As I mentioned Friday, I planned to make Jewish cookies known as hamantaschen over the weekend. Hamantaschen are triangle-shaped cookies traditionally filled with thick poppyseed or prune spread, or other fruit preserves. They are traditionally made during Purim — a Jewish holiday festival similar to Mardi Gras — but can be found year-round in Jewish bakeries if you’re fortunate enough to have one nearby. We are not, so the past couple years I’ve simply picked up hamantaschen from Whole Foods, which were fine but nothing to get excited about.

Fortunately, Ruth of Once Upon A Feast came to my rescue with not one but two hamantaschen recipes; I went with Marcy Goldman’s recipe. With all due respect to Marcy’s Bubbie, I swapped butter for the oil (I prefer not to bake with oil), and omitted the orange zest in deference to the husband’s zest-dislike. Next time I’ll try it with the zest for a little more flavor.

The dough was simple and resulted in a soft, sweet cookie. The husband doesn’t like the traditional fillings, so I took advantage of our extensive jam collection and we made an assortment of flavors: strawberry-rhubarb (courtesy of my sister-in-law), apricot, raspberry (both from local farms), and some Ficoco — a fantastic fig and chocolate spread, think a fruity twist on Nutella.

I’m pretty certain we’ll stick with homemade from now on, these were fun and delicious!

Since only one cookie unfolded into a pancake while baking, I consider myself fully qualified to offer the following expert suggestions:

• Don’t go overboard with the filling, but don’t be too stingy either — the ones my son plopped a larger spoonful of jelly on turned out best. I think the weight of the jam helped keep the center from puffing up as much when they baked. And, they have the perfect jam-to-cookie ratio.
• Don’t be afraid to fold the edges up over most of the jam — and pinch tightly. The ones folded up more tightly also held their shape better while baking.
• I brushed the outside of the cookies with egg wash — in reading other posts, it seems this may help them stay together while baking.

I hope you haven’t had your fill of apple recipes just yet, because we have several more to share for the very first round-up of Kids Cook Book Soup. Thanks to all for sharing your apple inspiration, and please read to the end for the November theme announcement! With no further ado…

From Jen at The Gould House, “Eldress Bertha’s Applesauce”

Jen and her 2-year-old daughter, Ella, used apples from their farmers market to make this applesauce. Jen writes, “Ella enjoyed counting the apples, catching the apple peels as they fell into the bowl, and mashing the apples after they were done simmering on the stove.  She also ate her first whole apple while I was doing the chopping.  The applesauce was delicious and it made the house smell so “autumny”—definitely a keeper!”

From Melissa at Little Locavores, Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash — with Apples

Melissa created this fall recipe with the thought of appealing to those who don’t like squash unless it’s doused in sugar. I don’t know if it won her farmer’s sons over, but this flavorful dish has extra kid-appeal when served in an acorn squash bowl. (Melissa and her son recently went apple-picking at Seedling Orchards in South Haven, Michigan.)

From Kelsey at The Naptime Chef, Spiced Apple Cookies

Kelsey and her toddler daughter made these scrumptious cookies, with New York McIntosh apples, to occupy a rainy afternoon — just one of many recipes in her “Apple Mania” arsenal.

And here at FoodieTots, Spiced Apple Hand Pies

We picked apples at Virginia’s Crooked Run Orchard, reviewed How to Make An Apple Pie and See the World, and baked kid-sized apple hand pies. Yum!

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And if these aren’t enough ideas to use up the apples in your crisper, here are a few more kid-friendly apple recipes:

• Roasted Cauliflower with Apples and Red Onion – 1 family. friendly. food
• Caramel Apples (with Bacon!) — Backseat Gourmet
• Baked Apples from the White House — courtesy of Obama Foodorama
• Apple Sausage Skillet Cornbread, Apple Celery Soup , and Pork Chops with Apples and Maple-Rum Sauce — FoodieTots


Kids Cook! November’s challenge will be: Family Recipes. With Thanksgiving and the December holidays on the way, please share your favorite family tradition that includes your little ones in the holiday preparations. Entries will be accepted through the end of November and posted the first week of December. Just send an email to foodietots @ gmail . com to participate!

On the ninth day of Christmas …

… Grandmom D.’s Snowball Cookies. These are hardly unique, but it’s the only recipe I have passed down from my English grandmother, and it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them. The toddler was quite happy to help by sprinkling “sugar snow” on them.

… the world’s tastiest gingerbread cookies, though not entirely structurally sound (made them too thick, nice and cakey, but a little too crumbly for the toddler).

I am officially working only one day of the next twelve, and am looking forward to quality time in the kitchen with the toddler. (Or alone while the toddler is distracted with all his new toys!) Here are the twelve treats, sweet and savory, on my “to do” list. Some are new, some are family traditions. I grew up having clam chowder on Christmas Eve, but the husband doesn’t like clams so we’re going with Shrimp & Crab Bisque this year. (With local Chesapeake blue crab.) Christmas morning, my dad got corned beef hash in his stocking and we’d cook it for breakfast before we could open the rest of our presents. I could never have Christmas without hash and my Italian panettone!

1. Gingerbread Trains
2. Painted Sugar Cookies
3. Mantecaditos
4. Snowball Cookies
5. Strufoli
6. Cheddar Cheese Ball
7. Salted Caramels
8. Shrimp & Crab Bisque
9. Corned Beef Hash & Eggs
10. Christmas Ham & Hoosier Corn Pudding
11. Hot Apple Cider with Rum
12. Marshmallows

Happy baking and eating to all!