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Lessons of hamantaschen

06 March 2020

There’s more to Purim hamantaschen than meets the eye.

The aroma of baking hamantaschen wafted across Kisharon this week as children at Tuffkid Nursery and Kisharon School, and students at Kisharon College rolled up their sleeves and got baking.

But creating edible versions of the three-sided hat Haman was supposed to have worn wasn’t the only reason for making these traditional Purim fancies.

Children at Tuffkid Nursery spent time rolling out the dough they made because using a rolling pin creates shoulder stability.

Next, circles of dough were pinched together, and this action develops the coordination of the index finger and thumb, known as the pincer grip. While second nature to an adult, developing pincer grip is an important milestone in fine motor development.

Finally the children carefully pushed together the sides of the circle and learnt about triangles.

At Kisharon School, the cookery lesson focussed on the two shapes needed to create perfect hamantaschen – a circle and triangle.

The mitzvot of mishloach manot and celebrating Purim took centre stage for the Kisharon College bakers. The plentiful quantity of hamantaschen made by students there were for a Purim party they are hosting at Childs Hill Library for their group and for friends from Langdon College.

Now, it’s your turn. Below is Kisharon’s own recipe for hamantashen.

You’ll need:

230 g margarine
1¼ cups sugar
3 eggs
¼ cup water or juice
1½ tsp vanilla essence
4 cups plain flour
½ tsp salt
2½ tsp baking powder
jam

Here’s what to do:

Cream the margarine and sugar and blend in the eggs. Stir the water and vanilla essence into the mixture. Carefully fold in the flour, salt and baking powder. Pat smooth and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Roll ¼ inch thick and cut with a 3 inch round cutter. Place ½ – 1 tsp jam in the middle and fold in three sides then bake for 10-15 minutes, oven 350° f/180°c until golden brown. Enjoy!

 

 

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Pirkei Avos
“The world stands on three things: Torah, the service of G-d, and deeds of kindness.” Kisharon looks at the person not the disability, teaching Torah, Middos and Mitzvot embracing and cherishing everybody’s special talent and bringing out the best in them.