Lola’s Purim Party

By Lola Obembe

For this month’s “Lola’s Kitchen”, I was tasked with the challenge of presenting a dish that mirrored this month’s theme i.e. rebirth. Just like Easter marks the resurrection of the Christ, I was to showcase a dish which has somewhat been reincarnated.

This, as you can imagine was rather hard. I wanted to do something Nigerian, but couldn’t find any traditional soup or dish that has been reinvigorated or as some of my colleagues would say, “desecrated” *coughs* *Owen* *coughs*.

So I did some digging and discovered the feast of Purim.

Purim is a Jewish holiday that happens to fall during Easter which celebrates the saving of the Jews from the plot of Hamman, if you remember the story of Queen Esther who married King Xerxes I of Persia having been picked out from a beauty pageant line up. She and her uncle Mordecai were later used by God to save the Jews in Persia from a plot by the royal advisor Hamman to kill them all.

The Jews eat Hamantaschen cookies, traditionally filled with poppy seeds, nuts and dried fruits to commemorate this day in history. Today’s recipe will include lindt dark chocolates amongst other deliciousness.

Quick Lola trivia, one of my 36 names happens to be Esther so I couldn’t not recreate this dish. I must also say that though these are just cookies, this was the most difficult and serendipitously successful dishes I’ve ever made.

So here it goes:

INGREDIENTS:

For the Dough

1cup confectioners’ sugar
2large egg yolks (I actually accidentally used 3 but hey!)
8ounces unsalted butter at room temperature, in small pieces
Grated zest of 1 lemon (or lemon juice)
2 ¼cups all-purpose unbleached flour (I actually just used the flour I had at home…turned out ok)
Dash of salt
1large egg, beaten, for the glaze

For the Filling

3egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup milk
½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR vanilla essence
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped (or dark Lindt chocolate with hazelnuts like I used)
2 ½ ounces semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

PREPARATION

Mix the confectioners’ sugar and the egg yolks. Add butter and lemon zest/juice and blend. Gradually add the flour and the salt until it forms a ball. Divide the dough in half, flatten each into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and cocoa powder until smooth.
Pour the milk into a small saucepan with the vanilla essence. Over medium heat, bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.

While whisking vigorously, pour 1/3 of the milk into the yolk mixture, then pour back into the saucepan. Continue to whisk constantly while simmering over low heat until the mixture bubbles and thickens into a creamy pudding consistency.
Remove from heat, add the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate has melted and the cream is smooth. Pour into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap, placed directly on the cream. Refrigerate until cool, at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Unwrap one of the chilled dough disks and place on a piece of parchment paper that has been dusted lightly with flour. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour. Let stand at room temperature until malleable, about 5 minutes. Use a rolling pin to press and roll out the dough into a 1/4-inch- thick round between the sheets of parchment, flipping the dough occasionally. Use a plain biscuit or cookie cutter or glass to cut 3-inch circles, placing the circles on the prepared baking sheet spaced 1 inch apart. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to chill until firm while you repeat the rolling/cutting process with the second round of dough. This is important – the dough tends to start to melt so make sure its firm before it goes into the oven

Remove the first pan of dough rounds from the refrigerator. Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling in the center of each, and press up the sides to form triangles, pinching the ends closed. If the dough is too firm, let stand a minute or two to soften; returning the baking sheet to the refrigerator if the dough becomes too soft. Repeat with the remaining dough rounds.

Brush the tops with beaten egg. Bake until golden and dough is delicately firm all the way through, about 13-18 minutes, rotating the racks front to back and top to bottom after about 10 minutes.