In the past, I was a bit of a Purim party pooper. I’d scan the megillah and grumble over the rumble of groggers about the characters and plot. It seemed to me that Vashti was an overlooked heroine—I wouldn’t come out to entertain those drunken fools either, if I were in her place. And then there was agreeable Esther, who became Queen of Persia simply by being lovely of face and form. She kept her true identity on the down low. She didn’t fit into the club of chutzpadik Hebrew heroines I was raised on and turned to as role models—sassy women from Sarah (who had the nerve to laugh at God!) to ScarJo. Plus, I never much liked hamantaschen, resenting the triangular cookie for being more about shape than substance and flavor.

But with a more sympathetic understanding that comes with a bit of age and experience, it’s now clear to me why Esther has a vaunted place in the ‘Brave Jewish Chicks’ Hall of Fame. This orphan of modest means was living the dream in a grand palace in Shushan, in the center of Ahasuerus’ empire, and risked it all to save the Jewish people. And she cleverly identified the most effective way to get the king to listen, accept her controversial revelation, and ultimately help her save her people: food.

Besides wine, there’s no record of what was served at the feasts Esther threw for Haman and Ahasuerus in the lead-up to the Big Jewish Reveal. But we know that if any cookies were on the table, they would have been similar to koloochehs, a traditional Persian sweet, not Ashkenazic hamantaschen.

I imagine Esther harnessing all her Jewish grrrl power as she places a heaping platter of just-baked koloochehs before the king and his dastardly adviser. The warm aroma of cardamom, rosewater, and sugar lulls Ahasuerus into a willing openness, and after the first bite he’s dough in her soft, manicured hands. She then zeroes in on her target, unmasking Haman as the villain and a mortal threat to the Jews. And just like that, Esther dulcifies the fate of her people.

I decided to reinterpret this sweet ‘lil treat by combining it with Ashkenazic and American flavors, so I created kolooschen, the ultimate portmanteau Purim cookie. Think of it as a cardamom-spiked snickerdoodle. A drop or two of rosewater in the batter adds a floral note, the sour-cherry filling is a riff on lekvar (the fruity/jammy filling in hamantaschen), and the walnuts that crown the cookies give them the appearance of traditional Persian kolooches.

(The original Persian cookie is made with gluten free flours, so this one is easy to adapt—scroll down for the GF recipe.)

Kolooschen (Parve)

Ingredients

Filling:
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (one large lemon)
¼ cup sugar
½ cup dried cherries

Dough:
1 cup coconut oil spread, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon rosewater or vanilla extract (or combination of the two)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon salt

Topping:
3 tablespoon sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
¼ cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. To make Sour Cherry Paste: In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, mix together lemon juice and sugar until sugar dissolves and a syrup results (2-3 minutes). When it starts to bubble, stir in dried cherries and cook until cherries are plump and soft and syrup is reduced by half (about 3 minutes).

3. If you want a smooth, jammy texture place cherries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a thick paste results (leave as is if you prefer the kolooschen filled with whole cherries). Set aside*.

4. In a large bowl cream together coconut oil spread and sugar on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla or rosewater and eggs and mix until it just comes together.

5. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt.

6. Gradually add the flour mixture to the coconut oil-sugar mixture, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.

7. On a shallow plate, combine 3 tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cardamom. Set aside momentarily.

8. With damp hands, scoop up walnut–sized pieces of dough. Roll into a ball, and press a well in the center of the dough with your thumb. Place a teaspoon of sour cherry paste (or a few whole cherries) into the well. Pinch the dough together and roll the seam together. Coat the dough ball in cardamom-sugar mixture on the plate (this step is optional but really amplifies the cardamom flavor of the cookie).

9. Place cookie dough on baking sheet. Flatten the dough gently to form a rounded disk. Press a pinch of chopped walnuts into the surface of the cookie. Repeat with remaining cookie dough and sour cherry paste.

10. Bake for 18-22 minutes, rotating cookie sheet in the middle of the baking time. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Yields 20-24 cookies.

Gluten-free Kolooschen

Ingredients

Filling:
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (one large lemon)
¼ cup sugar
½ cup dried cherries

Dough:
1 cup coconut oil spread, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoon rosewater or vanilla extract (or combination of the two)
¾ cup coconut flour
¾ almond flour
½ cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon salt

Topping:
3 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
¼ cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. To make Sour Cherry Paste: In a small saucepan over medium-high heat mix together lemon juice and sugar until sugar dissolves and a syrup results (2-3 minutes). When it starts to bubble stir in dried cherries and cook until cherries are plump and soft and syrup is reduced by half (about 3 minutes).

