Success!
I ended up using Claudia Roden’s recipe, after seeing another blogger write about it, here.
I don’t think these are the cookies of my childhood but, no disrespect to Aunt Edith, I do think I like them better. Now that I’ve survived making my first refrigerated/rolled dough, I am pretty sure that Edith probably used a yeasted dough. Her cookies were much breadier. These are very flaky, like butter cookies almost. There are so many variations in dough recipes. In addition to yeasted and butter-based doughs, there are cream cheese doughs, shortening doughs, doughs that use baking powder, and even part cake flour. For the poppy seed fillings, some people grind the seeds before soaking them, some after, some don’t grind at all but do cook the seeds in milk and honey. Some add prunes, some raisins, some neither.
My belief that Jonah would enjoy seeing his beloved Purim book come to life was totally unfounded. It’s possible that I’d have to roll out the ball of dough while wearing a raccoon suit.
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Amended to add:
I spoke too soon! This morning Jonah saw the plate of hamantaschen and said “Hat!” (like in the book — Haman’s hat).
I gave him a cherry one. He liked it (Like It!) very much.
With his six little teeth, he took bites of the crumbly cookie.
“Purim,” he said, contemplatively, as he chewed.
Photo of boy in cookie bliss:
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