Arthur Schwartz is passionate about the food he cooks and the food he eats. I met him several years ago at a culinary conference – I overheard him discussing the merits of schmaltz with cookbook author Phyllis Glazer and knew instantly that this man and I were kindred spirits!

I’ve been waiting for months for a copy of his new book, Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited (Ten Speed Press) and was thrilled when it arrived just in time for this article.

“Food can connect us to our past. In fact, food is often our very last and only connection to our pasts, enduring long after the old language has been forgotten and other traditions have died,” Schwartz writes in the introduction.

Jewish Home Cooking is packed with nearly 100 recipes for appetizers, soups, sides, meat and dairy mains, Passover dishes, breads and desserts, along with the stories behind these dishes and the people who have cooked and eaten them. There are mouth-watering photos of Jewish delicacies to please your palate and your craving for real Jewish home cooking. You’ll find soul-stirring, authentic (yet updated) recipes for dishes that connect us to our pasts, including Potato Knishes, Kasha Varnishkes, Carrot Tzimmes, Cholent, Gedempteh Fleish, Karnatzlach, Vegetable Cutlets with Ratner’s Vegetarian Brown Gravy, Challah French Toast, Potatonik (Polish Potato Bread), Tzibeleh Kuchen, New York Cheesecake, Passover Pareve Apple Cake and Ingberlach.

You’ll also find a wonderful recipe for the signature food of Purim, hamantaschen, with a luscious chocolate filling and with step-by-step colour photos on how to make them. Arthur even suggests that any leftover filling can be baked into brownies – in my book, he deserves brownie points for that terrific tip.

Arthur Schwartz writes: “It is said that Haman, the villain in the biblical story of Esther that is retold every spring and is the basis for the joyous festival of Purim, wore a three-cornered hat, or wore a robe with three-cornered pockets. That’s why these Purim treats are made in a triangular shape, either for the hat or the pockets, but more likely the pockets because taschen means pockets in German, the basic language of Yiddish.

“That is mythic folklore, of course. It makes more sense to say that they are called hamantaschen because they were originally filled only with mohn, poppy seeds – hence poppy seed pockets. Coincidentally, mohntaschen sounds like hamantaschen, so they became hamantaschen. Then again, in the Jewish faith, there is no such thing as coincidence. Everything is by divine providence. It’s all beside the point, actually. These are such beloved pastries that they are now made all year long.”

The dough for these hamantaschen comes from Carole Walter’s award-winning book Great Cookies. Schwartz writes that he couldn’t improve on it. Traditional fillings are lekvar (prune paste), mohn (poppy seed), and apricot paste, or you can also use apricot preserves, marmalade, or other jam or preserves. Schwartz offers a delicious chocolate filling. This cookbook is guaranteed to win your heart along with your appetite!

 
Dough:
3 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
10 tbsp. (1 stick plus 2 tbsp.) cold, unsalted butter or pareve margarine, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
 
Chocolate Filling:
6 oz. semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup bleached all-purpose flour
1/4 to 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten with 2 tsp. sugar for the egg wash

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Pulse several times to combine. Add the butter and pulse several more times, then process for a few seconds to form mealy crumbs.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla. Pour this egg mixture into the food processor and pulse several times to mix it in, then process for about 10 seconds. With a rubber spatula, stir the mixture up from the bottom, then process again until the dough begins to clump together, about another 10 seconds.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and, with floured hands, press the dough together, divide in half and form into 2 disks. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 3 days. (The dough may be frozen for up to 4 months.)

To prepare the filling, melt the chocolate and butter together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until perfectly smooth. Add the salt, vanilla, sugar, eggs, flour and walnuts, and stir until well blended.

Any unused portion of the filling can be frozen for up to 4 months, or it can be baked into brownies in a 325-degree oven for about 35 minutes.

If baking all the hamantaschen at once, on two baking sheets, position the racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven. If making only one sheet at a time, the rack should be in the centre of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350.

Dab the corners of the baking sheets with butter and line them with parchment paper.

If the dough is coming straight from the refrigerator, let it warm slightly at room temperature (for about 20 minutes) so it can be rolled out. On a lightly floured board, roll the dough to a thickness of about 3/16 in. Using a 3-inch-round cookie cutter, cut circles of dough and place them on the prepared sheets.

When all the dough has been cut, place about 2 teaspoons of filling in the centre of each circle. Brush the perimeter of the circle with the egg wash. Using a dough scraper, lift the dough to partially cover the filling, spacing it at one-third intervals like a tri-cornered hat. Brush the tops of the formed cookies with the egg wash.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. If baking more than one sheet at a time, to ensure even browning, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back toward the end of the baking time.

 Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheets for two or three minutes. Loosen the cookies with a thin metal spatula and transfer to wire cooling racks.

Store the cookies in an airtight container, layered between strips of wax paper, for up to 5 days. These cookies may be frozen. Makes about 36.

Note: When re-rolling the scraps, do not gather them in your hand. Stack the scraps on a 12-inch-long piece of plastic wrap, bring the four sides to the middle, and using the plastic wrap as an aid, press the pieces of dough together forming a small rectangle. Refrigerate before re-rolling.

Norene Gilletz is a cookbook author, cooking teacher and food consultant. Her latest book is Norene’s Healthy Kitchen (Whitecap).