3. If you want a smooth jammy texture place cherries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a thick paste results (Leave as is if you prefer the kolooschen filled with whole cherries). Set aside*.

4. In a large bowl cream together coconut oil spread and sugar on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla or rosewater and egg and mix until it just comes together.

5. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flours, tapioca starch, cardamom, xanthan gum, and salt.

6. Gradually add the flour mixture to the coconut oil-sugar mixture, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.

7. On a shallow plate combine 3 tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cardamom set aside.

8. Place cookie batter in fridge to firm up for about 30 minutes. Then: with damp hands scoop up walnut–sized pieces of dough. Roll into a ball, press a well in the center of the dough with your thumb. Place a teaspoon of sour cherry paste (or a few whole cherries) into the well. Pinch the dough together and roll the seam together. Coat the dough ball in cardamom-sugar mixture on the plate (this step is optional but really amplifies the cardamom flavor of the cookie).

9. Place cookie dough on baking sheet. Flatten the dough gently to form a rounded disk. Press a pinch of chopped walnuts into the surface of the cookie. Repeat with remaining cookie dough and sour cherry paste.

10. Bake for 14-16 minutes, rotating cookie sheet in the middle of the baking time. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Yield: 18-20 cookies

*If the cherries/lekvar become too firm after cooling, add a teaspoon or two of water and microwave for 20-30 seconds or reheat on stove-top.

Rachel Harkham is the author of “Get Cooking! A Jewish American Family Cookbook”. For more words and flavors please visit www.reciperachel.com.

Related: Not Your Bubbe’s Hamantaschen: Purim Poppy Seed Scones
Hundred-year-old Hamantaschen recipe

The post Not Your Bubbe’s Purim Cookie: Kolooschen appeared first on Jewcy.

After her passing, dividing her earthly belongings went about as smoothly as these things can go, except there was the matter of her recipe box. Several of us had submitted that as an item that we were interested in inheriting.  I had been granted some pots and pans but no instructions on how to make magic happen within them.  So I proposed to my Aunt Jeannie, who had also requested the recipe box, that we collaborate on publishing a cookbook of her recipes for the whole family to enjoy.  She agreed and got to work narrowing down the recipes to the ones she remembered my nonna cooking the most often.

I timed this project to last me the whole first year after her death.  It was a meaningful way for me to continue to interact with her memory and help me through my grieving process.  Sifting through old family photographs and reading her handwritten notes on her dozens of food stained index cards proved to be cathartic.  It made her feel less far away.  Even though I could no longer have her in person, I now had the means to keep the flavors she created alive in my own home.  I can fill my kitchen with the aromas of her food anytime I want.

One of my favorite recipes from the cookbook is for “Ciambelle di Pesach or “Matzah Nasirot”, a simple donut shaped cookie (recipe below). I know Passover isn’t exactly around the corner, but this is a cookie you should know about year round. They are the best I’ve eaten.  Every year just before Passover my nonna would send a box of these to everyone in the family.  I would have to fend off Jews and goyim alike in my college dorm to make sure the stash would last at least until Passover began.

My nonna described them growing up in Italy in the book:

The holiday I remember the most is Pesach (Passover).  Weeks in advance, all families would order from the synagogue two kinds of matzoh, one for eating and the other for cooking and shmurah flour to make the traditional sweets that we called matzoh nasirot.  All the women of the community would go to the synagogue’s kitchen to prepare and bake those wonderful cookies.  They would fill up sacks with them and share them with all the relatives, friends, schoolteachers, and Christian neighbors.

These are to be shared, so be sure to make a lot.

Ingredients:

20 eggs
5 lbs, 12 ounces flour
3 1/2 cups olive oil
3 cups sugar
2 tsp ammonium carbonate (can substitue baking soda)
2 tsp vanilla
3 tsp star anise crushed or liquid anise
1 tsp salt

Makes 226 “ciambelle” – ring shaped cookies.

Directions:

Put flour on pastry board, make large well in the middle. Break eggs and start beating them with a fork incorporating flour in them and adding all of the other ingredients as you incorporate the eggs and flour. Keep on beating with the fork until you have a soft dough that will not stick to the board. Roll the “ciambelle” – it helps to keep your hands oily. Bake at 350° to 400° for about 30 minutes.

The cookbook Cooking With Nonna is for sale HERE.  All profits go towards ALS research, the disease that took my grandfather Luciano’s life before I had a chance to meet him.

Daniel Saks is the front-man of DeLeon.  Their new album Casata out now on JDUB Records, is a re-imagining of ancient Sephardic melodies as indie rock.  Casata is also available for sale on Amazon, iTunes, and in the Jewcy Store for the special price of $8.99!

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