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gummy peach vodka and strawberry ipa hamantaschen

gummy peach vodka and strawberry ipa hamantaschen

Confession time: the last time I had a hamantaschen cookie, I was probably around seven years old and thought they were the lamest things ever. The ones I had were shelf-stable and came from a tin one of my Jewish relatives had bought at the grocery store. The cookies were dry and crumbly; the filling in the middle was something sad and un-kid friendly, like poppy seed with prune preserves.

If you're unfamiliar with hamantaschen, they're basically the Jewish equivalent of a linzer cookie. Basically a shortbread-like cookie with some kind of jam. Except instead of the traditional round, sandwich cookie shape, hamantaschen come in triangular shapes in honor of the Jewish holiday of Purim, a.k.a. Jewish Mardi Gras.

I kid you not. Purim is Jewish Mardi Gras. It's a thing.


The origin of Purim is a little long and complicated, but the short story is that some evil dude named Haman wanted to kill all the Jews in his empire, his plans were foiled, and as a result, all Jewish folks partied hard to celebrate and continue to do so today. As a Jewish person, you're obligated to get drunk on Purim. It's religion. It's god's word.

And before you get all up in arms about me being a heathen, do a Google search for "Purim" and see how many results come up for "Do I have to get drunk on Purim?" and "Is it Mitzvah to get drunk on Purim?"

The answer is yes.


So to get in the spirit of the holiday, I've eschewed traditional hamantaschen fillings for boozy ones like jam made from fresh strawberries drenched in hoppy IPA beer and Haribo peach gummies drenched in vodka.

Yeah, you read that right. Haribo peach gummies drenched in vodka. Because it turns out when you bake a gummy peach in the oven, it melts down and basically becomes a stickier kind of jam.

It's amazing.

(Also, you can drink the vodka that you infused the candy with and it tastes like Haribo gummy peach and life is awesome.)

ROUND OF APPLAUSE.


As for the cookie base itself, I used this hamantaschen recipe from Bon Appetit magazine. The recipe produced wonderfully buttery, loose crumb — a far departure from those lame ones I had when I was little. Fresh from the oven and with jam in the middle, each cookie reminded me of a scone.

Well, a boozy one, at least.

Happy Purim!

• Prepare your fillings in advance! You can make the strawberry IPA jam up to two weeks in advance — just be sure to keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. The gummy peaches, however, work best if they're soaked in vodka for an hour and not much longer. Too long and they become too gooey and sluglike to work with.


• The dough can be a little bit of a pain to work with — it needs to have rested and chilled in the fridge for a few hours before you can roll it out. However, if you roll it out when it's too cold, the dough has a tendency to crack when you fold the cookies. AND THEN if you wait too long and the dough is too warm, they won't keep their shape in the oven! It's best to make the dough the day before you want to make the cookies, and then take it out of the fridge an hour before you roll it. Once you've rolled it, it's best to stick the cookies back in the fridge for around 30 minutes or so to allow the dough to firm up again. Sorry! It's worth it, I promise.


• Okay, the strawberry jam is a little bit finnicky too. Depending on how much alcohol your IPA had, the jam might not have thickened enough and will still be too runny for the cookies. When you're ready to use the jam, check the consistency. If this is the case, stir 1 teaspoon unflavored power gelatin into the chilled mixture and let sit for at least 15 minutes. The gelatin should thicken the mixture — but you can't do this in advance, or the gelatin will overbloom. You can also avoid this issue entirely by using an IPA with lower alcohol content.

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