All Natural Hamantaschen, No Artificial Dyes

I am thrilled to offer you a new Blog series where we will be featuring guest bloggers.  Our goal is to provide more helpful content, whether it be delicious recipes, tutorials, decorating ideas or relatable stories.

We are honored to have Yael at Nosherium as our first guest blogger.  Last year I posted on our Instagram page about my pink hamantaschen.  Yael kindly messaged me to tell me how you can make naturally dyed hamantaschen, using not a drop of food coloring, but instead just gorgeous colors from spices, produce and tea!  I was definitely intrigued as I would like my family to eat healthier meals (desserts included) and thought this was such a brilliant recipe to share with all of you.  

Yael is a self described noshaholic and enthusiastic home cook.  She loves learning about new foods, cooking techniques and culinary subjects.  Her blog is a place to share thoughts, recipes and experiences.  

All natural, Supernatural Hamantaschen for Purim! A carnival of colors to make this most joyous of holidays bright. Thank you, Lisa, for inviting me to share a guest post. I love seeing all the beautiful and meaningful items at Peace Love Light - so many ways to honor and celebrate Jewish life.

I am Yael, the blogger and food lover behind Nosherium. I started blogging to give voice to my culinary experiments and passions, Jewish food culture being a major one. I grew up in a British-Israeli family in Israel and the U.S. with a broad range of ritual food experiences. My mother had worked in the kitchen of her kibbutz, and both her parents loved food and had their own specialties - savory cooking for my grandfather, and sweet baking for my grandmother. My maternal grandmother was French and lived in Britain, her cooking was refined and elegant, even though my father claims that he and his siblings were mostly interested in beans on toast.

When I cook and share food, I feel connected with my ancestors and culture. There is a long tradition of Jewish people using food to mark holidays and seasons, to find connection with both the land of Israel and the lands of the diaspora. In times of turmoil I find myself kneading a challah or making a chicken soup like I imagine my great-great-grandparents did. And there’s nothing sweeter than celebrating a milestone or holiday with the flavors our families have developed and enjoyed over generations. To be connected is comforting and reassuring in both good and hard times. 

Purim holds some of my happiest food memories - candy and (in college) cocktails, folding hamantaschen at my parents’ kitchen table. In my mind’s eye I can see my little soft six year old hands forming and pressing rounds of dough. Perhaps it’s no surprise that hamantaschen are a large proportion of the recipes on my site!

These all-natural colorful hamantaschen cookies came out of experiments using natural ingredients to make brightly colored doughs - I think it all started in the turmeric boom of 2018! Using tea, spices, and nutritional powders, you can get nuanced flavors and fun hues. When I make this recipe now I generally use just one coloring ingredient for the whole batch for ease, and to keep from overworking the gluten in dough. Check out the recipe on Nosherium for all the details! The flavor pairings aren fun to play with. Here are some alternative ideas I came up with for fillings!

Moon Shine Trading Co Honey Tart Fruit Spread is one of my all-time favorite fillings - the tangy fruit is a perfect zing in pink beet dough! This kosher guava jam would be heavenly with the golden yellow turmeric cookies. Originally I used my classic lemony poppyseed filling  for the matcha hamantaschen, but I think Soom’s rich kosher chocolate tahini would be both delicious and visually striking. And finally, mixing and matching fruit filling and dough flavors would be fun with this Bonne Maman Intense Fruit Spread set 

Check out Nosherium on the blog, Instagram  and Facebook and definitely send me pictures of your hamantaschen! Thank you again for having me, Lisa, I can’t wait to make mishloach manot goodie bags with some of my hamantaschen and the gorgeous marzipan from Peace Love Light!