5 [2 favorites]

While store bought chocolate chip cookies and brownies and cakes are still (pretty good) chocolate chip cookies and brownies and cakes, store bought hamantaschen and rugelach and babka and other Ashkenazi dessert suck. Like, you can have crappy pizza and yay you're eating pizza. But crappy hamantaschen aren't worth it, for sure, and store bought chocolate babka is just meh at best.

Carrioncomfort, that's an excellent point, and I have to admit:

I was comparing my homemade chocolate chip cookies (which I have spent years tweaking to be exactly to my taste) with storebought Ashkenazi desserts... or, worse yet, with pastries bought from an inexpensive kosher caterer on Friday and served, slightly stale, after services on Saturday. You're absolutely right that it's not a fair comparison.

And as I think about it, the reason I rank hamantaschen higher is that my younger kid (who is an excellent baker) has made them for me.

Youve all done something I didn't think possible: you've convinced me to give Ashkenazi desserts another chance. It's a Purim miracle!
posted by yankeefog at 2:05 AM on March 6 [5 favorites]

Gee, I get to participate in a discussion of Jewish tradition! I accidentally got chocolate hamantaschen because they were out of the good ones at Cecil’s in St. Paul. They were *fabulous*. Best I’ve ever had, including the poppy seed (which are quite good, I think). Note: completely goy.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 12:52 PM on March 6