The other day I was cruising around the internet, reading some of my friend's blogs when I stumbled upon a post from my friend Hadassah about food. I like food. I like Kosher food. I especially like baked goods and since Purim is coming up, my mind has been on Hamentashen lately.For those of you who are staring at the computer screen with your head tilted to the side and feeling confused... Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the story in the book of Esther. In short (without all the fun theological conversation), in Persia there was a king who married a Jewish girl named Esther. One of his top courtiers named Haman decided that he would kill all the Jews (they didn't know Esther was Jewish). He gets the king to agree until Esther screws up her courage and tells the king that she is Jewish and Haman is trying to kill her and her people. Then instead of the Jews being killed, Haman was killed for betraying the king. Look there is a lot more to the story than that and you can watch a cool video about it here - G-dCast or read about it here - basic story of Purim and complete story of Purim.Okay, now that we took care of that... on this holiday (that is my very favorite and that is in no small part due to the fact that I was born on the holiday) we eat special cookies shaped like Haman's hat, with three corners, called hamentashen. We even have a little song... "My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat and if it hadn't three corners, it wouldn't be my hat." I have no idea why that relates to Purim but that is what I remember singing when I ate Hamentashen when I was a kid.So I love baking hamentashen. I got my recipe from the world's greatest hamentashen baker (my friend Dena's mom). They are amazingly delicious however, I was reading my friend Hadassah's blog (remember that is how all of this started) and she posted an interview with a very cool chick named Laura who runs a kosher bakery in Chicago called Libby and Laura. Hadassah works for Kosher.com and gets to check out the newest and coolest kosher products. She got a hold of Libby and Laura's Mandelbrot and gave it a stellar review so I just had to try some.I ordered some S'mores hamentashen and chocolate chip mandelbrot... OH MY HaShem! Those are some good baked goods! I received them promptly last night and dug in. The hamentashen were delicious! I am very impressed that she can ship such great baked goods and they stay so fresh. My only complaint is the hamentashen flavors are a bit wacky and I would like a greater variety (PB&J hamentashen? not my style... I would totally order a dozen if you had prune... yes I love prune hamentashen).So it is pretty close to Purim (Saturday night is the big night) but mandelbrot is totally a year round food. Check out Libby & Laura's for yummy kosher baked goods. And for the record... they don't taste kosher or like a 'typical' kosher baked good. This is a bakery that just happens to be Pas Yisroel.(P.S. I was not paid for this endorsement nor does Laura of Libby & Laura know that I was intending to write about my awesome hamentashen experience. Not that I am opposed to being paid for product reviews or to receive products to try... I'm just saying.)
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