Last year, my Mars-bar-obsessed daughter decided to be a Mars bar for the Jewish festival of Purim…and I indulged her by working together to make a Mars bar costume out of felt.  She drew & cut out the letters and I put it all together.  It was fabulous!

Well, all the Mars bar talk got me thinking about filling hamentaschen with Mars…and so I did it!

I’ll be sharing the how-to on Breakfast Television Montreal on Monday, March 10 at 7:20AM, so tune in!

You can use your favourite Hamentaschen dough, but in case you don’t have one, I will suggest either this easy-to-make cream cheese pastry by the wonderful Norene Gilletz (New Food Processor Bible – www.gourmania.com.)  or Norene’s Basic Oil Dough as found in my traditional Hamentaschen Recipe (I seem to have less hamentaschen “opening up” when I use the Basic Oil Dough so if you’re a fan of orange flavour, which goes well with Mars Bar, you may prefer to use that one)

CREAM CHEESE PASTRY (DOUGH):

1/4 lb butter, in chunks
1/4 lb cream cheese, in chunks
1 c. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar (optional)

Combine all in food processor & process until a ball forms – That’s it!

(Note this recipe will yield roughly 12-15 Hamentashen (cut with 3″ cookie cutter).  I recommend making 2-3 batches.)

NORENE’S BASIC OIL DOUGH:  Click here

MARS BAR FILLING:

2-3 Mars Bars

There are 2 ways you can approach this:

Method #1

• Cut each Mars Bar into thirds or quarters & each third (quarter) into 2 triangles, by slicing diagonally.
• Each piece is the filling for one hamentasch

Method #2

• Break each Mars bar into several chunks & place in processor.
• Process for a few seconds until it is all crumbly / in medium sized chunks.
• Roughly 1 tsp of this mixture, squished or rolled into a ball will form the filling for one hamentasch

ASSEMBLY:

• Roll out half the dough to roughly a 1/4″ thickness (on a lightly floured surface, if necessary)
• Using a 3″ cookie cutter, cut out circles
• Place either 1 piece of Mars bar (Method #1) or 1 tsp of Mars bar filling (Method #2) into the center of each circle
• Bring sides upwards to meet to form triangular shaped-cookie
• Continue with remainder of dough
• Place all on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet(s)
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown

Allow to cool before enjoying- Hot sugar from hot candy bar can = burns!

Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup version:
These little babies may be bite size…but they’re not short on yum-factor!

You’ll need a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Minis.

• Proceed as above, but cut the dough into 2 1/2 ” circles
• Place 1 “mini” in the center of each circle
• Bring sides upwards to meet to form triangular-shaped cookie
• Continue with remainder of dough
• Place all on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet(s)
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown
•  Allow to cool & ENJOY!

Feel more like the traditional version?  Try these: https://montrealmom.com/purim-the-hamentaschen-holiday/

Remember: You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy these delicious treats!!

That said, I wish all those celebrating a happy & joyful Purim!

Tanya