If you are active on Jewish social media, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other, you have probably been inundated with a thousand and one ways to take hamantashen baking to a new level. These once simple cookies are now stuffed with everything from brownies to shredded brisket. These hamantashen recipes are not only delicious, but they are a continuation of Jewish culinary creativity. 


Hamantashen are also an excellent example of the way in which Jewish food traditions can evolve. The cookies themselves appear to have become popular in the middle ages, and, over time, different aspects of these tasty treats were connected to the holiday itself.


1) Shape – There are many reasons proposed for the triangular shape of the hamantashen. One idea connects the three cornered cookie to the three sided table at which Esther hosted Achashverosh and Haman. More commonly, however, hamantashen are connected to Haman himself, representing either his supposedly pointed ears or tri-cornered hat.


2) Filling: Although today hamantashen are filled with just about anything, there are several flavors that have their own history. For instance, the original poppy flavor is the most probable source for the word “hamantashen,” derived from the Yiddish moon tashen or “poppy pockets.” Another traditional flavor is prune (lekvash), which supposedly became a common filling for hamantashen after a Czechoslovakian Jewish jam merchant was acquitted from an accusation that he had poisoned his plum preserves and his community celebrated by filling their hamantashen with this same jam. 




3) Pocket: Significance is also given to the fact that hamentashen are cookies in which the filling is stuffed and “hidden,” just as God’s presence was concealed (God’s name is absent from the Megillah) during the events of the Purim story.




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