“They’re not my... You’re right. They do.”
Victoria deliberately takes another cookie and bites into it, a little chuckle of pleasure following her first bite. “IfI’mthere, andyou’rethere, it’s notjustsqueaky clean types.”
She makes me smile, not just a fake smile, or a begrudging smile, but something real. She touches the dark part of me and doesn’t back away. “Here’s to Christmas with the criminals.”
“I’ll drink to that... Say, tomorrow night?”
“Sounds good.”
J.J.’s Hamantaschen
Ingredients:
? 3 large eggs
? 1 cup granulated sugar
? ¾ cup vegetable oil
?¼cup orange juice
? ¼ cup of lemon juice from two fresh-squeezed lemons
?Lemon zest
? 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
? 4 cups all-purpose flour (you may need more)
? 1 tablespoon baking powder
? ½ cup strawberry jam, ½ cup apricot preserves. (You can use other flavors if you’d like.)
Method:
? Preheat the oven to 350?.
? Line two cookie sheets with parchment
? Prepare a clean table surface by putting parchment paper down, and then cover with a light dusting of flour.
? In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a bowl with an electric mixer, combine three eggs and sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
? Stir in oil, orange juice, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla.
? Add flour, one cup at a time, until you create a stiff dough, adding more flour as needed.
? Turn dough out onto your prepared work surface.
? Roll dough out until it is about ½ inch thick.
? Cut circles of the dough using a circular cookie cutter or the floured rim of a round glass.
? Place circles about 2 inches apart onto the lined cookie sheets.
? Using a teaspoon, spoon two teaspoons of jam into each cookie’s center, making sure you evenly divide the cookies up so that half are strawberry and half are apricot (or if you have three people in your family who want the one kind and only one person wants the other, divide accordingly ;))
? Spoon about 1 to 2 teaspoons of preserves into the center of each cookie. Pinch edges to form three corners.
