Fancy Friday: Caramelized Onion Hamentaschen

It's a little late for this Jewish food. It's usually eaten on Purim, and it's name comes from the story of Purim - the bad guy is named Hamen. These cookies are either his hat, or his ear, which were apparently both triangular. The holiday already happened, but these are delicious no matter what the time of year! They're different from the traditional sweet, basically a mini pizza instead of a cookie. They were very easy to make, but they're
a "Fancy Friday" because caramelized onions take time, and making the little circles of dough takes a little bit of time too.
original recipe via http://whatjewwannaeat.com

Grocery list items:
grape tomatoes
yeast, fast acting
goat cheese

Here's a tip I never knew before. I am absolutely all about substitutions. Whether it be ingredients or cooking tools, I usually just go with what I have. For this recipe, the original says to bake on parchment paper. Parchment paper, I thought, ha. I will use wax paper! Here's why you should not do what I did. Wax paper does not stand up to the high heat of the oven for this recipe. It may be fine for low temperature cookies, etc. but it will burn and smoke like crazy at higher temperatures. So, if you have parchment paper, use it. If not, don't use any paper at all.

Caramelized Onion Hamentaschen
Filling:
4 onions, sliced thin
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
1 tsp honey
1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
cayenne
3 oz goat cheese
Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 envelope yeast, fast acting
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup warm water (add as needed, you may need more or less)


To prepare the filling:
Add onions, olive oil, and salt to a pan. Over medium heat, sauté and stir until onions begin to soften, then lower heat and let sit for about 15 min, stirring only occasionally. These can't really be overcooked.

When onions are brown, mushy, and sweet, add the honey and tomatoes, and stir well. Cook another 10 min or so, until the tomatoes are soft and the liquid is cooked out. Then add the cayenne, to taste.

Dough:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. While the onions are cooking, you can prepare the dough. Mix together 1 cup of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Add the water (start with 2/3 cup) and knead or mix for about 1 min. Then add the remaining flour, and mix, slowly adding water until you have a smooth, but not sticky, ball. Set the dough aside, and finish making your filling.

Assembly:
Using about a quarter of the dough at a time, roll it out into a thin sheet, about 1/8 inch thick. Using a glass or a cookie cutter, cut circles about 3 inches across. Put a small amount of filling on each circle, then pinch into a triangle, closing firmly. Place on a baking sheet (with or without parchment paper) that is lightly dusted with cornmeal. Bake for about 5 min. Remove from oven, add crumbles of goat cheese on top, then bake another 5-10 min.

I had these for dinner one night, but they really are more of an appetizer. I'm excited to try other things in them as well, although I do love caramelized onions! Also, making a dough with yeast is far easier than I thought. Having seen my dad make bread, I thought yeast was going to be complicated, but these came out puffy and delicious with very little effort!