Purim is coming up on March 21st this year, and I personally cannot wait. Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrating Queen Esther. It’s my favorite holiday; I love the story, the treats, and the costumes. Hamentashen are triangular cookies traditional on Purim. I always make hamentashen for the Purim baskets, which are little treat baskets you give to friends. I got this recipe from my now-neighbor, Ariel. You can put these in Purim baskets or eat them all yourself. Enjoy!

For the dough:

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

⅜ or ½ cup of fresh orange juice (about one large orange or two small oranges)

The zest of one large orange (or two small oranges)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

4 ½ cups flour (start with 4 cups and add more if needed to make the dough moldable)

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

For the filling:

Filling of choice (chocolate chips, nutella, jelly, poppy seeds)

First, juice and zest the orange[s].

Then take the sugar, oil, juice, and zest, and mix them.

Mix in the eggs and vanilla.

Then mix in the remaining ingredients. Start by adding 4 cups of flour, but add more to make it a moldable texture. I used whole wheat flour, but all-purpose would work fine.

Now prepare a cookie tray by lightly oiling it and dusting it with flour. Also, flour your hands. You will need to re-flour your hands often.

Take a ball of dough and flatten it in your hand.

Next, spoon in your filling. I used chocolate chips with some honey drizzle. Nutella also tastes quite good. In the past, I’ve made salted caramel to drizzle on the chocolate chips; which is delicious, but hard to make. I also think Hershey’s caramel kisses would work well.

Fold the sides of the circle inward mostly covering the filling. Pinch the sides to make sure they stay closed.

Do this for the rest of the dough.

Bake at 350° F for 25 minutes.