Yid.dish: Ha + mohn + tashen (poppyseed filling)
Why Poppyseed Hamentaschen Are The Only True Hamentaschen – I share this short formula from my father:
Mohn (poppy seed) + Taschen (pockets) = Mohntaschen (poppy seed pocket pastries)
- Ha (Hebrew definite article) = Hamohntaschen (Haman’s Pockets) or Purim poppy seed pocket pastries
Now, I LOVE poppy seed filling Hamentashen. And seeds are a traditional food for Purim because Esther is supposed to have eaten nuts and seeds during her fast. But I don’t love all of those ingredients you find when you use a can of poppy seed filing, nor do many of my friends. So, what’s a girl to do? Clearly the answer is, make my own! So I did.
The general idea is to
1) soak the poppy seeds overnight – I used about 5 tablespoons
2) blend them with a couple teaspoons of honey (I used some I brought back with me from Israel last Purim). I used my immersion blender for this step.
Then use them as you would any other Hamentashen filling! Pretty simple, no? Enjoy, and think of Esther.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO