Super Spelt Hamantashen & Coconut Popcorn for Your Mishloach Manot

popcorn in a jar

Delight your friends and family this Purim with popcorn and spelt hamantashen for Mishloach Manot that not only taste great, but also pack a great nutritious punch. Be sure to make plenty extra, because after your family eats them, you will still want to have some left over for Mishloach Manot and the Purim seudah!!

Coconut Popcorn

Thanks to Shaina Kamman of Super Simple Nutrition Hacks for sharing her recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Unrefined Coconut Oil
3/4 cup Organic Popcorn Kernels
Salt to taste

Directions:

Pour the coconut oil and popcorn kernels into a big pot.
Put the flame on high.
Cover the pot and listen for the popping sound. Enjoy the music you’re making.
When the music, aka popping, stops, turn off the flame, salt your popcorn, and enjoy!

Shaina says:

This is such a great snack for Mishloach Manot for a few reasons:

It’s delicious
It’s great fresh or cold
The coconut oil is fantastic for you! It’s a super healthy fat that promotes weight loss and boosts metabolism. It is also anti-fungal, antibacterial, anti-microbial, anti-viral. It improves memory, reduces inflammation, and improves skin issues. It’s basically like the food version of duct tape. Good for everything!
The popcorn kernels are a whole grain that most people digest well, especially because it doesn’t contain gluten.
People will be thrilled to get something that doesn’t have food coloring or sugar!
You’ll become a local celebrity as everyone wants to find out how to make it taste so amazing!

spelt hamantaschen

Spelt (כוסמין – cusmeen) Hamantashen

This year I decided to make my own hamantashen and found a couple of similar hamantashen recipes online that use spelt flour for the dough and opted for the one that used less sugar. I switched the butter for coconut oil – to keep it pareve – and made a different recipe for the filling.

They are really easy to make and taste great. It takes a lot of willpower not to eat them all up in advance!

Here’s the original recipe from Clean Plates and here is what I did:

Ingredients for the dough:

¾ cup extra virgin, cold pressed coconut oil
½ cup demarara sugar (that’s what I had in the house. Ordinarily I prefer to buy the evaporated cane juice.)
3 medium eggs
1 tsp. grated orange zest
1 ½ -2 tbsps. fresh squeezed orange juice
1 inch of fresh organic vanilla bean or 1 tsp. 100% pure organic vanilla extract (I ran out of homemade vanilla extract so I didn’t use any. This is probably why I needed extra liquid and increased the amount of orange juice I put in)
2½ cups spelt flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
2 tsps. baking powder (אבקת אפייה – avkat afiyah)*
¼ tsps. Himalayan sea salt – any finely ground sea salt would be good

Directions for making the dough:

In a food processor, combine the sugar and butter and pulse on and off until smooth. (I did this by hand and it worked well.) Add the egg, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla and continue to pulse on and off (or hand mix) until thoroughly combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Process until a ball of dough is formed.
If the dough is still sticky, transfer the dough to a well-floured surface and work in as much flour as needed until it is no longer sticky.
Divide the dough in half and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight.
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Unwrap one of the discs and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 1/8 inch. With a circle-shaped cutter or a knife, cut into 2 ½ inch circles. (I used the tops of a glass and glass jar to make 2 ½ and 3 ½ inch circles. It was easy to press the glass into the dough and twist the glass to make the circles. Transfer rounds to a baking sheet with a metal spatula. Reroll the scraps and make more rounds.
With a pastry brush or your finger, brush water around the rim of the circle. Add a teaspoon of filling to the center. (About 1 ½ tsps. for the larger circles.Bring the dough up around the filling and pinch the edges together in 3 places to form a triangle, making sure the filling is exposed.
Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until the tips are golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Repeat the process with the second disc.

Ingredients for the Date filling:

1 ½ lbs (550 grams) approx. of Medjoul dates, remove pits
Filtered Water
2 Sticks of cinnamon or 1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon (or to taste)

Ingredients for Date and Apple filling:

¾ lb (440 grams) approx. of Medjool dates, remove pits
3 medium red apples, peeled and cored
Filtered Water
2 Sticks of cinnamon or 1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon (or to taste)

Directions for making the filling – about 2 cups of jam after the dates or dates/apples are cooked.:

Put dates (or dates and apples) into a pot with enough water to cover the bottom
Include the cinnamon stick or ground cinnamon (If you are using cinnamon sticks, make sure they are covered by the water.)
Bring to a boil and let cook until the dates are soft.
Take out the cinnamon stick and transfer dates to a food processor.
Process until the dates or dates and apples have a nice jam consistency.

I have been using spelt flour exclusively for at least the past seven years. Spelt has many health benefits not found in wheat to which we are accustomed. Spelt:

Contains high levels of dietary fiber and protein, as well as iron, copper, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, selenium, niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, and folic acid.
Benefits bone health, digestive health, hormonal regulation and creation, growth and development, and the immune system.It aids circulation, digestive function, reduces blood sugar, high blood pressure, and helps manage diabetes.
Is more easily digested than modern wheat since spelt it has a different, more soluble form of gluten.
Has a hard outer hull which protects the kernel from pests and the elements. Modern wheat no longer has that outer hull and instead has an enzyme inhibitor to protect itself from pests. Spelt wheat does not need the enzyme inhibitor. Since we need enzymes to digest our food, this is a big plus.

*In Israel baking powder is typically sold in annoyingly small packets. You can find Rumford, Aluminum-Free, Non-GMO baking powder (from the States) in 4 oz and 8 oz cans in the health food stores.

For a listing of health food stores and resources for organic spelt flour in Israel click here.